Editing Menachem Mendel Futerfas (section)

=== 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]]