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 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 Jew ...

in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944–1945, who helped Hungarian Jews escape

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 Europ ...

during the German occupation of that country.Bauer, Yehuda (1994). ''Jews for Sale: Nazi–Jewish Negotiations, 1933-1945''. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 152. The Committee was also known as the Rescue and Relief Committee, and the Budapest Rescue Committee. The main personalities of the ''Vaada'' were Ottó Komoly, president; Rudolf Kasztner, executive vice-president; Samuel Springmann, treasurer; and

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 ...

, who was in charge of ''tijul'' or the underground rescue of Jews.Hilberg, Raul. ''The Destruction of the European Jews'', Yale University Press, 2003, p. 901. Other members were

Hansi Brand Hajnalka "Hansi" Brand (née Hartmann; 26 August 1912 – 9 April 2000) was a Hungarian-born Zionist activist who was involved, as a member of the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee, in efforts to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Early life Bra ...

(Joel Brand's wife); Erno Szilagyi from the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

Hashomer Hatzair Hashomer Hatzair ( he, הַשׁוֹמֵר הַצָעִיר, , ''The Young Guard'') is a Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary, and it was also the name of the gro ...

'';Bauer 1994, p. 153. Peretz Revesz; Andras Biss; and Nison Kahan. After the German occupation in March 1944 responsibilities were split: Otto Komoly became mainly in charge of dealing with Hungarian government, military and police figures (the so-called 'line A'), while Kasztner (after Brand's departure to Istanbul) led the negotiations with the Germans (the so-called 'line B') including Eichmann.

See also

References

Further reading