Naftali Bienes Wasserman

http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/archives5764/BHR64features.htm :

IN-DEPTH FEATURES

From Starobin to Brisk: The Life of HaRav Michel Feinstein, zt'l, His First Yahrtzeit, 16 Iyar, 5764

... Flight to Vilna

The Second World War broke out with Germany's invasion of Western Poland, with the eastern part of the country being ceded to Russia. One night, Reb Michel heard that the Russians were planning to enter Mir. The following morning, he told the Rosh Yeshiva and the mashgiach, HaRav Yechezkel Levenstein, zt'l, that he was fleeing to Vilna which was still under independent Lithuanian rule. "I am from Russia," he told them "and I know what they are like."

When the bnei hayeshiva heard that Michel Starobiner was leaving for Vilna, they followed him there. The son of Reb Menachem Karkovsky, the son-in- law of his uncle Reb Elya Pruzhaner, supplied them with bread from the bakery.

In Vilna, Reb Michel became friendly with Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky, zt'l. One day, he showed Reb Chaim Ozer his piece of Torah on the topic of "swallowed tumah" and Reb Chaim Ozer spent forty-five minutes going over it. Reb Chaim Ozer was in the habit of drinking tea piping hot. On this occasion he took three quarters of an hour to have the tea, while he studied Reb Michel's Torah. Afterwards, Reb Michel heard from Rav Naftali Beinush Wasserman that his uncle Reb Chaim Ozer had highly praised his Torah.

Reb Michel once remarked that it was generally thought that Reb Chaim Ozer was a worldly person but this was untrue. "He, ztvk'l, was a frummer," Reb Michel maintained, "and the proof is that at night he slept on a large wooden box. I thought, Didn't our master Rav Chaim Ozer possess a bed?' but the reason he did it was because the box contained all the tzedokoh funds that had been entrusted to him. He wanted to guard the box physically because he was of the opinion that the only way to look after the money was by having it on his own person. He also engaged in other kinds of self-deprivation and followed other stringencies, on a very high spiritual level." ...