I thought I knew Reb Meyer Birnbaum ztz”l who passed away last Friday in his 95^th year. But I didn’t know him at all.

Nearly 20 years ago Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz who had been a longtime neighbor of Reb Meyer’s and often traveled with him on his morning drive to the Kosel for the neitz minyan when visiting Eretz Yisrael had the idea of a book based on stories he had heard from Reb Meyer over the years. Reb Meyer would dictate his life story onto tapes and I would transform those tapes into a book.

Rabbi Zlotowitz envisioned the book centering on Reb Meyer’s experiences during World War II as a frum soldier and officer — theNormandy landing liberatingBuchenwald and then remaining in the DP camps for nearly a year after he was entitled to return stateside and be discharged.

Reb Meyer initially resisted the idea of a first-person memoir. But Rabbis Zlotowitz and Nosson Scherman persuaded him that by talking about what he had witnessed and the great people he had known he would be removing the focus from himself whereas a third-person book would suggest that he was someone of inherent distinction.

Next certain members of his family opposed the book but by now Reb Meyer was enthusiastic about the project. “If I can be mechazek one person” he told a son who objected to a book in his lifetime “it will be worth it.” In the end he was mechazek tens of thousands and his son admitted that he had been wrong.

WHEN I FIRST MET REB MEYER he was already 75-years-old. A tall man he still stood fully erect and would continue to do so into his ’90s. At that first meeting he told me to pretend I was trying to stab him and he showed me a few judo moves from his days in US Army. His grip was still vise-like.

Unfortunately his financial condition was not equally good. He had once been the successful proprietor of Mauzone Foods but the business had gone bankrupt through no fault of his own. He did not even own a life insurance policy and still had a number of children left to marry. His only marketable skill at that point in life was his recipes for unrivaled unsalted herring and delicious pickles. Though he lectured annually on his wartime experiences at a few seminaries most prominently Rebbetzin David’s BJJ these were non-remunerative.

Then Lieutenant Birnbaum appeared and opened another chapter of his eventful life. On the basis of the book Reb Meyer was launched on an international speaking career. For the next 15 years until he was close to 90 he held audiences across the globe transfixed for four hours or more as he related his experiences.

For the rest of his life Reb Meyer was known everywhere as Lieutenant Birnbaum. The name appeared in English on the Hebrew notices of his petirah and the hapless fellow announcing the levayah going throughJerusalem’s religious neighborhoods struggled mightily to pronounce the word lieutenant.

The title Lieutenant Birnbaum captured something essential about Reb Meyer. He was Hashem’s soldier in chapter after chapter of his life: as one of a group of idealistic youth in the impoverished New Lots/East New York neighborhood in whom a passion for Yiddishkeit burned despite their lack of any yeshivah education; in the DP camps after the war; and in his critical role ending the scourge of totally unnecessary autopsies in Israeli hospitals in the ’60s. Before entering the hospital for the last time he told his son Rav Akiva Birnbaum “This may be my last fight. But I’m going to fight all the way.”

Lieutenant Birnbaum struck a chord and quickly became one of ArtScroll’s all-time best sellers. Readers recognized a “normal” person like themselves placed into extraordinary circumstances.

Reb Meyer’s life had not been a bed of roses. He experienced hunger as a youngster the loss of a younger brother in the Normandylanding divorce and bankruptcy. Yet his simchas hachayim in the words of his daughter-in-law Rebbetzin Blimi Birnbaum was palpable. He could put any problem on the shelf and not just carry on but do so with boundless gratitude to Hashem. He felt himself to be the Ribono shel Olam’s beloved “ben yachid.”

People in pain wrote to him from around the globe. He kept thousands of letters from readers who had been uplifted by Lieutenant Birnbaum and tried to answer all of them. Something about his story moved and gave hope to many who were suffering — abused wives off-the-derech children — just as he had once given hope to those in the DP camps who thought they had nothing left to live for.

In the latter capacity said the renowned Mashgiach Rabbi Don Segal in his eulogy he “blew ruach chayim [the breath of life] into those who were nothing but bones.” He assured despondent survivors that he was a rich man and would provide them with jobs when they arrived inAmerica. Though the first part was far from true the great figures of that era such as Irving Bunim and Mike Tress made good on the promise. Wherever he went in his later years he was accosted by survivors who remembered the tall American soldier who had delivered thousands of letters and packages to survivors sent through the Army Post Office.

The fame from Lieutenant Birnbaum allowed him to fulfill his favorite role — that of a loving father giving to his children. (He had 16 children.) In the heyday of Mauzone Foods it was a factory of chesed. He used to put a long finger under the scale to hold it up while measuring out the orders of widows and wives of talmidei chachamim. Only Rabbi Aharon Kotler’s rebbetzin ever caught him doing so.

For more than 30 years he packed his car and later a Mitsubishi van in a manner that would have done credit to any college fraternity for his morning drive to the Kosel where he had special permission in his last years to drive all the way to the entrance to the men’s section. Later in the day he would cruise the streets looking for people in distress to transport. Every Shabbos the Birnbaum home was filled with either yeshivah bochurim or seminary girls eager to soak up his joy and hear his stories firsthand.

DESPITE ALL I KNEW ABOUT LIEUTENANT BIRNBAUM nothing prepared me for the sight of hundreds of talmidei chachamim at his levayah just before Shabbos. Besides his son Rav Akiva Birnbaum the maspidim included Rav Yitzchak Ezrachi of Yeshivas Mir a longtime neighbor; Rav Tzvi Cheshin the recognized ari shebachaburah of Yeshivas Mir for four decades; and Rav Don Segal. Other major Torah figures wanted to be maspid but time did not allow. Rav Cheshin expressed his kinas sofrim for Reb Meyer’s portion in the World to Come and Rav Ezrachi said that he did not know if there was another person in the generation with as many zchuyos (merits) as Reb Meyer.

In the midst of the hespedim a very old man carrying a small package entered the hall sobbing. He kissed the niftar’s feet and then cried out “These are the same tefillin.”

This old Jew and two friends had escaped from a Nazi prison camp in the last days of the War. Freezing in their skimpy prisoners uniforms they put on the uniforms of slain Nazi soldiers whom they found lying in the woods. This Jew wearing the uniform of a high German officer subsequently encountered an American convoy. When he reached into his pocket the American soldiers thought he was grabbing a grenade. They were about to shoot him when he cried out “Ich bin a Yid — I’m a Jew.” Fortunately for him Lieutenant Birnbaum understood what he was saying and ordered his men not to shoot. In the Jew’s pocket was a pair of tefillin that he had been moser nefesh to guard throughout the war.

Gedolei Torah recognized greatness in Reb Meyer. He exemplified the temimus (simplicity/purity) that Reb Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz used to say characterized his generation of Americans. His kavod for rabbanim was without limit. Reb Meyer and friends like the late Reb Moshe Swerdloff gathered around Rav Yitzchak Hutner upon his arrival inNew York from Europe and later did everything possible to help Rav Leib Malin and other great survivors of the Mir inShanghai establish Yeshivas Bais HaTalmud.

Rabbi Beinish Finkel the late rosh yeshivah of the Mir was famous for never accepting a favor from anyone. Yet he accepted a ride from Reb Meyer from the very first day the latter started driving to the neitz minyan at the Kosel and he would even ask Reb Meyer to drive him to various simchahs. He knew that he was giving Reb Meyer boundless joy by doing so.

Every morning at the Kosel Reb Meyer would read through pages of names of people in tzaar before the start of davening. Once in his last years he exclaimed “Ribono shel Olam I have no more strength You have to bring Mashiach.” His Rosh HaShanah blessing to his fellow mispallelim at the Kosel this past Erev Rosh HaShanah was: “Next year may we be zocheh to gather on the other side of the Kosel.”

May he continue to implore Hashem Whom he always addressed as a beloved son speaking to his Father on behalf of Klal Yisrael from his high place on the other side.