he only had one, little
Torah."
A friend agreed to bring
the Torah from Miami; he
was such a cautious courier
he carried the Torah on his
lap the entire time.
But now Machon, too, has
several Torahs, so Mr.
Steinmetz is taking his
Chicago Torah back, "to
keep it in the family."
"A lot of Torahs are never
used," Mr. Steinmetz says.
"Maybe they come out at
Simchat Torah, maybe once
a year. But not this Torah. It
has always been used."
Mr. Steinmetz, who was
born in Czechoslovakia, says
his Torah discovery was a
once-in-a-lifetime find.
"I've been all through
Poland, through
Czechoslovakia, Rumania
and Hungary," he says.
"But I've never found
anything valuable like
that."
B
efore they could board
the ship bound for
America, Alexander
and Ilse Robert were forced to
relinquish all their worldly
goods. The Nazis took
everything — from silver
spoons to bank accounts.
They did not get the Sefer
Torah.
The Torah managed to
. escape from Germany with
the Robergs in 1940. It was
packed safely in the shelter
of a dark trunk, riding the
heavy waves on the sea until
it arrived in its new home,
Detroit.
It was a long journey from
Germany, where only
moments before being taken
onto the ship, the Torah had
yet again survived certain
destruction.
For more than 200 years,
Alex Roberg's family had
lived in Berlichingen, Ger-
many. The village was home
to some 1,000 residents and
25 Jewish families, many of
whom were forefathers to
Germany's most prestigious
rabbis.
At 13, Alex left Ber-
lichingen for Hoechberg,
where he attended a
preparatory school for
teachers. He continued his
studies at a Jewish teachers'
seminary, the Israelitische
Lehrerbildungsanstalt, in
Wurzberg.
In 1933, Mr. Roberg
graduated and accepted his
first teaching position in a
small Jewish community.
Four years later, he found
work at a Hebrew day school
in Stuttgart.
Stuttgart was the site of
the largest Jewish popula-
tion in the province. It
boasted a prominent Or-
thodox community and a
major Reform temple. The
two groups worked well
together amidst the growing
Nazi crisis, Mr. Roberg
recalls.
In the late 1930s, both
Reform and Orthodox Jews
were forced to leave their
synagogues; they found
haven in a Jewish school.
The Reform held services
upstairs; the Orthodox
davened downstairs.
As Mr. Roberg made a life
for himself in Stuttgart,
Adolph Hitler was building
his nation of terror in Ger-
many.
Mr. Roberg recalls the in-
famous Kristallnacht in
November 1938 when Nazi
stormtroopers raged through
the streets, destroying Jew-
ish-owned businesses and
institutions and murdering
Jewish men, women and
children.
Mr. Roberg survived by
hiding in the forest and fin-
ding refuge at homes of
friends.
Meanwhile, a horrible fire
was about to burn at the
Wurzburg teacher's semi-
nary where Mr. Roberg once
studied.
Nazi stormtroopers forced
their way into the seminary
on Kristallnacht. They ran-
sacked the school's library
and synagogue. Then they
threw the books and Torahs
onto a playground at the
front of the school and set
them afire. The school's di-
rector was forced to watch.
Though the Nazis began
smothering the whole coun-
try with hatred, Stuttgart
was a curious city — a
relatively safe oasis in the
midst of Nazi Germany, Mr.
Roberg says. He credits a
Jewish man named Karl
Adler, a former officer in the
old German army.
Mr. Adler appealed to the
city's Nazi authorities to
treat the Jewish population
kindly and secured a
number of exit visas for flee-
ing Jews, Mr. Roberg says.
"On Yom Kippur 1938, all
Jews in Stuttgart received a
telegram from the SS re-
questing that at noon all
radios must be brought to
City Hall. Of course it was
very difficult for Orthodox
Jews to bring radios on Yom
Kippur," he says. "So Karl
Adler was able to arrange
that all people who could
not come on Yom Kippur
could bring their radios
the next day.
Mr. Adler would later
escape Germany and resettle
in New York, where he
became music director of
Yeshiva University.
Mr. Roberg filed his first
request for an exit visa in
1935. Four years later, that
request was refiled — this
time for two. Mr. Roberg and
his bride, Ilsa Weber, were
married in 1939. It was the
last marriage the rabbi of
Stuttgart would perform
before immigrating to Israel.
Among those attending
the wedding was Mr.
Roberg's brother, Julius,
who brought the new couple
a gift. It was a Torah.
Julius explained: the
Nazis destroyed most of the
Wurzburg seminary's books
and Sifrei Torah. But not all.
Following the storm-
trooper attack on
Kristallnacht, a teacher
crept into the school where
he discovered two Torahs
hidden in a safe. He gave
them to the seminary direc-
tor, who in turn sent one to
the Roberg wedding.
"My brother brought the
message that we should take
this wedding gift along to
America," Mr. Roberg says.
After the Stuttgart rabbi's
departure to Israel, Mr.
Roberg became the Orthodox
community's spokesman and
representative.
One day, he received an
order to appear the next day
at SS headquarters. "I was
completely in the dark as to
what it meant," he says.
Mr. Roberg walked with
Temple Shir Shalom's
Torah was found on the
floor of an abandoned
synagogue in Prague.
"•, ce,,"
the officer to the top floor of
the building. There, he saw
12 massive crates.
"What should I do with
this junk?" the SS man ask-
ed.
Having no idea what was
inside, Mr. Roberg suggested
he open the boxes. The SS
man complied.
Mr. Roberg peered inside.
He saw several hundred
wimples, strips of cloth used
to swaddle a baby boy at his
brit mila. The strips, usually
decorated with the name of
the baby, later were used to
bind the Sifrei Torah of the
local synagogue.
"I thought that since the
Hebrew names of people are
inscribed on the wimples, I
might be able to determine
where this all came from,"
Mr. Roberg says. "So I took
out the first one and I looked
at it. It was my own."
Mr. Roberg still has the
wimple. At his request, he
had been given the authority
to dispose of the crates and
their contents as he saw fit.
Many of the rest of the items
in the crates were Torahs.
Mr. Roberg saw that they
were sent to Jewish com-
munity centers. One Torah
was given to each family
emigrating.
But the one Torah with
which Mr. Roberg would not
part was his wedding gift.
When he and his wife
received notice they would
be allowed to emigrate, they
took as much as they could
from their one-room apart-
ment. The Robergs had nu-
merous books, which, along
with the Sefer Torah, they
placed in a large crate.
Under orders from the SS, a
German customs officer was
present in their apartment
and inspected their belong-
ings, overseeing their pack-
ing from start to finish.
As the Robergs were clos-
ing the crate, the customs of-
ficer asked Mr. Roberg, "Is
there anything of great
value to you in there?"
Mr. Roberg mentioned the
Torah and several books.
wrxerr-nan-r,
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
31