Rezső Kasztner (1906 – 15 March 1957), also known as Rudolf Israel Kastner, was a Hungarian-Israeli journalist and lawyer who became known for having helped Jews escape from occupied Europe during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. He was assassinated in 1957 after an Israeli court accused him of having collaborated with the Nazis. Kasztner was one of the leaders of the Budapest

Aid and Rescue Committee The Aid and Rescue Committee, or ''Va'adat Ha-Ezrah ve-ha-Hatzalah be-Budapesht'' (''Vaada'' for short; name in ) was a small committee of Zionists in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944–1945, who helped Hungarian Jews escape the Holocaust during the Ger ...

(''Va'adat Ezrah Vehatzalah'', or ''Vaada''), which smuggled Jewish refugees into Hungary during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, then helped them escape from Hungary when in March 1944 the Nazis invaded that country too. Between May and July 1944, Hungarian Jews were deported to the gas chambers at

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

at the rate of 12,000 people a day. Kasztner negotiated with

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
'' SS officer and the mastermind of the Holocaust, to allow 1,684 Jews to leave instead for Switzerland on what became known as the

Kastner train The Kastner train consisted of 35 cattle wagons that left Budapest on 30 June 1944, during the German occupation of Hungary, carrying over 1,600 Jews temporarily to Bergen-Belsen and safety in Switzerland after large ransom paid by Swiss Orthodo ...

, in exchange for money, gold, and diamonds. Kasztner moved to Israel after the war, becoming a spokesman for the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 1952.Bilsky 2001. In 1953 he was accused of having been a Nazi collaborator in a pamphlet self-published by freelance writer

Malchiel Gruenwald Malchiel Gruenwald ( he, מלכיאל גרינוולד; also written Grünwald, Gruenvald, and Greenwald) (1882–1958) was an Israeli hotelier, amateur journalist, and stamp collector, who came to public attention in 1953, when he accused an Isr ...

. The allegation stemmed from Kasztner's relationship with Eichmann and another SS officer, Kurt Becher, and from his having given positive character references after the war for Becher and two other SS officers, thus allowing Becher to escape prosecution for war crimes. The Israeli government sued Gruenwald for libel on Kasztner's behalf, resulting in a trial that lasted 18 months, and a ruling in 1955 that Kasztner had, in the words of Judge

Benjamin Halevy Benjamin Halevy ( he, בנימין הלוי, 6 May 1910 – 7 August 1996) was an Israeli judge and politician. Biography Halevy was born Ernst Levi in Weißenfels, Germany and educated at the Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Unive ...

, "sold his soul to the devil"."On Trial"
''Time'', July 11, 1955. By saving the Jews on the "Kasztner train", while failing to warn others that their "resettlement" was in fact deportation to the gas chambers, Kasztner had sacrificed the mass of Jewry for a chosen few, the judge said. The verdict triggered the fall of the Israeli Cabinet. Kasztner resigned his government position and became a virtual recluse, telling reporters he was living with a loneliness "blacker than night, darker than hell". His wife fell into a depression that left her bedridden, while his daughter's schoolmates threw stones at her in the street.Porter 2007, p. 405. Kasztner was shot on March 3, 1957, by Zeev Eckstein, part of a three-man squad from a group of veterans from the pre-state militia

Lehi Lehi (; he, לח"י – לוחמי חרות ישראל ''Lohamei Herut Israel – Lehi'', "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel – Lehi"), often known pejoratively as the Stern Gang,"This group was known to its friends as LEHI and to its enemie ...

led by Yosef Menkes and Yaakov Heruti, and died of his injuries 12 days later.Zweig 2002, p. 232. The

Supreme Court of Israel ar, المحكمة العليا , image = Emblem of Israel dark blue full.svg , imagesize = 100px , caption = Emblem of Israel , motto = , established = , location = Givat Ram, Jerusalem , coordina ...

overturned most of the judgment against Kasztner in January 1958, stating in a 4:1 decision that the lower court had "erred seriously".

Early life

Childhood

Kasztner was born in 1906 in

Kolozsvár ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Status , subdivision_name2 = County seat , settlement_type = City , l ...

(

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

: , Kloiznborg; german: Klausenburg),

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(today

Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

), into a local community of 15,000 Jews. The governance of the city was unstable, moving back and forth between Hungary and Romania. It became

Cluj ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Status , subdivision_name2 = County seat , settlement_type = City , ...

, Romania in 1920, was returned to Hungary in 1940, then was restored to Romania by the Treaty of Paris in 1947, after the Soviet and Romanian armies defeated German and Hungarian forces in the winter of 1944–45. Kasztner was raised with his two brothers in a two-story brick house in the southern part of the city by his father, Yitzhak, a merchant and a devout man who spent most of his day in the synagogue, and his mother, Helen, who ran the family store.Porter 2007, p. 10.

Education

Helen decided that her sons should attend a regular high school, rather than a Jewish one, as the curriculum was broader and included languages. By the time Kasztner graduated, he spoke eight languages: Hungarian, Romanian, French, German, and Latin, along with Yiddish, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Anna Porter writes that he became known for his good looks, sharp mind, quick wit, and his intense focus, as a result of which his mother decided that he should study law, though his heart was in politics. While

was still controlled by Hungary, Jewish entry to universities had been limited by the 1920 Numerus Clausus (closed number) Act, which was the first

antisemitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Ant ...

legislation in 20th-century Europe. The law limited Jewish university enrollment to 6%, reflecting Jews' portion of the population, and although

became part of Romania shortly after, and the legislation itself was allowed to lapse eight years later in Hungary, it affected Kasztner's teenage political orientation, and he decided at the age of 15 to become a

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

.Porter 2007, pp. 12–13. He joined a Zionist youth group, Barissa, which trained its members to become citizens of the

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isr ...

, becoming its leader within a year. His older brother, Gyula, had already emigrated to

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

in 1924 to work on a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

, but Kasztner was still in high school and so unable to go with him. He played his part in the Zionist movement by writing articles on British policies in Palestine for the local Jewish newspaper ''

Új Kelet ''Új Kelet'' ( Hungarian translation: "New East") is a Hungarian-language Zionist Jewish newspaper published first in Kolozsvár (Cluj) in Transylvania, Romania, and reestablished after a 10-year break in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1948. Under the in ...

''.Porter 2007, pp. 13–14.

Early career

When Kasztner was 22, his father died reading the

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...

in the synagogue on the seventh day of

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of Aviv, or spring. ...

. He had to put off any ideas about emigrating, as his mother now needed him at home. He attended law school, as she wished, then worked full-time for ''

'' after graduating, at first working as a sports reporter, though he continued to write about politics. He also became an assistant to Dr. József Fischer, a lawyer, member of Parliament, president of the Jewish Community of Kolozsvár, and leading member of the National Jewish Party. Fischer admired Kasztner's writing, and encouraged him to continue working for ''Új Kelet'' too.Porter 2007, p. 15. Porter writes that Fischer may have been the only person whose intelligence Kasztner respected. He was known for not suffering fools gladly, dismissing people as stupid or intellectual cowards. "He had no sense of other people's sensitivities, or he didn't care whether he alienated his friends," Dezsö Hermann, one of Kasztner's friends at law school, told Porter. "Back then, in Kolozsvár, Jews kept their heads down. Not Rezső."Porter 2007, pp. 15–16. Ladislaus Löb quotes Kasztner's associate

Joel Brand Joel Brand ( hu, Brand Jenő; 25 April 1906 – 13 July 1964) was a member of the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee (''Va'adat ha-Ezra ve-ha-Hatzala be-Budapest'' or ''Va'ada''), an underground Zionist group in Budapest, Hungary, that smuggled ...

as saying that Kasztner was the "prototype of the snobbish intellectual" but showed "marvellous courage at critical moments"; the Orthodox leader Fülöp Freudiger called him "dictatorial" but "selfless and always willing to take personal risks". Kasztner's daughter, Zsuzsi, described him as "very arrogant, and rightly so, because he was extremely smart and intelligent and handsome and charismatic". He became known as a political fixer, knowing whom to bribe, how much to pay, whom to flatter. He interviewed leading politicians for ''Új Kelet'', and even antisemitic members of the

Iron Guard The Iron Guard ( ro, Garda de Fier) was a Romanian militant revolutionary fascist movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel Michael () or the Legionnaire Movement (). It was stron ...

. He worked hard as a lawyer for his clients, reportedly knowing when to pay off the police so that charges would be dropped.Porter 2007, pp. 16–17. He married József Fischer's daughter, Elizabeth, in 1934, which further cemented his position locally.Porter 2007, p. 17.

Refugee work

The rise of Nazism

As the German army moved across Europe, Kasztner set up an information center in

to help refugees arriving from Austria, Poland, and Slovakia. He arranged temporary accommodation for them and collected clothes and food from local charities. His main concern was to provide Jewish refugees with safe passage, using his ability to bribe and charm to obtain exit visas from the Romanian government. He asked for help from the

Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. ...

's leadership in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, though there was a limit to what they could do because the British had imposed strict quotas on the number of Jewish refugees allowed into Palestine, causing Kasztner to attack "

Perfidious Albion "Perfidious Albion" is a pejorative phrase used within the context of international relations diplomacy to refer to acts of diplomatic slights, duplicity, treachery and hence infidelity (with respect to perceived promises made to or alliances f ...

" in ''

''.Porter 2007, pp. 23–24. On August 30, 1940, the

Second Vienna Award The Second Vienna Award, also known as the Vienna Diktat, was the second of two territorial disputes that were arbitrated by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. On 30 August 1940, they assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania, including all o ...

returned Cluj to Hungarian control, becoming once again Kolozsvár. The city's Jews were glad at first, reasoning that Hungary's Jews had not been subjected to the same random killings experienced by Jews in Romania. Hungarian Jews were patriots, viewing themselves as Hungarians first, Jews second, and Hungary as their homeland, not

Eretz Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Israe ...

. Their jubilation was short-lived. As Germany's influence over Hungarian policies increased, Jews found themselves subjected to antisemitic legislation and violence. In 1941, the Hungarian government closed all Jewish newspapers, including ''Új Kelet''. Kasztner, then 36 years old, decided to move to Budapest to look for a job, leaving his wife behind in Kolozsvár.Porter 2007, p. 31.

Move to Budapest

Kasztner rented a small, two-room apartment in a

pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

in Váci Street. He wanted to continue his work helping Jewish refugees in Kolozsvár, and with that in mind, had obtained a letter of introduction from József Fischer to Ottó Komoly, an engineer and president of the Budapest Zionist Association. Komoly directed Kasztner to Miklós (Moshe) Krausz, the Jewish Agency's representative in Budapest, who controlled the Palestine entry visas. Porter writes that Kasztner had to wait in line for two hours at the Agency's office on Erzsébet Boulevard, among scores of Jewish refugees desperate to find a way to escape to Palestine. He eventually barged past Krausz's secretaries and into his office. Krausz explained that he was determined not to alienate the British, which meant that every entry visa had to be legitimate and properly processed, which was consuming all his time.Porter 2007, pp. 36–38. Kasztner offered to help, but Krausz was not interested. Porter writes that Krausz took an instant dislike to the "forceful, loud, and insistent Kasztner."Porter 2007, p. 38. Kasztner's wife joined him in Budapest in July 1941. He tried to persuade Dr. Fischer, who had lost his law practice, to join them but Fischer refused, feeling responsible for the Jewish community in Kolozsvár. Komoly continued to introduce Kasztner to key figures in the Budapest Zionist movement, one of whom was Sam Springmann, who was bribing officials – in part with money from the Jewish Agency – to carry messages and food parcels into

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of ca ...

and other ghettos in Poland. It was Springmann who introduced Kasztner to

, a meeting that was to change both their lives.

Negotiations

During the summer of 1944, Kasztner repeatedly met with

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
'' Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

in occupied Poland. They reached an agreement that some 1,685 Jews would be spared for a price of $1,000 per head. Most of the passengers could not raise the funds themselves, so Kasztner auctioned off 150 places to wealthy Jews in order to pay for the others. In addition, SS officer Kurt Becher,

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

's envoy, insisted that 50 seats be reserved for the families of individuals who had personally paid him for favors, at the sum of approximately $25,000 per person. Becher wanted to get the price per head increased to $2,000 but Himmler set the price at $1,000.Kadar and Vagi 2004, pp. 213–214. The total value of the ransom was estimated by the Jewish community to be 8,600,000

Swiss franc The Swiss franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) issues banknotes and the ...

s, though Becher himself valued it at only 3,000,000 Swiss francs. Breaking his agreement, Eichmann had the passengers on the train sent to

Belsen Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentr ...

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

. However, in the end, the passengers were saved by being transported to neutral Switzerland in two contingents, in August and December 1944 respectively. They included the Rabbi

Joel Teitelbaum Joel Teitelbaum ( yi, יואל טייטלבוים, translit=Yoyl Teytlboym, ; 13 January 1887 – 19 August 1979) was the founder and first Grand Rebbe of the Satmar dynasty. A major figure in the post-war renaissance of Hasidism, he espoused a ...

, the writer

Béla Zsolt Béla Zsolt (born as Béla Steiner, 8 January 1895 – 6 February 1949) was a Hungarian radical socialist journalist and politician. He wrote one of the earliest Holocaust memoirs, ''Nine Suitcases'' (''Kilenc koffer'' in Hungarian). Tibor Fisc ...

, the psychiatrist

Leopold Szondi Leopold may refer to: People * Leopold (given name) * Leopold (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons'' * Leopold Bloom, the protagonist o ...

, the opera singer

Dezső Ernster Dezső Ernster (23 November 1898 – 15 February 1981) was a Hungarian opera singer who sang leading bass roles with the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1946 to 1963. In 1929, he created the role of Baron d'Houdoux in Hindemith's '' Neues vom Ta ...

, the artist István Irsai, and other intellectuals, scientists, religious leaders, and political activists, but also people who were neither rich nor prominent, not least a group of Polish orphans. The passengers were ultimately released after a large ransom payment arranged by Yitzchak Sternbuch, a Swiss Orthodox Jew and

Recha Sternbuch Recha Sternbuch (née Rottenberg; 1905–1971) was a Switzerland, Swiss Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish woman who was a major the Holocaust, Holocaust-era Jewish rescuer. Biography Born in Krakow, Poland in 1905, Sternbuch moved to St. Gall ...

's husband.

Alfréd Wetzler Alfréd Israel Wetzler (10 May 1918 – 8 February 1988), who wrote under the alias Jozef Lánik, was a Slovak Jewish writer. He is known for escaping from Auschwitz concentration camp and co-writing the Vrba-Wetzler Report, which helped hal ...

(aka Jozef Lánik) and

Rudolf Vrba Rudolf "Rudi" Vrba (born Walter Rosenberg; 11 September 1924 – 27 March 2006) was a Slovak-Jewish biochemist who, as a teenager in 1942, was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. He escaped from the c ...

(born as Walter Rosenberg) escaped from Auschwitz after learning that construction and preparations were being made for the mass arrival of "Hungarian Salami", as those Jews were jokingly called by the camp guards, and wrote the Vrba-Wetzler report, also known as the Auschwitz Protocol, with help from the Bratislava Working Group. It was distributed to many Jewish and other organizations, including the

, in order to warn the Hungarian Jews. The recipients did not publicize the report. Vrba claimed that Kasztner deliberately buried the report, because it would ruin his Blood for Goods plan. Kasztner's detractors allege that Kasztner and other members of the Aid and Rescue Committee helped the SS encourage Hungarian Jewry to board the trains bound for Auschwitz voluntarily, telling them that they would be brought to Kenyérmező and given jobs in factories and fields; and that as a result of this misinformation from their leaders, Hungarian Jewry was delivered to Auschwitz. Professor Eli Reichenthal wrote that Kasztner at that stage was actually being blackmailed by the Germans, as his parents, friends and close family were all on the "Kastner train" stranded in the

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentra ...

. Kasztner's defenders claim that as a result of his negotiations, an additional 15,000 Hungarian Jews were transferred to labor camps at

Strasshof Strasshof an der Nordbahn (meaning ''Strasshof at the Northern railway''; Central Bavarian: ''Strasshof aun da Noadbauh'') is a satellite town 25 km east of Vienna, Austria. A historical locomotive built by LOFAG is displayed in the town. ...

rather than being murdered at Auschwitz. However, Eichmann testified at his trial that this was an act of deceit on his part: "It is possible that I painted a bright picture for Kasztner."

Hannah Szenes and the Jewish paratroopers from Palestine

While negotiations about the first train were continuing, three Jewish

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its p ...

members from Palestine,

Hannah Szenes Hannah Szenes (often anglicized as Hannah Senesh or Chanah Senesh; he, חנה סנש; hu, Szenes Anna; 17 July 19217 November 1944) was a poet and a Special Operations Executive (SOE) member. She was one of 37 Jewish SOE recruits from Mandate ...

and two men, Yoel Palgi and Peretz Goldstein, were parachuted into Yugoslavia and attempted to penetrate the Hungarian border. They were caught by the Hungarian underground police. Szenes was taken to prison, interrogated in front of her imprisoned mother, and later killed, while the other two were brought to Kasztner, who convinced the two to go to the German

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

and inform them that they were Jewish fighters from Palestine who wish to confirm the 'Blood for Goods' deal, but ask that it reach Switzerland instead of Palestine. The two were incarcerated by the Germans, tortured, and sent to Germany, but Palgi jumped the train en route and escaped. During the later Kastner trial,

's mother told the court that Kasztner deceived her in such a way as to lead to suspicions that it was he who gave away her daughter's unit in the first place, and had her, the mother, imprisoned. Palgi accused Kasztner of leading them into a trap. Shmuel Tamir, Gruenwald's attorney, claimed that this was one of the main reasons that he felt that Kasztner had been nothing more than a German collaborator, to save his family and perhaps for money. In Kasztner's defense, Eli Reichenthal says that at the point when the three paratroopers reached Budapest, what motivated Kasztner's decisions were the jeopardy to the deal (which Kasztner believed was real and therefore could save many more Jews) and Eichmann's blackmail (having Kasztner's family together with the Hungarian Zionist leadership on the train). This was something Kasztner could not reveal at the trial; "I had reasons" was his answer to Szenes's mother.

Auschwitz Protocols

In April 1944 Kasztner received in Bratislava the Vrba-Wetzler report and other evidence that Hungary's Jews would be murdered. The report was later released to the leaders of Jewish organizations in Budapest and elsewhere in the hope that Hungarian Jews would be warned that they were being deported to a death camp and were not being resettled, as they had been led to believe. However, the report was not made public by Kasztner, the

Jewish Council A ''Judenrat'' (, "Jewish council") was a World War II administrative agency imposed by Nazi Germany on Jewish communities across occupied Europe, principally within the Nazi ghettos. The Germans required Jews to form a ''Judenrat'' in every com ...

(Judenrat) in Hungary or other Jewish organizations.

George Mantello George Mantello (born György Mandl; 11 December 1901 25 April 1992), a businessman with various diplomatic activities, born into a Jewish family from Transylvania, helped save thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust while working for the ...

(Mandel), an Orthodox Jew from Hungary and first secretary of the El Salvador mission to Switzerland, sent a Romanian diplomat friend,

Florian Manoliu Florian may refer to: People * Florian (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * Florian, Roman emperor in 276 AD * Saint Florian (250 – c. 304 AD), patron saint of Poland and Upper Austria, al ...

, to find out what was happening to his family, who by then had been murdered. Manoliu stopped over in Budapest at risk to himself, and on 19 June 1944 obtained the abridged Auschwitz Protocols reports from Moshe Krausz representing the

in Budapest. Manilou immediately returned with the reports to Geneva and Mantello publicized the details within a day of receiving them. This led to grassroots demonstrations and over 400 headlines in the Swiss press deploring Europe's barbarism toward Jews (published in spite of Swiss censorship rules), sermons in Swiss churches, and the publication of the book "Am I my Brother's Keeper?" by Paul Vogt, Switzerland's leading theologian. The resulting international outcry was one of the main reasons that the Hungarian government stopped the deportations. By then, 437,000 Hungarian Jews had been taken to Auschwitz, most murdered on arrival. Kasztner's critics also argued that he promised the SS not to warn Hungarian Jews to avoid jeopardizing negotiations to save the Jews who escaped on the Kastner train. In 1960, an interview with Eichmann, by the Dutch Nazi journalist

Willem Sassen Wilhelmus Antonius Sassen (born 16 April 1918 – died 2002) was a Dutch collaborator, Nazi journalist and a member of the ''Waffen-SS''. He became known around 1960 as "the interviewer of Adolf Eichmann". Biography Willem Sassen was born in ...

in Argentina, was published in ''

Life Magazine ''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...

''. Eichmann said that Kasztner "agreed to help keep the Jews from resisting deportationand even keep order in the collection campsif I would close my eyes and let a few hundred or a few thousand young Jews emigrate to Palestine. It was a good bargain".

wrote, "Kasztner paid for those 1,684 lives with his silence". Kasztner's supporters argued that the agreement over the train was part of a much larger rescue effort, involving negotiations to save all Hungarian Jews, and that he could not have saved Jews by warning them anyway. Löb argued, "With no access to the media and limited opportunities to travel, under constant observation by German and Hungarian secret police, he could hardly have raised the alarm in an effective way" and even if he had, the Jews, "surrounded by enemies, stripped of their rights and possessions, having neither the arms nor the experience", were unable to organise either resistance or mass escapes. Kasztner's critics replied that he received SS permission to visit Kolozsvár/Cluj on May 3, 1944, but failed to warn the Jews there despite the fact that Cluj was only from the Romanian border and that the 20,000 Jews there were guarded by only 20 Hungarian gendarmes and an SS officer, and could have escaped. They also said that he could have telephoned other Jewish communities but did not, and that warnings might have enabled Jews to save their lives through "local uprisings, resistances, escapes, hiding, hiding children with Gentiles, forging documents, paying ransom, bribes" and other means. From 1943, the BBC Polish Service had been broadcasting about the exterminations but the BBC Hungarian Service had not mentioned Jews. After the German invasion in March 1944, the Hungarian Service did broadcast warnings, but by then it was too late. According to David Cesarani and

Götz Aly Götz Haydar Aly (; born 3 May 1947) is a German journalist, historian and political scientist. Life and career Aly was born in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg. He is a patrilineal descendant of a Mixed Turkish-Kurdish convert to Christianity nam ...

, although Jews who survived the deportations claimed that they had not been informed by their leaders, that no one had told them, there is plenty of evidence that Hungarian Jews could have known.

Reaction

The consequences of the meetings between Kasztner and Eichmann had long-lasting repercussions in the Israeli and Hungarian Jewish communities that are still felt. Part of these repercussions revolve around the fact that Kasztner helped to draw up the list of who was going to be among the Jews who were chosen to be saved and allowed to leave on a train. According to some sources, many of the Jews who were saved were Kasztner's relatives, rich Hungarian Jews who subsidized those on the train who could not pay, friends of Kasztner, as well as "community and Zionist leaders". The passengers included orphans, students, workmen, teachers and nurses.

Defense of Kurt Becher and other SS officers

In early 1945, Kasztner traveled to Germany with Becher, who had received the money and valuables paid to save the Jewish lives on the train. Himmler had ordered Becher to attempt to stop further exterminations at the

s as the Allies gained further ground in the closing days of World War II. Even though Kasztner was a Hungarian Jew and Becher was head of the Economic Department of the SS, Kasztner and Becher worked well together. This 1945 action is credited by some for saving tens of thousands of Jewish lives ef. Anna Porter, "Kastner Train" Others consider Kasztner to have been a collaborator. At the conclusion of the war, Becher was arrested and investigated at

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

as a war criminal. Kasztner intervened on his behalf and sent an affidavit to his de-Nazification hearing, stating that " echer iscut from a different wood than the professional mass murderers of the political SS". It is possible that he did so with the knowledge of the

(Zionist leadership in Palestine, the

Yishuv Yishuv ( he, ישוב, literally "settlement"), Ha-Yishuv ( he, הישוב, ''the Yishuv''), or Ha-Yishuv Ha-Ivri ( he, הישוב העברי, ''the Hebrew Yishuv''), is the body of Jewish residents in the Land of Israel (corresponding to the ...

) in the hope of obtaining help in recovering stolen Jewish assets and capturing Eichmann in return. Kasztner later lied in court about having testified on Becher's behalf at Nuremberg trials, while he was asked about the affidavit. This defense of an SS officer angered the Jewish public as much as the original negotiations with Eichmann. Kasztner also intervened on behalf of SS officers Hermann Krumey and

Dieter Wisliceny Dieter Wisliceny (13 January 1911 – 4 May 1948) was a member of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) and one of the deputies of Adolf Eichmann, helping to organise and coordinate the wide scale deportations of the Jews across Europe during the Holocaust. ...

, who had negotiated with him before his meetings with Eichmann. In all, "there was a total of seven interventions by Kasztner on behalf of Nazi war criminals. Three testimonies were on behalf of Becher, two were on behalf of Krumey, one was on behalf of

Hans Jüttner {{Infobox military person , name = Hans Jüttner , birth_date = {{birth-date, 2 March 1894 , death_date = {{death-date and age, 24 May 1965, 2 March 1894 , image = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J28010, Hans Jüttner.jpg , image_upright= 0.9 , image_ ...

, and there was an appeal that had the potential to deliver Wisliceny from the threat of execution in Slovakia." Wisliceny was hanged in 1948; Jüttner's 10-year prison sentence was changed to 4 years in 1949. He died in 1965; Krumey was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1969. He died in 1981; Becher died a wealthy man in 1995.

Libel trial

Kasztner moved to Israel after the war, and became active in the

Mapai Mapai ( he, מַפָּא"י, an acronym for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', lit. "Workers' Party of the Land of Israel") was a democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger in ...

party. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the first and second elections, and became the spokesman for the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 1952. His role in collaborating with the SS made headlines in 1953, when he was accused in a self-published pamphlet produced by

of collaborating with the Nazis, enabling the mass murder of Hungarian Jewry, partnership with Nazi officer Kurt Becher in theft of Jewish assets, and saving Becher from punishment after the war. Gruenwald was sued for libel by the Israeli government on Kasztner's behalf, resulting in a trial that lasted two years. Gruenwald's attorney,

Shmuel Tamir Shmuel M. Tamir ( he, שמואל תמיר, born Shmuel Katznelson; 10 March 1923 – 29 June 1987) was a prominent Israeli independence fighter, lawyer, patriot and Knesset member. After a successful career fighting the British he entered the K ...

, was a former

Irgun Irgun • Etzel , image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...

member and supporter of the opposition

Herut Herut ( he, חֵרוּת, ''Freedom'') was the major conservative nationalist political party in Israel from 1948 until its formal merger into Likud in 1988. It was an adherent of Revisionist Zionism. History Herut was founded by Menachem Begin ...

Party led by

Menachem Begin Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'' (); pl, Menachem Begin (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ''Menakhem Volfovich Begin''; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. ...

. Tamir turned the libel case against his client into a political trial of Kasztner and, by implication, the Labor Party. The mother of wartime heroine

had also accused Kasztner of betraying her daughter to her death and spoke out against him during the trial. In his ruling, Judge

Benjamin Halevi Benjamin Halevy ( he, בנימין הלוי, 6 May 1910 – 7 August 1996) was an Israeli judge and politician. Biography Halevy was born Ernst Levi in Weißenfels, Germany and educated at the Universities of Freiburg, Göttingen and Berlin. ...

(later also a Herut member of the Knesset) acquitted Gruenwald of libel on the first, second and fourth counts. He wrote:

The temptation was great. Kasztner was given the actual possibility of rescuing, for the time being, 600 souls from the imminent holocaust, with some chance of somewhat increasing their numbers by payment or further negotiations. Not just any 600 souls, but those he considered, for any reason, most prominent and suitable for rescue...
But ''timeo Danaos et dona ferentes'' (I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts). By accepting this present, Kasztner had sold his soul to the devil... The success of the rescue agreement depended until the last minute on the Nazi goodwill, and the last minute didn't arrive until long after the end of the extermination of the Jews in the provincial towns.

The

Israeli government The Cabinet of Israel (officially: he, ממשלת ישראל ''Memshelet Yisrael'') exercises executive authority in the State of Israel. It consists of ministers who are chosen and led by the prime minister. The composition of the governmen ...

's decision to appeal on Kasztner's behalf led to its collapse, as Prime Minister

Moshe Sharett Moshe Sharett ( he, משה שרת, born Moshe Chertok (Hebrew: )‎ 15 October 1894 – 7 July 1965) was a Russian-born Israeli politician who served as Israel's second prime minister from 1954 to 1955. A member of Mapai, Sharett's term was b ...

resigned when the

General Zionists The General Zionists ( he, הַצִיּוֹנִים הַכְּלָלִיים, translit. ''HaTzionim HaKlaliym'') were a centrist Zionist movement and a political party in Israel. The General Zionists supported the leadership of Chaim Weizmann a ...

, a member of his coalition, refused to abstain from voting on a no-confidence motion filed by

and Maki. Kasztner became a hate figure in Israel, and compared the verdict against him to the

Dreyfus affair The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...

. He resigned his government position and started working for the Israeli Hungarian-language newspaper ''

''. He was assassinated in 1957 (see below). The

overturned most of the judgment against Kasztner in 1958. The judges overturned the first count by 3–2 and the second count by 5–0. The longest majority decision was written by Judge

Shimon Agranat Shimon Agranat ( he, שמעון אגרנט; September 5, 1906 – August 10, 1992) was an Israeli jurist and the third President of the Supreme Court of Israel, from 1965 until 1976. Biography Agranat was born to a Jewish-Zionist family in Louisv ...

, who said: # During that period Kasztner was motivated by the sole motive of saving Hungary's Jews as a whole, that is, the largest possible number under the circumstances of time and place as he estimated could be saved. # This motive fitted the moral duty of rescue to which he was subordinated as a leader of the Relief and Rescue Committee in Budapest. # Influenced by this motive he adopted the method of financial or economic negotiation with the Nazis. # Kasztner's behavior stands the test of plausibility and reasonableness. # His behavior during his visit to

(on May 3) and afterwards, both its active aspect (the plan of the "prominents") and its passive aspect (withholding the "Auschwitz news" and lack of encouragement for acts of resistance and escape on a large scale)—is in line with his loyalty to the method which he considered, at all important times, to be the only chance of rescue. # Therefore, one cannot find a moral fault in his behavior, one cannot discover a causal connection between it and the easing of the concentration and deportation, one cannot see it as becoming a collaboration with the Nazis. But Judge Moshe Silberg disagreed on historical and moral grounds: :We can sum up with these three facts: # That the Nazis didn't want to have a great revolt — "Second Warsaw" — nor small revolts, and their passion was to have the extermination machine working smoothly without resistance. This fact was known to Kasztner from the very best source: Eichmann himself ... # That the most efficient means of paralyzing the resistance wheel or the escape of a victim is to conceal from him the plot of the coming murder ... # That he, Kasztner, in order to carry out the rescue plan for the few prominents, fulfilled knowingly and without good faith the stated desire of the Nazis, thus expediting the work of exterminating the masses. All five Supreme Court Judges upheld Judge Halevi's verdict on the "criminal and perjurious way" in which Kasztner after the war had saved Nazi war criminal Becher. Judge Silberg summed up the Supreme Court finding on this point: "Greenwald has proven beyond any reasonable doubt this grave charge."

Assassination and burial

Minutes after midnight on March 4, 1957, Kasztner was shot as he arrived at his Tel Aviv home. The attack was carried out by a three-man squad from a group of veterans from the pre-state right-wing underground group

led by Yosef Menkes and Yaakov Heruti. Menkes had also been a member of the post-independence terrorist group

Kingdom of Israel The Kingdom of Israel may refer to any of the historical kingdoms of ancient Israel, including: Fully independent (c. 564 years) *Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy) (1047–931 BCE), the legendary kingdom established by the Israelites and uniting ...

. The assassination squad consisted of Menkes (the leader), Ze'ev Eckstein (the shooter), and Dan Shemer (the driver). The three men waited in a jeep parked outside Kasztner's house. Eckstein disembarked and approached Kasztner as he locked his car, and asked him if he was Israel Kasztner. When Kasztner confirmed, Eckstein pulled out a handgun and fired three times. According to one opinion, the first shot was a spent bullet, the second hit the car door, and the third hit Kasztner in the upper body, critically wounding him. Kasztner attempted to escape, but died of his injuries on March 15. In Gaylen Ross' 2008 film "'' Killing Kasztner''", Ze'ev Eckstein presented a very different sequence of events and implied that someone else fired a fatal third bullet. The Kasztner family, also in the film, does not seem to disagree. See section "Documentary" below. About an hour after the shooting,

Shin Bet The Israel Security Agency (ISA; he, שֵׁירוּת הַבִּיטָּחוֹן הַכְּלָלִי; ''Sherut ha-Bitaẖon haKlali''; "the General Security Service"; ar, جهاز الأمن العام), better known by the acronym Shabak ( he, ...

(Israel's internal security service) opened an investigation, focusing its efforts on the Lehi veterans group led by Menkes and Heruti. The group had been linked to various murder incidents and various actions against Kasztner, and it was suspected that Menkes bore personal responsibility. In addition, Kasztner delivered a description of the assassins at the hospital. After a lengthy investigation, Shin Bet identified Eckstein, Shemer, and Menkes as the assassins. Shemer was the first to confess, and implicated Eckstein, who subsequently confessed and implicated Menkes. In addition, police tracked down the jeep used by the assassins, which was found to contain the murder weapon and fingerprints belonging to Shemer. Subsequently, 20 members of their organization were arrested, including Heruti, and two weapons caches belonging to the group were discovered. Eckstein, then 24, stated that he tried to kill Kasztner to avenge his activities in conjunction with Nazi figures such as

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
'' During the trial it turned out that Eckstein had been a paid informer of Shin Bet a few months before the shooting. The idea that the killing was a government conspiracy has been described by Elliott Jager as "absolute nonsense", because the head of the intelligence service was a close personal friend of Kasztner.Elliott Jager
''Perfidy'' Revisited
/ref> Others – including

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 his book ''Perfidy'' – feel otherwise. At that time Kasztner, a high ranking government official, became a liability to the government and the trial led to collapse of the cabinet. Kasztner's killers were given life sentences, but were pardoned after seven years. In January 1958 the

overturned most of the judgment against Kasztner, stating that the lower court had "erred seriously" in putting the emphasis on Kasztner's moral conduct, leaving that "For history to judge". In January 2015, ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner ...

'' began publishing newly released documents relating to the assassination and its aftermath. ''Haaretz'' claims that the documents confirm that the Shin Bet knew that Kasztner was targeted and could back the conjecture "that the Shin Bet security service was involved in the murder of Kastner." In an open letter by Tamir to the Tel Aviv municipality, which was planning to name a street after Kasztner, he stated that "Kasztner was never given exoneration", but rather that it was merely unproven whether his actionswhich during the court case had been unanimously agreed upon as being despicablehad caused the murder or the failure to escape from Hungary of close to half a million Jews, deported and killed in the last months of the war. The court, he said, left that and only that to history. Kasztner is buried alongside Elizabeth in Nahalat Yitzhak Cemetery.

Descendants

Kasztner's daughter Zsuzsa lives in Tel Aviv, where she works as a hospital nurse. She has three daughters, including

Merav Michaeli Merav Michaeli ( he, מֵרַב מִיכָאֵלִי, translit=Mērav Mīxāʾēlī; born 24 November 1966) is an Israeli politician, journalist, TV anchor, radio broadcaster, feminist, and activist. She is currently the leader of the Israeli La ...

, a well-known radio and television presenter in Israel, and the leader of the

Israeli Labor Party The Israeli Labor Party ( he, מִפְלֶגֶת הָעֲבוֹדָה הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִית, ), commonly known as HaAvoda ( he, הָעֲבוֹדָה, , The Labor), is a social democratic and Zionist political party in Israel. The p ...

. In her inaugural speech to the Knesset, Michaeli described her grandfather as a man who saved "tens of thousands of Jews" by negotiating with Eichmann. Zsuzsa Kasztner and Michaeli attended the formal presentation of the Kasztner archive to

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

in 2007, and the former lectured about her father in Britain in 2008.

Documentary

The feature-length theatrical documentary '' Killing Kasztner'' was released in Israel and the United Kingdom in 2009 and in the United States in October 2009. The director of the film is Gaylen Ross. In the documentary, Ze'ev Eckstein states that after he fired a blank or a dud, Kasztner ran in the dark into the bushes by his building. Eckstein fired his two remaining bullets in Kasztner's direction and then heard a shot by someone else, when Kasztner cried out in pain. Eckstein thus implied that he was not the one who fired the fatal shot. The film shows Eckstein at the Kasztner family apartment in Tel Aviv, where he was invited and met with the family. The atmosphere was not hostile.

References

Bibliography

* Barri, Shoshana (1997). "The Question of Kastner's Testimonies on behalf of Nazi War Criminals," ''The Journal of Israeli History'', vol 18, issue 2–3, pp. 139–165. * Bilsky, Leora (2001)
"Judging Evil in the Trial of Kastner"
''Law and History Review'', Vol 19, No. 1, Spring 2001. * ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' (1972). "Kasztner, Rezso Rudolf," Jerusalem. * Gilbert, Martin (1981). ''Auschwitz and the Allies: A Devastating Account of How the Allies Responded to the News of Hitler's Mass Murder''. First published 1981, this edition Holt Paperbacks 1990. * Hecht, Ben (1961). ''Perfidy''. Milah Press. * Ilani, Ofri (2008)
50 years on, Holocaust survivor defends Rudolph Kastner
''Haaretz'', December 12, 2008. * Jager, Elliott (2007)
''Perfidy'' revisited
''Jerusalem Post'', July 31, 2007. * Kadar, Gabor, and Vagi, Zoltan (2004). ''Self-financing Genocide: The Gold Train, the Becher Case, and the Wealth of Hungarian Jews''. Central European University Press. * Kranzler, David (2000). ''The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz''. Syracuse University Press. * LeBor, A. (2000)
Eichmann's List: A Pact With the Devil
''The Independent'', August 23, 2000. * Löb, Ladislau

(2008). ''Dealing with Satan. Rezsõ Kasztner's Daring Rescue Mission''. Jonathan Cape. * Bogdanor Paul (2016). ''Kasztner's Crime'

* Orr, Akiva (1994). "The Kastner Case, Jerusalem, 1955" i
''Israel: Politics, Myths and Identity Crisis''
Pluto Press, pp. 81–116. * Anna Porter, Porter, Anna (2007). ''Kasztner's Train''. Douglas & MacIntyre. * Weitz, Yechiam (1995). ''Ha-Ish she-Nirtsah Paamayim'' ("The Man Who Was Murdered Twice"). Keter. * Zweig, Ronald W. (2002). ''The Gold Train: The Destruction of the Jews and the Looting of Hungary''. Harper Collins.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kastner, Rudolf 1906 births 1957 deaths Austro-Hungarian Jews Hungarian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Israeli people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Jews in Mandatory Palestine Mapai politicians Adolf Eichmann Blood for goods Israeli journalists Israeli lawyers Transylvanian Jews Writers from Cluj-Napoca Jewish Hungarian politicians The Holocaust in Hungary Assassinated Israeli people Assassinated Jews People murdered in Israel Deaths by firearm in Israel Kastner train Burials at Nahalat Yitzhak Cemetery Hungarian journalists 20th-century journalists