Rogatchover Smicho

[Mahus]

Maybe someone who is boki in Kfar Chabad magazine can point to the specific date. But I remember that in tof-shin-nun-ches a memoir was published of an aid to Rabbi Yosef Rosen, known as the Rogatchover Gaon.

One story was about the Rogatchover writing a letter to a government official to appeal to him regarding a certain matter, although I don't remember the details. What I do remember is that the author of the memoir recalls the Rogatchover turning to him at the completion of drafting of the letter and saying, "Even though I don't have smicho I'm going to sign 'rabbi' anyway." I found this very interesting as I'm sure all Lubavitch readers would, as the common lore is that the Rebbe received smicho from the Rogatchover.

Now, we anyway know that the smicho we have nowadays does not link back to Moshe Rabbeinu and the members of the Sanhedrin, as there was indeed a breach. Furthermore, from my own viewpoint, second to receiving smicho from Moshe Rabbeinu himself I cannnot think of a more prestigious smicho than one from the Rogatchover.

My question is simply this: in lieu of the revelation that the Rogatchover did not have smicho (although I always say: "[Ploni] may have smicho but he is not a rabbi; the Rogatchover, he was a rabbi, and he did not have smicho"), does anyone have any basis to believe that the Rogatchover ever gave semicho? Can anyone name a single rabbi in the past century who carried semicho from the Rogatchover (other than the Rebbe)?

(This question bears no implications regarding the Rebbe, of course. On the contrary, if the Rogatcover didn't need the "validation" of semicho, can we say the Rebbe did?)