__NOTOC__ ''Perfidy'' is a book written by

Ben Hecht Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A successful journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplay ...

in 1961. The book describes the events surrounding the 1954–1955 Kastner trial in Jerusalem. The book is based on transcripts from the trial and concludes that in 1944 Rudolf Kastner deliberately withheld from the Jews in Hungary knowledge that the trains the Nazis were putting them on were taking them to death by the gas chamber, not to a fictitious resettlement city as the Nazis claimed and that Kastner then lied about it under oath. One of the supporting facts presented is that, in the Supreme Court appeal of the original verdict implicating Kastner, all five Supreme Court Judges upheld Judge Halevi's initial verdict on the "criminal and perjurious way" in which Kastner after the war had testified on behalf of Nazi war criminal Kurt Becher. Judge Silberg summed up the Supreme Court finding on this point: " espondent MalchielGreenwald has proven beyond any reasonable doubt this grave charge." Most of the judgement was later overturned. __TOC__

Reception

In a 2007 '' Jerusalem Post'' opinion column,

Elliot Jager Elliot Jager (born November 3, 1954) is an American-born Israeli journalist, political scientist, and author of ''The Pater: My Father, My Judaism, My Childlessness''. He is a former editor at ''The Jerusalem Post'' and a former senior contribu ...

called ''Perfidy'' "a devastating account" of Rudolf Kastner's betrayal of Hungarian Jewry. Jerome A. Chanes, writing for ''

The Jewish Daily Forward ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ...

'' in 2009, described ''Perfidy'' as an "ill-conceived and irresponsible anti-Kastner" account.

Deborah Lipstadt Deborah Esther Lipstadt (born March 18, 1947) is an American historian, best known as author of the books '' Denying the Holocaust'' (1993), ''History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier'' (2005), ''The Eichmann Trial'' (2011), and ...

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of h ...

says, "It is an amazing piece of writing, it's very passionate. It's not historical ... The problem is lots of the information in it is, is wrong!" She mentions Hecht's involvement with the Bergson boys and says, "much of what he's writing is Kastner as a foil for attacking

Ben Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the name ...

, for attacking the Labor Party, and he makes claims in there about the Labor Party, about Ben Gurion, not caring about what was going on in Europe, which is, again, historians now show, has simply not stood the test of time."BBC documentar
Setting the Past Free
May 9, 2016. The segment on ''Perfidy'' starts at 17 minutes, 47 seconds in.

References

1961 non-fiction books Blood for goods History books about the Holocaust {{Holocaust-book-stub

Reception

See also

References