Letter From Reb Mottel

בס"ד
ברוך מדרכי ליפשיץ
658 Montgomery Street. 1K
Brooklyn, NY 11225
Rosh Chodesh Sivan, 5765
To whom it may concern;
Recently a book was published with the title “Comrade: a gripping story of self-sacrifice and kiddush hashem” by Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser שליט"א.
After an attempt to stop the sale of the book, and after receiving multiple inquiries about my role in this book, I am forced to tell the truth to the public.
This book was not the brainchild and compilation of the author, as he would like to portray1, rather it was already written up and complied by myself with the help of others by the time the author set his eyes on it, and was compiled in response to the request of the Lubavitcher Rebbe that Chassidim record their history and stories of self-sacrifice.
What was most shocking to me though, was that the manuscript which was given to the author in order to translate into English and despite countless requests to see the manuscript before publication he avoided showing it to any of my family members. Instead, he rushed to print my work heavily censuring out, (to my utter dismay) any reference of Lubavitch, their leaders2, or the Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim. Also, he simply invented an extensive amount of the story.
When the extent of his forgery was brought to my attention, that entire sentences were translated word for word only to omit the name “Schneerson” or words like “Farbrengen”, I inquired with my relatives and was told that the author had reportedly said “if the Chabad family saw the manuscript, then it would have been ruined and it would not have been able to be published.”
Therefore, in order to stand clean, והייתם נקיים מה' ומישראל, I want to publicly declare, that the product is not what I wrote, (one can obtain my Yiddish original "זכרונות פון גולאג" in stores) I did not have any part in the falsifications and historical revisionism, I do not take part in the attempt to erase the history of my dear Rebbes who stood by me in my dark days in Soviet Russia and it’s Gulags. I therefore object to all of this nonsense done in my name.
Sincerely,
Boruch Mordechai Lifshitz
Formerly the Shochet of Moscow

1 See introduction and p. 18-19
2 Except in one misrepresented case.