Joseph, Did you read the original- UNCENSORED- speech? In it, the Bilgurayer explicitly states that there will NOT be a catastrophe in Hungary and this was his brother’s berocho ( the belzer). His speech ahs been censored in later editions. I am absolutely serious about this!
I did not say there was a “widespread prevention” from “escaping”. I did say that , when asked, most Rabbonim advised to stay in Europe, BUT this was before the war started. Obviously, once the war started, everyone tried to escape. See Mirrer yesivah, see all the Jews who fled to Siberia,etc.. Although the Bilgurayer rebbe’s speech may have helped to lull some people into a false sense of safety. AGAIN, I am not painting any nefarious picture of the speech, just that even the belzer rebbe ‘zz’l ,who was a zaddik amongst zaddikim, did not necessarily see or know everything.