Editing Menachem Mendel Futerfas (section)

==Arrest and Imprisonment==
===Among the Organizers of the Exodus from Russia===
Extended topic - The Exodus from Russia 5706 (1946)

After World War II ended, the Russian government authorized the return of Polish citizens who had fled to its borders during the war, and provided freight trains for their use. Many Russian citizens took advantage of this breach and tried to cross the border using forged Polish passports through the transit city of Lvov. Chabad chassidim waited to receive the Frierdiker Rebbe's answer whether to risk illegally crossing the border. When approval was received, only a few managed to utilize this opportunity before the Russian government stopped issuing exit visas.

Following the actions of Reb Yehuda Leib Motzkin, who bribed senior government officials at genuine risk to his life, the border was reopened. A special committee was established for this purpose, with Reb Mendel and other activists as members. The committee's activities were divided into several areas: encouraging Anash in Russia to cross the borders, forging documents, raising funds to bribe various officials, and taking care of all other necessary details, such as safe houses in Lvov until departure and maintaining constant contact with Anash who arrived in Lvov to cross the border.

=== Arrest of the Nine Chassidim ===
Reb Mendel himself did not join his family in escape despite estimating that the secret police would track him down and could arrest him within a short time. He remained in Russia and continued to work on smuggling operations until he decided to leave the Iron Curtain with a small group of only nine people:

Rav Shmuel Notik, his wife and daughter, Reb Mendel Futerfas (in new documents: Feivish Steingel), Reb Yosef Greenberg, the brothers Reb Avraham Gurevitch and Reb Shmuel Gurevitch. The last three were listed as Rav Shmuel Notik's "sons" for the escape. As written in a secret memorandum revealed by Chabad.org: "Arrested on the same train with Futerfas was also Shmuel Notik, formerly a beloved chassidic teacher in Chabad's underground yeshivas throughout the Soviet Union, who perished in the Gulag in early 5709 (1949)."

It later became clear that the person who arranged their tickets was an undercover KGB agent who informed the authorities about the nine people planning to cross the border. The police arrested them all. The detainees were transferred to the secret police headquarters in Lvov. Initially, those arrested in this operation and other detainees from that period were held at the secret police headquarters in Lvov, later some were transferred to Kharkov.
[[File:מענדל פוטרפס תמונה תיק החקירה.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Mugshot]]
=== Siberian Exile and the Lvov Case ===
After prolonged interrogations and terrible torture, the trial began where R' Mendel was sentenced to 10 years of exile and hard labor in work camps and was exiled to Siberia.

During the exile, he was brought to Leningrad to the 'Shpalerka' where he was interrogated again, many like him were interrogated regarding the Lvov case.

In Shpalerka, he met with his friend R' Moshe Vishetsky and they made part of the journey to exile together. During his exile period, he stayed together with the Chassid and Mashpia R' Asher Sassonkin until they were released in 1964.

=== Documents from KGB Archives ===
New documents from the Lvov case and new memories about R' Mendel Futerfas were published during 2022-2023 in Chabad media outlets:

* Elul 2022: On Chabad.org (and translated to Hebrew on Chabad Online), KGB documents from 1950 were published reflecting the situation of Chassidim escaping through Lvov and Chernovitz. These documents also include documentation of arrests including R' Mendel Futerfas: "Among the Chabad leaders arrested following the operation were R' Mendel Futerfas (arrested on a train leaving Lvov in 1947, released from the Gulag in 1956); Yona Kagan ('Poltaver', arrested in 1948, died in the Gulag in 1949); and Mordechai Dubin (arrested in 1948, died in Soviet custody in 1957)."
* Tammuz 2023: R' Mendel's investigation file reached Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Kratz, publisher of the book about him being prepared by author Rabbi Yisroel Elfenbein. Portions of the file were published in WhatsApp groups, which sparked discussions and debates. From the publications, it is understood that R' Mendel and the escape organizers, including his brother-in-law R' DovBer Robinson and R' Shimon Katzenelenbogen, obtained enormous sums to get hundreds of Chabad families out of Russia. The publications also include details about R' Mendel's escape attempt with Rabbi Shmuel Notik.
* On 11 Tammuz 2023 (for the 12 Tammuz redemption holiday), additional photos from R' Mendel Futerfas's file were published on the Anash website.
* On 17 Tammuz 2023, additional documents from the file were published in Kfar Chabad magazine issue 2016, revealing that after interrogations, investigators managed to extract a confession from R' Mendel about his activities in organizing the smuggling of Chassidim through Lvov and Chernovitz. However, several years after he left the Soviet Union, the sentence was retroactively canceled and it was decided that he had not betrayed his homeland due to his 1958 complaint that the confession was extracted through illegal means.