The physical body of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, was incarcerated in the infamous Spalerno prison, but his indomitable spirit was completely unfettered.
In spite of severe physical and psychological tortures inflicted upon him by his cruel and coarse jailers, he never wavered in his belief in G-d and devotion to Judaism.
On the 15th of Sivan, after an endless night of torture he demanded that he be given his tefillin. "Forget about it!" laughed his torturers. "You'll never get them as long as you're here!"
"If that is so, I declare that I am undertaking a hunger strike. Until you give me my tefillin, I will neither eat nor drink, and the prisoners in my cell will be witness to my fast."
The Rebbe stood in the dark cell praying in a loud voice, while his cell-mates stood in silent awe of the scene.
Neither the terrifying surroundings nor the screamed profanities of the guards could penetrate the Rebbe's profound meditations.
The Rebbe continued his hunger strike throughout the next two days and nights. At ten o'clock that night he was taken to be interrogated. There were three interrogators: two Jews - Lulov and Nachmanson - and one gentile, Dachtriov. The room was large and the marble walls were lined with large tubes which enabled the GPU agents in the adjacent room to hear and transcribe the interrogation.
When the Rebbe entered the room he turned to his interrogators and remarked, "This is the first time that I have come into a room and not a single person has risen from his place!"
"Do you know where you are?" they asked him.
"Of course. I know that this is a place where it is NOT required to put a mezuza. There are several such places, for example, a stable and a bathroom."
The Rebbe refused to be intimidated and declared angrily, "You have no right to accuse me! Return my possessions to me!"
But they proceeded to read the charges against the Rebbe:
Abetting the reactionary forces of the USSR; counter-revolution; exerting an influence on Russian Jews; spreading religion; corresponding with foreigners and relaying information about the Soviet Union, etc.
The Rebbe explained that he didn't impose his will on anyone; it is the way of Chasidut to influence by example, not by force or power.
One hundred and eighty years before, his ancestor, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, had been forced to explain the tenets of Chasidut to the interrogators of the Czar; now Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak had to do the same to Soviet interrogators.
The Rebbe responded to all of their accusations, and then lashed out against Lulov, saying: "Listen to me. Maybe you think you will start a new Beilis case [the infamous blood-libel charge], but remember how that attempt failed." The Rebbe continued in this manner to refute all their words.
At that time, Nachmanson entered the room and related the following anecdote: "Lulov, do you know that my parents were childless until they went to the Lubavitcher Rebbe for a blessing? This is the man right here...and I am the child who was born." The interrogators laughed hilariously at this irony.
The interrogation lasted late into the night.
At the end, Lulov angrily blurted out, "In another 24 hours you will be shot dead!" This was a real possibility at the time.
Suffering excruciating pain from the beatings he had received, the Rebbe continued his hunger strike until Friday, when his tefillin and books were returned to him.
At that time, the Rebbe announced that he would eat only food brought from his home. That Shabbat, he was brought three whole challahs baked in his home (an example of the new deferential treatment he was to receive).
The guard who had previously been so gratuitously cruel, now went out of his way to accommodate the Rebbe. As the Rebbe had requested, the guard would knock on his cell door to indicate the time for evening prayer, and at the conclusion of that Shabbat, the Rebbe was given two matches with which to make Havdala [the prayer marking the separation between the holiness of Shabbat and the mundane week].
On the 12th of Tammuz, Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok was released from prison and sure death.
Thirteen years later, the Rebbe arrived in the United States. His arrival marked the inception of a new era in Jewish America. It had been assumed that Torah could never flourish in America as it had in Europe, but with his famous pronouncement, "America is not different," the Rebbe opened the way for a dramatic growth of Torah observance on these shores. The day of his liberation is a day of liberation for Jews the world over.
