The Rebbe’s Parents Arrive in Alma Ata
New episode of "In the Footsteps of Rebbetzin Chana's Diaries" on COLlive.com, a documentary series by Rabbis Eliezer Zaklikovsky and Mendel Feller, revisiting the exile of the Rebbe's parents in Kazakhstan. Episode 8: Finally leaving the village of Shieli after 4 long years, and the trip to the large city of Alma Ata, after Pesach of 1944.
by COLlive Editor · COLliveCommunity news service COLlive.com presents “In the Footsteps of Rebbetzin Chana’s Diaries,” an exclusive short documentary series revisiting key locations written about by Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson OBM, the mother of the Rebbe.
Rebbetzin Chana voluntarily joined her husband, Harav Levi Yitzchok Schneeerson OBM, during his exile in Kazakhstan between 1940 and 1944. She had written about her harrowing experiences after arriving in the United States in 1947.
Harav Levi Yitzchok was sentenced by the communist regime for his fearless stance against their efforts to eradicate Jewish learning and practice in the Soviet Union. He and the Rebbetzin eventually moved to the city of Almaty, after which he passed away on Chof Av.
The series shows the Shluchim and Chabad historians, Rabbi Eliezer Zaklikovsky of Monroe, NJ, and Rabbi Mendel Feller of Minnesota, as they tour the buildings and areas mentioned by the Rebbetzin’s diary.
Scenes and stories covered in the eighth film are:
21) Train station in Alma Ata:
Just after Pesach in 1944, following nearly four years of grueling isolation and unimaginable hardship, the Rebbe’s parents finally left the remote village of Shieli in southern Kazakhstan. Boarding a train for the thousand-kilometer journey to the bustling city of Alma-Ata, they were at last leaving behind the barren landscape that had become the setting of their exile.
Having seen the primitive conditions of Shieli, we can only imagine the sense of relief they must have felt upon arriving in a real city.
For the first time in years, they would live in a private apartment, surrounded by a vibrant Jewish community and the many refugees who had found shelter in Alma-Ata during the war.
It was a return, however limited, to the dignity and normalcy that had been denied them for so long.
The Rebbe’s mother, Rebbetzin Chana, vividly describes both the journey and their arrival.
She recalls the profound joy of meeting the devoted individuals who had worked tirelessly and selflessly to secure permission for their transfer from Shieli — a rescue that brought them from isolation into the embrace of a caring community.
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The film shares details of what the Rebbe’s parents did in each place, while narrating directly from the Rebbetzin’s famous handwritten memoirs. The narration of the films are the actual text of the original diaries written in Yiddish, and have a running translation of English subtitles.
This episode is sponsored by Shmuli & Mimi Kopfstein
Episode #8:
VIDEO:
For episode 1 click here:
1) Kyzylorda Open air market.
2) Kyzylorda Military hospital
3) Kyzylorda Train station
4) Kyzylorda NKVD government building
For episode 2 click here:
5) Entrance to Shieli village
6) Shieli Train Station
7) Shieli Train station
8) Daily visit to “The Bench”
For episode 3 click here:
9) NKVD Building, Shieli
10) Shieli Open-air Market
11) Shieli Government bakery
For episode 4 click here:
12) Hospital Building, Shieli
13) Shieli Cemetery
14) Post office, Shieli
For episode 5 click here:
15) Public School Building, Shieli
16) “Mud Hut”, Shieli
Episode 6 click here:
17) Sukkah outside “mud hut”
18) Inside “Mud Hut”, Shieli
19) Train Station, Shieli
Episode 7 click here:
20) Pesach in the “Mud Hut”, Shieli
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The diaries were first published in the original Yiddish was in 5753, in “Tzadik Lamelech” Volume 4, edited by Rabbi Zaklikovsky. He asked and received the Rebbe’s permission and Bracha to publish them. Get the set here
The Yiddish diaries were subsequently published by Kehot with footnotes etc. Translated versions of the diaries (in English, Hebrew, French, Russian and Spanish) are available on Chabad.org.
The diary in the original Yiddish can be found on Lahak.org.
For further reading of the diaries, please see “A mother in Israel” by Kehot: https://store.kehotonline.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EH-MOTH
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