During World War II, Rav Michel Dov Ber Weissmandl ZT”L who was a remarkable Gadol (Torah luminary), was part of an underground group in Slovakia called, “The Working Group”. The group’s mission was to save Jews through negotiations with the Nazis. In 1942, they managed to gather a large sum of money - approximately $50,000 which was an enormous sum at that time. They planned to use the money to bribe the Nazis to stop the deportations of Jews to the concentration camps.
During one critical negotiation, a Nazi official demanded to count the bribe money that he received before proceeding. While counting, he accidentally counted one stack of bills twice, resulting in a total sum that was several thousand dollars more than was actually there. The Nazi seemed pleased with the larger amount of money.
Amazingly, Rabbi Weissmandl, despite knowing that the extra money might help save more lives and that the Nazi would never know the difference if he did not speak up, immediately pointed out his counting error. When asked why he had been so honest in his dealing with an enemy, Rabbi Weissmandl explained that maintaining absolute honesty, even in dealings with enemies and even when lives were at stake, was essential. He believed that compromising on truth, even for seemingly justified reasons, would ultimately undermine their entire rescue effort.
And his belief was proven to be correct. Remarkably, this act of honesty actually helped establish credibility with the Nazi official, leading to successful negotiations that helped delay deportations from Slovakia for a significant period of time which saved many Jewish lives.
