Street signs tell the story. Israeli boulevards and avenues are named for heroes, Herzl, Weizmann, Jabotinsky. Mail is delivered to houses on Trumpeldor, Arlosoroff, Senesh, Rabin -- martyrs forever remembered. But for Israel Kastner, assassinated in 1957, a man who some say rescued more Jews than did any other Jew during the Holocaust, there is nothing, not even an alley.
In 1944, he negotiated with Nazis for a train that carried 1,685 Jews to freedom. He helped 20,000 Jews to be placed in a relatively benign camp in Austria.
Survivors tried to name a street in Haifa. People objected: “No one wants to walk on a street named Kastner.”
It hurts but is no longer a surprise for Kastner’s only child, Zsuzsi, now 63. She remembers her father being spit upon, pushed off busses; she remembers herself, age 9, beaten up in school, pelted with rocks.
In 1953, the Israeli government, on behalf of Kastner, sued an obscure freelance writer for libel, for writing a pamphlet accusing Kastner of collaboration. But the judge sided with the writer, ruling in 1955 that Kastner was a Nazi collaborator and that Kastner “sold his soul to Satan.”
Kastner had given testimony to the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal on behalf of a Nazi who orchestrated the murder of 560,000 Hungarian Jews.
Critical in the trial was the revelation that after the war, Kastner had given testimony to the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal on behalf of one of the top five Nazis who orchestrated the murder of 560,000 Hungarian Jews. Later, it was revealed that he had testified on behalf of three others. The fifth Nazi, Adolf Eichmann, was already in hiding.
Kastner identified himself on the affidavits as a representative of the Jewish Agency and the World Jewish Congress, which were reportedly hoping to get, in exchange, the return of Jewish money looted by Nazis, and information about Eichmann. The two organizations denied involvement, though new information in the documentary indicates that Kastner was indeed working for them.
My father “was a great human being,” says Zsuzsi, “very smart, very warm, he had joie de vivre. When the time came to be a hero and do great things, he did.”
She was in New York for the Gaylen Ross’ new documentary, “Killing Kasztner: The Jew Who Dealt With Nazis,” that screened at YIVO.
On March 3, 1957, in their Tel Aviv apartment, nearing midnight, Kastner’s wife Bogyo was knitting a little red woolen sweater for her daughter Zsuzsi, awaiting her husband’s return. From the street, Bogyo heard bullets -- a man calling, falling on the sidewalk, in the street below her window. She put down her knitting, knowing.
That man is in the image of God, Reb Shlomo Carlebach once explained, is to realize that just as God is ultimately unknowable, so is another man’s soul. “Really,” said Reb Shlomo, “what do we really know?”
Kastner was buried on Purim, his funeral procession proceeding on almost parallel avenues to Tel Aviv’s Purim parade, known as “Ad delo Yada” -- “Until You Don’t Know” -- from the Purim mitzvah to drink until one doesn’t know the difference between blessing Mordechai and cursing Haman. Even Kastner’s fiercest critics could never quite reconcile the essential mystery, the “Ad delo Yada,” of Kastner’s soul. Ben Hecht, the journalist and screenwriter, once wrote that Kastner “was not always a man of evil. Virtue and courage were once in him, and even a love of Jews.”
Haman or Mordechai? Kastner was a chameleon, his very name a camouflage. With Hungarians, he was Rezso; with Nazis, he was Rudolf; with Israelis, he was Israel.
In 1944, Eichmann made an offer to the Vaada, a Jewish rescue committee in Budapest led by Kastner: One million Jews for 10,000 trucks. Eichmann agreed to allow a train of Jews to go to Switzerland as proof of his good intentions.
Here, let Eichmann tell the story. In 1960, in Israeli custody, Eichmann told Life magazine: “Dr. Rudolf Kastner [was] an ice-cold lawyer and a fanatical Zionist. He agreed to help keep the Jews from resisting deportation and even keep order in the collection camps if I would close my eyes and let a few hundred or a few thousand young Jews emigrate illegally to Palestine. ... It was a good bargain... The price of 15,000 to 20,000 Jews -- in the end there may have been more -- was not too high for me.”
Eichmann added, “We trusted each other perfectly ... While we talked he would smoke one aromatic cigarette after another, taking them from a silver case and lighting them with a little silver lighter. With his great polish and reserve he would have made an ideal Gestapo officer himself.”
Kastner did absolutely nothing to help Hannah Senesh, before or after her capture.
The mother of Israel’s greatest heroine, Hannah Senesh, testified against Kastner in the libel trial, saying that when Senesh parachuted into Hungary to assist Jews Kastner was supposed to be her contact. But, said the mother, who was in Budapest at the time, begging Kastner to help, Kastner did absolutely nothing to help Hannah, before or after her capture, even though he had influence with her captors and access to her prison.
The Satmar rebbe, Joel Teitelbaum, a survivor of the train, refused to testify or offer support in the libel trial.
And then Kastner was caught lying on the witness stand about his postwar help to Lt. Gen. Kurt Becher, the SS man in charge of the economic rape of Hungarian Jews -- collecting their gold teeth, bales of hair, bank accounts, watches and furniture. Becher rose to the rank of major for his work in the Death Corps, and after Hungary, was promoted to “commissar” of the entire concentration camp system.
Kastner’s affidavit to the Nuremberg tribunal: “Becher belongs to the very few SS leaders having the courage to oppose the program of annihilation of the Jews ... I never doubted for one moment the good intentions of Kurt Becher.”
Ze’ve Eckstein, Kastner’s assassin, says in the documentary of Kastner, “there was no question in my mind ... kill the bastard. Clear the holy land from this atrocity.”
With Kastner dead, the Israeli Supreme Court overthrew the lower court’s ruling, deciding 3-2 that Kastner was not a collaborator during the war. But in a second ruling, the Israeli Supreme Court was unanimous: Kastner, after the war, acted in a “criminal and perjurious manner,” helping Becher. “I had a few people by my side over the years,” says Zsuzsi, now 63, “but most of it was a lonely road. One of the survivors told me, the children of Kastner should have been kings in Israel. I said, I’ve always been a queen, just the knowledge that I was the daughter of such a great man. In that, I wasn’t lonely.”
She attends conferences, lobbying to have her father recognized as a hero and included in Holocaust studies. “I’ve been doing my best, hoping for it, dreaming about it.”
And what of his helping Nazis?
“First of all,” says Zsuzsi, “not all of them were so terrible. Becher,” she says, “wasn’t terrible. No, Becher went out of his way, and through his help my father was able to save almost 200,000 Jews.... Oh yes, I met Becher a few times in Germany. I wanted to see him. What I learned is that he was really anxious to help save Jews.
“He wasn’t a real Nazi,” explained Zsuzsi. “He never was ... He considered my father a friend. He kept saying that nobody saved so many lives as he and my father. He really wanted to save Jews. He helped my father a great deal.”
At the YIVO screening, survivors of the train, one after another, rose to praise Kastner. “Even after he got his family to Switzerland, and he got out, Kastner came back to Hungary, went to Germany, went from camp to camp. He saved lives.”
The 560,000 Jews who left on 147 other trains could not be reached for comment.
This article originally appeared in The New York Jewish Week
(21) Anonymous, August 30, 2013 8:19 PM
Perfidy
Ben Hecht has written the definitive story on Rudolf Kastner. This short article scratches the surface of a complex but fascinating tale. Though I love Eretz Yisroel, but have not always agreed with the State of Israel's foreign policy (much less their domestic policy), knowing the how the State was established, according to Hecht, is enough to make my stomach turn!
(20) Anonymous, July 30, 2010 8:13 PM
To say that the camps were unspeakably hideous and that the Nazis were unspeakably hideous is a vast understatement. I have read of Mr. Kastner and wondered what would I have done. He did have to deal "with the devil" because he had to deal with Eichmann. Who, besides the others at the top of the Nazi heap of evil, could carry out the extermination of Jewish people? Who would not want their family or themselves saved? That is being human and wanting to survive. The fact remains that Mr. Kastner did save Jewish people. They have been fruitful and multiplied. Please, if you have hatred for this man, long dead, murdered on the street so long ago... forgive. I know that it is no easy matter for I find it difficult too for other people that have more than slighted me. I know that they are testing me. Please pray and let G-d heal those deep wounds that go to your very souls. Please, for after all, he did save lots of people. If we cannot forgive a person that saved Jewish lives, then who are we to live today and not help another Jewish person or help a person trying to convert to Orthodox Judaism and getting mostly walls put up in front of her, yet she pushes on, studying and praying and understanding that she is being tested. We are all tested with every free will decision... can't there be some forgiveness and releasing the rage that must couple with the knowing that maybe some of your neighbors or friends would not be there if Mr. Kastner hadn't done the work that he did? May G-d forgive us all that we cannot live together in peace and harmony as Children of Hashem.
(19) Anonymous, November 15, 2009 11:22 PM
My grandparents, cousins, aunts, and my mother were on the train from Hungary to Auschwitz.
I can't make up my mind about how I feel; I am still vacillating. My mother, my aunts, and uncles, my grandparents and my cousins were on the train from Hungary to Auschwitz. My aunt sent her 2 children to Hungary because she thought they would be safe there. Perhaps if Kasztner cooperated with the Nazi's and made a deal with the devil, he did prevent the Hungarian and Slovakian Jews from learning the truth about the deportation. Perhaps if my aunt knew Hitler's intentions to transport the Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz she would not have sent her 2 children over the border to Hungary because she thought they would be safe there. By the way those two children were murdered in Auschwitz. Yes, saving thousands of Jews was important, but did Kasztner and his collaborators have the right to play god?
(18) yanky, November 10, 2009 5:58 AM
All those commentators who feel Kastner should of picked other people should realize had he chosen others, the ones he saved would have been lost! I believe that anyone in his position with a limited number of people to be saved, would save his own family first. The next thing he'd save would be his friends. There are many stories of people saving their families and friends by finding them a place to hide. I have yet to hear the holocaust story where someone let his family ride the infamous express to Aushwitz while saving someone he didn't know instead. So, please give the guy a break! Even though Eichman thought that Kastner was inhuman, his actions show a very human trait. He saved his loved ones and his friends precisely because he was human. Nobody in their right mind would be able to stay sane if he would send his family and friends to death while saving others in their stead. Also, none of us were in this man's head when he made these decisions. We can't judge him. He lived in a terrible time and had to make impossible decisions.
(17) Anonymous, November 4, 2009 6:25 AM
Author, biased and sophomoric.
which is a greater crime is up for debate. His smarmy final line demonstrates not only his heavy bias but also his inability to separate emotion from intellect. I knew nothing of Mr. Kastner before this article and unfortunately, the poor quality of the writing has left me knowing only little more than I did at the beginning. It takes approximately half the article to even begin to provide a bio on the man. The author should re-think this article.
(16) Anonymous, November 4, 2009 5:50 AM
Missing some critical evidence
Some real omissions/comments I have about this article. Firstly why did the judge in the first case say Kastner sold his soul to the devil? Also why didn't the author mention the famous Rudolf Vrba and his criticisms of Kastner? According to one of the Slovak Jewish leaders Krasniansky's postwar statements, he personally handed a copy of the Wetzler-Vrba report to Kastner at the end of April 1944. Vrba and other Holocaust survivors and writers have alleged that the report was not distributed quickly enough. Vrba claimed in his book that Kastner showed the report to Eichmann and asked if it were true. Eichmann denied it, but seeing that the contents of the report were not as yet public knowledge, he speeded up the Hungarian deportations. He also put a hefty price on Vrba's head because of it. Kastner chose not to publicize its contents, and although the reasons for that decision are complex and unclear, Vrba believed until the end of his life that Kastner withheld it in order not to jeopardize ongoing negotiations between the Aid and Rescue Committee and Adolf Eichmann, the SS officer in charge of the transport of Jews out of Hungary, to secure the release of a number of Jews in exchange for money, 10,000 trucks, and other goods. These copies made their way to various Hungarian officials. On June 20, Vrba met Vatican legate Monsignor Mario Martilotti at the Svaty Jur monastery. Martilotti had been previously given a copy of the report and questioned Vrba for six hours straight on every detail in the report. [3] Seeing that it was credible he sent it to the Vatican via Switzerland. A few days later, Vrba was taken to meet Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl, who was regarded as the leader of the Orthodox community in Slovakia, at his Yeshiva in Bratislava. Vrba wrote that it was clear during the meeting that Weissmandl was already familiar with the contents of the report. We can ask why didn't Kastnerannouce the contents of this critical report?
(15) Anonymous, November 4, 2009 4:52 AM
Rudolf Vrba's comment
This article fails to mention the famous Dr Rudolf Vrba, one of the few miraculous escapees from Auschwitz. Rudolf Vrba, was born Walter Rosenberg in Tropoljany, Czechoslvakia in 1924, was the Jewish Slovak resistance fighter who escaped from Auschwitz in 1944 to get the news of the Holocaust to the world. He contacted the Jewish Council and told them what was going on in the death camp and the fate with awaited the Hungarian Jews. His account also reached Rudolf Kastner who ignored it. Vrba later commented: "It is my contention that a small group of informed people, by their silence, deprived others of the possibility or privalage of making their own decisions in the face of mortal danger" Vrba remains convinced that had the facts which he and Wetzler brought to Bratislava been immediately publicized and circulated throughout Hungary, many of the 450,000 Jews who were later to be deported, but who were as yet still in Hungary, would have been stirred to resist, evade or otherwise obstruct their deportation. Had the deportees had "knowledge of hot ovens", Vrba later wrote, 'Instead of parcels of cold food, they would have been less ready to board the trains and the whole action of deportation would have been slowed down". Vrba contended that passive and active resistance by a million people would create panic and havoc in Hungary. Panic in Hungary would have been better than panic which came to the victims in front of burning pits in Birkenau. Eichmann knew it; that is why he smoked cigars with the Kasztners', "negotiated", exempted the "real great rabbis", and meanwhile without panic among the deportees, planned to "resettle" hundreds of thousands in orderly fashion . . .
(14) Beverly Kurtin, November 4, 2009 12:10 AM
Incredible
This is the first time I have heard of this man. I am not his judge, but even if he saved just ONE Jew then he saved the whole world. I can understand how his motives and actions were questioned, but the fact is that he saved thousands of us and that, to me, is all that mattered. As Hashem is our judge, so he is Kastner's but I've a feeling that he should be recognized and honored by Israel and the Jews of the world.
(13) The Rabbi of Response, November 3, 2009 4:41 PM
Chazal Would Seem To Give Kastner a Yasher Koach....
Whoever saves a Jewish life is as if they have saved an entire world. One of the main claims against the allied forced after the war was, that they could have saved many lives and did not. That's because they had precise intelligence and could have bombed incinerators or railroad cars. The answer they gave in their defense was "they would be killing innocent lives. But this is a mistake in judgment. Under the circumstances this was the best option. Had they killed a few many many more would have been saved. Halacha dictates how a Jew is to behave under any circumstance. Sometimes, the options are so slim. And any option doesn't seem like an option at all! But even a person who is in the very midst of doing a sin is instructed to refrain somehow and enjoy it less. And that too serves as some form of repentance, since it indicates a desire to do the right thing. From the circumstances one finds oneself in, he must know that there is never reason to lose hope! That's because Hashem in His Infinite kindness and due to His very nature, is continuously recreating the world at every single moment, and is continuously seeking the good in each and every one of us, no matter how distant they may be. Esther married Achashverosh to save the Jewish people. She removed herself mentally from that russia... while she spent time with him. But was rewarded for her actions because she listened to the Tzadik - who was Mordechai. Mr Kastner saved more than a half a million lives. He did it in a way that to some - was unthinkable! For he collaborated with the most vicious anti-semites the world has ever known. But he did that with an ulterior motive. And all that I and you can see many many years after he did what he did is - that as a result of his actions so many people lived and brought new generations to this world who all performed Mitzvahs. "For even the empty amongst you, are filled with Mitzvahs like a pomegranate!"
(12) Ben Pincus, November 2, 2009 9:35 PM
Author clearly biased.
Jonathan Mark, the author is clearly biased, telling only part of the story. He never mentions Joel Brand in the entire article and Brand had plenty to say about Kastner. He also makes a disingenuous statement about the Satmar Rov without elaborating on the well-known fact that the Rov never permitted deaings with a secular Israeli court. This article is replete with innuendo. Whatever the truth is about Kastner, this sheds no light.
(11) Anonymous, November 2, 2009 6:03 PM
What do we really know
My mother is from Debrecen, Hungary. She was 12 when they were taken away. She remembers being told not to worry where they would be going. She also remembers that a few Polish Jews tried to warn the Hungarian Jews and werent believed. It was thought that they were crazy because how could such a thing happen. Her train started to go to Aushwitz then changed direction to go to a labor camp. There, the children and old people weren't killed. All her siblings from 5 years old and up survived. She recently found out that the train went to a labor camp because Kastner bought their lives with bribes. He saved thousands of Jews. My sisters, my cousins and I all owe our lives to him because in a regular camp my mother and her sisters would have been gassed.
(10) Yehoshua Shiloni, November 2, 2009 5:29 PM
The Devil is in all of us - but once out, leave him out!
There's no question kastner saved 1000's of Jewish lives, rich or otherwise, but when dealing with the evil that was the Nazi's, one also had to be aware how to play with them as well as for your own people. At a time of impossibilities, Kastner did indeed help his people, but playing God should not have been one of them. All Jews, NO! all human beings have an equal chance to live' no matter what their standing is in society. Kastner and the Jewish Agency that employed him made ungodly choices in a godless time. We can only pray that God in His infinite mercy knows how to reward a man such as Kastner, but for us on earth, he is guilty of playing God as to who shall live and who shall die. Ben Gurion and his henchmen finally decided to put an end to Kastner's life and as in so many instances blame the Herut members who actually carried out the execution, since they feared that kastner would divulge names in the Israeli Govt who were involved with the nazi negotiations (ie Ben Gurion, Weizman and co.). What we can blame Kastner however is for his testimony of whitewashing the Nazi butchers themselves. How can he?! Sure they helped him save a few hundred Jews here and there, but a murderer is a murderer! How ironic though, on the day we celebrate our victory over Amalek, kastner was buried. Perhaps we should learn a lesson in that as well, that just because you deal with the Haman's & Ahashveirosh's Jew haters of this world, you are bound to be tainted, even if you are a Mordechai.
(9) Frimet, November 2, 2009 1:05 PM
Do any of us have a right to judge?
None of us have a right to judge this man because we don't know the facts. Only the G-d knows the truth. We dare not be G-d's accountants.
(8) Anonymous, November 2, 2009 10:14 AM
Think twice before judging him
Some of the controvercy arose from the manner in which those who escaped on the train were chosen but the fact that he had the Satmar rebbe does demonstrate that it was not packed with cronies.. Those who were not chosen naturally harboured a grudge against Kastner. Second, at first Kastner did hope to reach a deal which would allow hundreds of thousands of of Jews to leave Hungary, but it became clear, after considerable effort on Kastner's part that this was going to be impossible. The Allies were never going to fuel the war machine that they were trying to defeat by giving Kastner trucks to trade Jews for. So Kastner had to play a game of bluff against the Germans and rescue those he could pretending that he would be able to obtain thousands of trucks and rescue others once the first train got through. That's why Kastner could not himself travel on the train and that's why your last sentence, which is full of sarcasm and distain is misplaced (and frankly unbecoming). The principal charge which is difficult to deal with is whether Kastner should have refused to deal with the Nazis and instead broadcast teh fact that Jews would be taken to their deaths. If we put ourselves in Kasnter's shoes it is not obvious which would have been the better strategy - I think it is quuite likely that the Rumanians would have handed Jews over to the Nazis, - they had no love of Jews and would not have wnated to risk angering the Nazis.. Finally, the fact that Kastner gave evidence for Becher is hard to comprehend, but it is thought that as part of the deal to free the train, Becher made Kastner promise to do so and Kastner felt bound to honour the promise. All of us make choices, but Kastner's choices saved over a thousand Jewish lives. We should be a little less judgmental, especially those who have no idea of what it is like to live in a totalitarian state which has exterminating Jewish as it primary aim
(7) Anonymous, November 2, 2009 2:08 AM
hero or not?
yes, a few thousand were saved, but at what expense? Perhaps if he would NOT have agreed to keep the rest of Hungarian jews passive (ALL my family included!!!), and he knew what was coming, he could have alerted all the jews and maybe there could have been a MASS REVOLT!!!! The Germans were in a hurry. This would have put a huge chink in their plan. AND I would still have most of my Hungarian relatives (A'H)!
(6) Raisy, November 1, 2009 11:02 PM
Tainted legacy
My grandfather, Heinrich (Haim) Roth z'l, was the head of the Chevra Kadisha in Budapest and was instrumental in getting the Satmar Rav, ztz'l, onto the Kastner transport, as it was called. I don't know mcuh else about Kastner, but his legacy is a tainted one. Reb Michoel Ber Wiessmandl, z'tzl, and his Working Group in Slovakia, too, bartered with Wicliceny and Eichmann, y'sh, for Jewish lives in Hungary and Slovakia. This saintly man who did so much could never erase the images of the innocent men, women and children he was unable to rescue and suffered for the rest of his life from the pain of his 'failure'. (He lost his own wife and several children in Auschwitz). He never lost sight of the evil of those he was dealing with, following the Torah dictum of sending 'doron' (bribes/gifts) as a bartering tool for lives when dealing with murderers --as exemplified by Yakov Avinu in his dealings with Esav. He also placed much blame for obstructions to these negotiations on World Zionist Organizations that disdained any negotiations with Nazis and refused to contribute the critical funds that could have saved lives.
(5) dovid benjamin, November 1, 2009 10:22 PM
to Robert I. Harris
I disagree with your statement that Hungarian Jews would have died whether or not Kastner disclosed the plans of the Nazis. The Nazis didn't have enough personnel to carry out their plans on the scale that they eventually carried out. The border with Romania was long, poorly guarded on both sides by soldiers who were eager to survive the war and make some money (baksheesh). If all Jews broke out running, the Nazis would have machine-gunned 10,000, maybe 20,000 Jews, but about 500,000 would have escaped and dispersed. Kastner is guilty. The thousand plus whom he saved cannot absolve him from his dooming half a million to death.
(4) dovid benjamin, November 1, 2009 10:11 PM
Kastner collaborated in the murder of my father's and mother's families.
My father's and mother's families could have been saved if Kastner had disclosed that Hungarian Jews were destined to be shipped to concentration camps and gassed. He knew about it fully well but kept quiet to endear himself to the Germans. My parents were in Grossvardein, approx. 10 miles from the Romanian border. They could have even walked. To cross the border, all they needed to do was to bribe the border guards on both sides of the border. But Kastner reinforced the rumor that Jews would only be relocated and used as labor to replace Hungarian able-bodied men who were drafted into the army to fight the Russians. Kastner was not a tzaddik. There is absolutely no excuse for what he did. The heilige Satmar Ruv, whom Kastner did save, would not testify in Kastner's defense knowing the depth of evil of this person.
(3) Mitch, November 1, 2009 8:28 PM
Great Story!
This is a great story that serves a reminder that life is complicated and we tread lightly when judging our fellow people. Judge Favorably!
(2) Anonymous, November 1, 2009 5:49 PM
Thanks to thge hero Rezso Kasztner
Hello Mr Mark. I have never met Rezso Kasztner, but I am one of those appr.20,000 who at his efforts ended up in Austria and eventually in Bergen-Belsen, where I was in a 'Sonderlager'.On Apr.13.'45. liberated on a train near Magdeburg, Germany. I - in defiance of Hitler's plan - having a beautiful family, children and grandchildren as a result of the 'hero' Rezso Kasztner's efforts. Please forward these words to his daughter Zsuzsi. Thank you very much Leslie Meisels, Toronto, Canada
(1) Robert I. Harris, November 1, 2009 5:11 PM
Who is to judge?
Yes, he "worked" with the Nazis. But thousands of Jews were saved from extermination because of his "work". Would they have been saved if he hadn't done what he did? I think not! Those who faced certain death from the Nazis did what they could to save themselves. Most failed. He succeeded on behalf of a few thousand. If I had been one of those saved I would have been eternally grateful. If I had not been one of those saved I would have been another statistic. Those who are critical might do well to think of how they would have responded if they had been in Hungary in 1944 and were faced with certain death from the Nazis. What would they have done? Those who criticize him should answer the question: " What would you have done?"