From: jaskew@SPAM.MATHS.ADELAIDE.EDU.AU (Joseph Askew)
Newsgroups: soc.history
Subject: The Judenrat
Date: 14 Aug 92 16:59:56 GMT


Recently there has been a discussion about the cooperation given by certain
Jews to the Nazis during the Second World War. I would like to mention the
strangest case I have ever heard of and I would very much like to hear any
replies from people who know more about this subject than me. This is not
intended as a personal attack on anyone or any community although it may be
interpreted that way by some I would urge them to contact me before getting
angry.

In 1953 a man by the name of Malchiel Gruenwald was prosecuted in Israel for
having libelled a certain Rezso Kasztner regarding Kasztners involvment in
the deportation of Hungary's Jewish community and his alledged cooperation
with Eichmann in helping it. Gruenwald had accused Kasztner of keeping silent
about the true destination of the deportees and in return for helping Eichmann
was allowed to organise a special train to go to Switzerland carrying 1700
people - mostly from his home town of Kluj[Klausenburg]. Also Kasztner was
accused of lying to protect SS Colonel Becher from being hung as a war criminal
by claiming that he had done everything in his power to save Jewish lives.
According to an interview that Eichmann did later published in Life Eichmann
said
"This Dr. Kasztner was a young man about my age, an ice-cold lawyer and a
fanatical Zionist. He agreed to 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. For keeping order in the camps, the price was 15,000
or 20,000 Jews - in the end there may have been more - was not too high for
me.
.....................
He was not interested in old Jews or those who had become assimilated into
Hungarian society. But he wqas incredibly persistent in trying to save bio-
logically valuable Jewish blood - that is, human material that wascapable of
reproduction and hard work. 'You can have the others' he would say, 'but let
me have this group here.'. And because Kasztner rendered us a great service
by helping keep the deportation camps peaceful, I would let his groups escape.
After all, I was not concerned with small groups of a thousand or so Jews"

Adolf Eichmann,'I Transported Them to the Butcher',Life, 5 December 1960 p146

On 21 June 1955 Judge Halevi found that no libel had taken place - that he had
in fact helped the Nazis kill 450,000 Hungarian Jews and that after the war he
had helped Becher. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court and the Attorney
General Chaim Cohen argued in Kasztners favour. In court Cohen said

"Eichmann, the chief exterminator, knew that the Jews would be peaceful and
not resist if he allowed the prominents to be saved, that the 'train of prom-
inents' was organised on Eichmann's orders to facilitate the extermination of
the whole people"
Ben Hecht Perfidy pp194-195

The Supreme court ruled 5-0 that Kasztner had perjured himself for SS Colonel
Becher and concluded 3-2 that what he did could not be termed collaboration
According to Judge Shlomo Chesin

"He didn't warn Hungarian Jewery of the danger facing it because he didn't
think it would be useful, and becasue he thought that any deeds resulting
from information given them would damage more than help....Kasztner spoke in
detail of the situation, saying 'The Hungarian Jew was a branch which long ago
dried up on the tree.' This vivid description coincides with the testimony of
another witness about Hungarian Jews 'This was a big Jewish community in
Hungary, without any ideological backbone.'"

Other allegations against Kasztner include turning over British trained SOE
operatives dropped into Hungary - including Peretz Goldstein Joel Nussbecher-
Palgi and Hannah Szenes - and that he also came to the defence of SS Colonel
Hermann Krumey, sending him an affidavit saying
"Krumey performed his duties in a laudible spirt of good will, at a time when
life and death of many depended on him" Hecht Perfidy pp270-271

I truely don't know what to say about this man - I don't know what I would
have done in his place but it is worth pointing out that
a. Hungary's Jews were deported in 1944 when the War was clearly lost
b. Nothing forced him to defend Nazis after the War
I think the man was clinically insane - if the story is true and if anyone
knows much about Hecht's book or any mistakes or biases I would very much
like to know about them as this is a story that just can't really be true
This must rank as one of the most totally unbelievable stories in the whole
war. (Kasztner was shot dead before the Supreme Court decision by an right
wing extremist group)


Joseph Askew
jaskew@spam.maths.adelaide.edu.au

Newsgroups: soc.history,soc.culture.nordic