who was 49 years old at the time. A deeply spiritual, almost mystical man, who studied much and slept and ate little, Rebbe Aharon was known for his saintliness and his miracle-working capabilities. Many of his followers reported experiencing miraculous recoveries or successes after receiving his blessing, and flocked to his court by the thousands. Some of the most learned scholars of the generation were Hasidim of Belz, such as Rabbi Moshe Greenwald (Arugath HaBosem) and his descendants, Rabbi Sholom Mordechai Schwadron (Maharsham) and Rabbi Chanoch Dov Padwa (Cheishev Ho'ephod), who was very close to Rebbe Aharon of Belz. Escape from Belz With the outbreak of World War II, and the Nazi invasion of Poland (1939), the town of Belz was thrown into turmoil. From 1939 to 1944, it was occupied by Nazi Germany, as a part of the General Government. Belz is situated on the left, north waterside of the Solokiya river (affluent of the Bug river), which was the German-Soviet border in 1939–1941. Rabbi Aharon Rokeach, known as the "Wonder Rebbe", was at the top of the Gestapo's "wanted list" of rabbis targeted for extradition and extermination during the Nazi occupation of Poland. With cash inflow from Belzer Hasidim in Switzerland, England, and the United States, the Rebbe and his brother, Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgoray, 22 years younger than his brother, managed to stay one step ahead of the Nazis in one escape attempt after another. Notwithstanding the watchful presence of Gestapo patrols at every turn, the pair was spirited out of Premishlan into the Kraków Ghetto, and then to the Bochnia ghetto. In their most hair-raising escape attempt, the brothers were driven out of occupied Poland, and into Hungary, by Major General István Újszászy, head of the Vkf2 Hungarian counter-intelligence, who was friendly to Jews and acting on orders of Hungarian Regent Admiral Miklós Horthy. The Rebbe, his brother, and his attendant, shorn of their distinctive beards and payot (sidelocks), were disguised as Russian generals who had been captured at the front and were being taken to Budapest for questioning. Rebbe Aharon and Rabbi Mordechai spent eight months in Budapest, before receiving highly rationed Jewish Agency certificates to enter Palestine. In January 1944, they boarded the Orient Express to Istanbul. Less than two months later, the Nazis invaded Hungary, and began deporting its 450,000 Jews. Rebuilding the dynasty in Israel Although he had lost his entire family