The Jewish Journey through History Shvat 5779 29 Glass House

The largest rescue operation in Holocaust history. Crowds gather at the entrance to the Glass House, hoping for diplomatic protection Photo: Agnes Hirschi, Zurich Technology Institute History Archive

24 January 2019 The House That Krausz Built As World War II drew to a close and the Nazis prepared to send Budapest’s Jews to their deaths, salvation appeared in the curious form of a glass warehouse , a Zionist, foreign diplomats, and sheer hutzpa // Ayala Nedivi

The Jewish Journey through History Shvat 5779 25 Hora

the final year of World War function. The bureau also serviced II, engulfed potential Jewish immigrants from Hungarian Jewry with neighboring countries such as Poland and In unprecedented speed. The Slovakia, where Zionist activities were Nazis conquered on March banned. 19, 1944, and within a month they were The Zionist leadership in Hungary rounding up Jews from the countryside pursued two paths of resistance and and transferring them to ghettos. rescue, both organized soon after the Deportations to Auschwitz commenced Nazi conquest. The first was initiated by a month later, and in just eight weeks, Dr. Rezső Kasztner, who headed 440,000 Jews were sent there. Reports of the Aid and Rescue Committee in the wholesale slaughter taking place in Budapest, set up by the Jewish leadership the camp combined with international in Mandate Palestine to save European Krausz ran pressure to halt the transports on July 9, Jews. Kasztner negotiated directly with the Palestine and in August 1944, Hungarian regent the Nazis to save Jews. The second was emigration Miklós Horthy attempted to negotiate a the brainchild of Moshe Krausz, who ran truce with the Russians. Hitler preempted the Palestine Office in Budapest. Krausz office straight his efforts by replacing him with Ferenc refused to cooperate with the Germans, out of the Swiss Szálasi, leader of Hungary’s fascist Arrow whom he distrusted. Instead, he exploited Cross party. The Holocaust then began Hungary’s complex political situation, Consulate, in earnest for the two hundred thousand enlisting the international diplomatic enjoying Jews of Budapest, the last remaining community in bringing as many Jews as Hungarian Jewish center. Over two- possible under the protective umbrella of diplomatic thirds of the eight hundred thousand emigration. immunity and Jews in the country at the start of 1944 were murdered. Palestinian Umbrella traveling in the Hungary was a Nazi ally for most of Even as the Arrow Cross ran Budapest for consular car the war but resisted some policies while the Nazis and prepared to deport its Jews, with a Swiss flag implementing others, especially toward a daring rescue operation took place right the end of the conflict. Pro-Nazi officials under the fascists’ noses. Totally original, it deported the country’s Jews, but anti- was surprisingly effective and saved tens of Nazis – particularly in the Foreign Office thousands of Jews, trumping more famous and the Ministry of Police – helped save efforts, including Kasztner’s. The apparatus Jews wherever they could. For example, was already in place by the second Zionist activist Moshe Krausz and Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz emigration to Mandate Palestine was month of the Nazi conquest. Assistance both risked their lives to save permitted throughout the war, and the was provided by Swiss vice-consul Carl many tens of thousands Palestine Office in Budapest – a branch Lutz as well as senior bureaucrats in the of the Jewish Agency’s Immigration Hungarian Foreign Office, and Zionist Department but in practice, run by a youth served as vital couriers. Other representative of the Mizrahi religious- neutral embassies in Budapest adopted the Zionist movement – continued to same method, multiplying its effectiveness many times over. But it was all Krausz’s idea. Moshe (Miklós) Krausz was born in 1908 in Mezolde, a village in northern Hungary. He studied in the Talmudic academy in the town of Miskolc Photo: Agnes Hirschi under Rabbi Shmuel Osterlitz, one of Hungary’s very few Zionist rabbis. Krausz received rabbinic ordination as well as a matriculation certificate. In 1925 he started a Zionist youth group in Miskolc,

26 January 2019 www.segulamag.com and in 1932 he launched Hungary’s first of Hungarian law, including anti-Jewish Though some Hungarians helped rescue Jews, many agricultural training program under legislation. others identified with the the auspices of the Mizrahi movement. Armed with this success, Krausz Nazis. A sign on the bank of One participant, Yitzhak Greenwald, then redirected his energies to saving the Danube directing Jews described Krausz as the heart and soul Hungarian Jewry by similar means. to the beach reserved for of the Mizrahi youth organization. An Britain broke off relations with Hungary their use, circa 1942 autodidact, Moshe gave private lessons in 1942, after the latter sent troops to for a living. He was extremely polite but join Hitler’s invasion of Russia. From Hungarian regent Miklós somewhat disheveled, wearing the same then on, British interests in Hungary – Horthy planned to end his suit on both weekdays and the Sabbath. including responsibility for those holding cooperation with Germany Krausz moved to Budapest in 1934 and immigration permits to British dominions but was deposed first. started working for Mizrahi (then the – were represented by the neutral Swiss Horthy in 1932 largest pioneer Zionist movement in Consulate. These permits were the Hungary), coordinating applications for equivalent of Palestinian passports, at immigration to Mandate Palestine. He least under Hungarian law. soon ran the office, a post he held for Whenever any problem arose eleven years. concerning a Jewish refugee in Hungary After uniting with Hitler’s Germany in – or a Hungarian Jew was arrested, the Anschluss in 1938, Austria expelled imprisoned, or drafted – Krausz turned the Jews of its Burgenland region. Two immediately to Carl Lutz, the Swiss vice- hundred and forty of them hired a rickety consul. Although Lutz’s boss, ambassador ship and sailed down the Danube for Maximilian Jager, disapproved of weeks, seeking political asylum, but no procedural irregularities intended to help country took them in. Krausz hoped Jews, the vice-consul gave Krausz his to send them to Palestine via Hungary, complete cooperation. Lutz confirmed in so he approached Interior Minister writing that the Jew in question was soon Ferenc Keresztes-Fischer through the to emigrate to Palestine and therefore British ambassador. Fervently anti-Nazi, under Swiss protection. Fischer agreed to admit these stateless In fact, immigration to Mandate Jews temporarily. The Palestine Office Palestine was severely limited during this provided immigration certificates on period by the British White Paper of 1939, behalf of His Majesty’s government issued by Malcolm MacDonald to mollify in Mandate Palestine, creating a class Arab resentment of the growing Zionist of refugees whose theoretical British- presence there. From October 1943 until Palestinian citizenship exempted them the German conquest of Hungary in the – as foreign residents – from certain areas spring of 1944,

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Arthur Weiss’ glass the Mandate government issued only individuals, which, estimating an average warehouse housed the nine family certificates a week, allowing family as five people, meant salvation emigration department of altogether a thousand Jews to escape for almost forty thousand Jews. As a the Swiss Consulate, thus Hungary. They were a drop in the ocean. representative of the British government, becoming extraterritorial. After the Germans entered Budapest, Lutz then requested citizenship The Glass House at 29 Vadász Street Moshe Krausz moved his operation into documents from London for forty the Swiss Consulate, in the Chancery thousand people. Building on Szabadság Tér (Freedom In mid-May 1944, as deportations from New names were constantly Square). From this location, which the the Hungarian countryside to Auschwitz added to the collective passport kept under wraps Swiss had taken over from the American commenced, the first reports of what in the Swiss Consulate, Embassy, Lutz also represented the was happening in the Polish death camp allowing activists to hand interests of twelve countries who’d began circulating. and out permits to anyone in severed ties with Hungary. Krausz Alfred Wetzler, two Slovakians who’d need thus enjoyed diplomatic immunity and escaped Auschwitz, were interviewed freedom of movement, and the Swiss by the heads of the Rescue Committee consular chauffeur even drove him in their homeland in April 1944, and around in a vehicle with a Swiss flag. their testimony was summarized in The what became known as the Vrba-Wetzler When the Germans invaded, Krausz’s Report, or the Auschwitz Protocols. The office possessed fifteen hundred as yet pair detailed the gas chambers, mass unattributed family certificates, which exterminations, and other atrocities could save 7,800 people. This number perpetrated in the camp, as well as had already been acknowledged by the preparations to “process” Hungary’s Hungarian emigration authorities. Jews. Kasztner received the report but Five weeks later, as Jews were communicated its contents only to a being concentrated in ghettos select few (see “Forgotten Story,” p. XX). all over Hungary, Krausz and A month later, the document reached Lutz convinced clerks in the Krausz, who prepared a shortened Foreign Office to relate to those version – including a description of how 7,800 as families rather than Hungarian Jews were being gathered

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in ghettos and sent to Auschwitz – and Long lines formed outside the building as had it delivered to Switzerland. George Jews eagerly registered for emigration to (Mandel) Mantello, a Romanian Jewish Mandate Palestine, thereby qualifying for diplomat at the Salvadorean Consulate Swiss protection. in Geneva, persuaded a colleague to visit To cope with demand, the consulate Krausz in Budapest and bring back the acquired a building at 29 Vadász report. Street, near the government offices and On June 24, Mantello publicized embassies. In fact, the purchase was the appalling account through an a fiction. The structure belonged to international news agency in Switzerland. Arthur Weiss, a major glass wholesaler. Hitting the mass media for the first Like many other Jews, Weiss offered time, the information quickly spread, his premises to the Swiss consul to provoking angry public debate. The protect them as extraterritorial real few Western countries not yet under estate belonging to a foreign power. The Nazi rule immediately pressured the whole façade was glass, so the place was Hungarian government to take action. known as the Glass House. Krausz hoped Krausz and Pope Pius XII sent his condemnation its central, very public location would Lutz convinced to Hungary’s regent, and Franklin D. deter German attacks and subterfuge. the Foreign Roosevelt warned that those guilty of Weiss lived and worked in the three- war crimes would be severely punished. story building, which also boasted an Office to The British prime minister and the king attic, an extensive basement, and a recognize all of Sweden added their voices too. With large courtyard. The Swiss consular the Allies advancing, the Hungarian “emigration offices” now moved to the their permits Council of Ministers buckled and halted Glass House. as family the deportations to Auschwitz, albeit On July 9, 1944, the very day the temporarily. deportations stopped, Swedish diplomat certificates, Raoul Wallenberg arrived in Budapest saving almost Expanding Swiss Territory to help with the rescue operation. At During this respite, the forty thousand Krausz’s request, Wallenberg asked his forty thousand British citizenship forms arrived at government for immigration permits Jews Krausz’s office in the Swiss Consulate. for Hungarian Jews. Four hundred

Those lacking diplomatic immunity were concentrated in designated areas of Budapest prior to deportation. Jews being arrested on the streets of the city

The Jewish Journey through History Shvat 5779 29 Glass House

and sixty such certificates arrived for moved into the Glass House, gaining not those with Swedish relatives or business only shelter but extraterritoriality. Under interests, and these Jews’ departure cover of diplomatic immunity, they forged was duly authorized by the Hungarian IDs and smuggled Jews into relatively safe government. Romania. Hoping to greatly expand their “emigration” program, Krausz and Arrow Cross Lutz met on July 17 with government After Hungarian leader Miklós Horthy ministers and the German Embassy’s was ousted in October 1944 and the Arrow expert on Jewish affairs, Theodor Horst Cross party took over, Grell. To simplify registration, Krausz returned to Budapest following a month’s was permitted to issue a collective Swiss absence. He and Interior Minister Gábor passport for his tens of thousands of Vajna mapped out the emigrants. In addition, eighty Jewish for Hungary’s remaining Jews, starting bureaucrats were exempted from wearing with the deportation of fifty thousand to the yellow star by now compulsory for Germany. Hungarian Jews, allowing these officials Dr. Rezső Israel Kasztner had already to move freely in expediting the exodus. left Hungary, and senior members of the On July 24, the Palestine branch of Jewish Council in Budapest had been the Swiss Consulate’s Foreign Interests forced into hiding. Krausz was therefore The Germans appointed Emigration Department opened in the the last major Zionist leader in Budapest, Ferenc Szálasi, head of the fascist Arrow Cross party, Glass House. Like any embassy, the scrambling to save every Jew possible. to replace Horthy as prime site was considered extraterritorial and In the days after the coup that minister. Arrow Cross poster, therefore outside Hungarian jurisdiction. deposed Horthy, no one dared leave and Szálasi saluting Hitler The office produced the collective home. Even the consul workers stayed passport and constantly updated it. Every safely within the Glass House, weighing Stamped by the Swiss Jew registered was issued a Schutzpass how to proceed. Carl Lutz hoped that Consulate, the Schutzpass (safe pass), certifying him as an emigrant the new Arrow Cross prime minister, declared its bearer to be to Palestine and thus under Swiss Ferenc Szálasi, would honor the Swiss registered on a collective protection and not subject to deportation. documents. Lutz’s Jewish colleagues were passport All the Zionist youth movements soon impressed by the Christian diplomat’s

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fearless and wholehearted commitment to saving Jews. Krausz sent urgent letters to the U.S. legation in Istanbul and to Haim Pozner, his counterpart in Geneva, requesting international support. The very next day, the United States government, demanded that Szálasi end the deportations. Any Hungarian cooperating with further expulsions would stand trial for murder, the Americans warned. In response, Szálasi met with Lutz and Swedish consul Karl Danielsson. The PM wanted the neutral powers to recognize his regime; in exchange, the diplomats insisted that the exit permits approved by the previous government be put to use and that all existing Schutzpasses be honored. Szálasi agreed but limited the number to the 7,800 originally recognized: they could emigrate to Mandate Palestine, and Sweden could take another four hundred and fifty. Their safety was to be guaranteed by Schutzpasses, each bearing the name of a potential emigrant and issued by the announcing which consulate it belonged consular staff of the country concerned. to. “This building is under consular Schutzpass holders would be concentrated protection,” the placards read. “Entry to in extraterritorial safe houses provided foreigners is forbidden.” by the Hungarian government on behalf of neutral countries’ embassies. Spain, Last Hope Though he’d hoped to achieve Portugal, the papal envoy, and the The new regime honored not only the safe far more, Kasztner ultimately International Red Cross were all included passes, but also the consular status of the sent only one trainload of Jews in the agreement. Glass House and its emigration office. out of Hungary. The 1,700 Written in Hungarian and German, the Schutzpass holders moved into safe houses onboard – celebrities, Kastner’s friends, and family, as well as safe passes confirmed that the bearers in a section of Budapest’s fifth district random refugees – reached were registered for emigration on a subsequently known as the Small (or Swiss asylum up to five months collective Swiss passport and therefore International) Ghetto. Less fortunate Jews later, after a precarious stay in to be protected as foreign nationals. The were either packed into the Big Ghetto Bergen-Belsen concentration certificates were stamped with the Swiss – encompassing the Great Synagogue camp Consulate’s round insignia but lacked on Dohany Street, in the original Jewish the consul’s signature, making it easier Quarter of Pest – or deported to Germany. to replicate forgeries. All were dated The chairman of the Palestine Office October 23, 1944, the day of Szálasi’s committee, Mihaly Salamon, wrote in meeting with Lutz and Danielsson, his memoir that by the time the place implicitly confirming the new, pro-Nazi opened every morning, a line already government’s approval of the original stretched four streets away. Even in the arrangement made by Lutz, Krausz, and afternoons, when Jews were not allowed Horthy’s Foreign Office staff. outside, many came knocking, and the The Hungarian authorities did indeed police let them be. At first all certificates house the prospective emigrants. Each were prepared on the spot, but as the residence was marked with a sign office became inundated, applicants had

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to come back the next day to pick up severely rebuked if that ever came out, he their passes. The pressure was such that found an excuse to give the stamp to the registration was moved onto the street, Palestine Office staffers. with mounted policemen pushing back the throngs. In the Jaws of Death The safe passes were the last hope for While the Jews of Budapest were relocated Disguised in Jews working in forced labor battalions, – some in the Big Ghetto, others in the Arrow Cross for instance, who were to be marched protected International Ghetto – the first from Hungary to Germany. Some came to group of deportees set out on foot for the uniform, Kepes Krausz with lists of fellow laborers who’d town of Hegyeshalom, on the Austrian traveled to the been brought back from Russia and the border. Leaving on November 8, 1944, Austrian border Ukraine with the retreating German army. they were handed over to Eichmann’s aide They showed up at the office and on arrival. Every day after repeatedly, day, and the exhausted staff worked round that, another two thousand Jews followed. extricating the clock to help them. Stripped of any food or possessions, they A radio announcement rounding up all were kept in sheds belonging to a brick dozens from the seamstresses (for deportation) sent women factory for two or three days in appalling death marches running to the Glass House to obtain conditions, then marched another two passes, but Lutz, who worked mostly hundred kilometers through the cold and each time from the consulate building in Freedom wet. Between thirty thousand and forty Square, wasn’t on hand that day to stamp thousand Jews were subjected to such them. Applicants were given temporary starvation marches, which lasted roughly certificates instead, asserting that their a week. Many dropped along the way. names were on the collective passport Stragglers were shot; others were cold- and that their papers would be ready bloodedly murdered by their guards. in two days. Arthur Weiss, the Jewish November 15 was the last day to industrialist who owned the Glass House, register for emigration and enter a safe handed out the documents by candlelight, house. Two and a half thousand people and the Hungarian police honored them. were already sheltering in the Glass When forms ran out, more were printed. House. There was no room to move, and The only problem was the Swiss consular the rescue operation, still struggling to stamp, locked in Lutz’s drawer. Though register more occupants for the other the limit had long since been reached, safe houses, was under enormous strain. and Lutz knew full well that he’d be Krausz persuaded Lutz to “buy” another

The Krausz Multiplication Table

1500 family emigration permits 240 Austrian refugees granted = become, shelter using certificates 7,800 by sleight of emigration to Mandate individual of hand, Palestine, providing the permits model for the Hungarian rescue operation Glass House

building, on Wekerle Sandor Street, this to a heated argument: Unable to keep When Krausz’s report on time the offices and storage space of a up with registering so many applicants, the looming Hungarian Holocaust reached news three-story textile factory also belonging the Glass House staff tried to limit agencies in Switzerland, to Jews. Yet another facility was rented the forgeries. The youth movements’ the resulting international next door to the Glass House, at 31 Vadász underground resistance, in contrast, outcry temporarily halted Street. About four thousand took refuge wanted to hand out certificates to anyone the death marches to in these three buildings. Another seventy- who asked. Who were they to choose Auschwitz. Hungarian Jews six residential compounds protected many whom to save, the youngsters contended? marching more holders of Swiss certificates. Their opinion carried the day. Desperate to extricate as many as Clandestine presses printed forms, possible from the death marches, and forged stamps gave them a seal of the Zionist youth movements set up authenticity. One stamp was missing the an extensive system of forging and “i” in “Suisse,” however, exposing the distributing Schutzpasses. This effort fraud. It was soon discovered that only brought even more overwhelming thirty-two thousand Jews were living numbers into the safe houses, giving rise unprotected in Budapest’s so-called Big

50,000 Swiss Schutzpasses, protecting Jews 7,800 1 from deportation family permits ל הפכוcollective = Swiss 40,000 become passport Used to issue individual permits 50,000 forged Swiss Schutzpasses

Shvat 5779 1944-45 Jewish Budapest’s Year of Turmoil Ghetto – half the expected number. The Hungarian government demanded 19.03.1944 the original list of 7,800 people confirmed Hungary conquered by Nazi Germany for emigration in July, and the authorities 15.05.1944 insisted on inspecting all safe houses. Deportations to Auschwitz begin Any Jews without consular certificates were to be moved into the Big Ghetto. The 24.06.1944 consulate took no responsibility for the Abridged Auschwitz Protocols published in Switzerland forgeries but allowed the searches. The together with Kraus’ report on deportations and Swiss also demanded that the previous persecution of Hungarian Jewry government’s commitment to recognizing 25.06.1944 forty thousand certificate holders was to Vatican denounces deportation of be upheld. Jews; other countries follow suit On November 21, the Hungarian police began sweeping the safe houses on 26.06.1944 Pozsonyi Street. Both Carl Lutz and his Hungarian government decides to end deportations to wife were present at most of these raids, Auschwitz 9.07.1944 where they were threatened at gunpoint Deportations end more than once. The forgeries were discovered, but Krausz pleaded ignorance. 17.07.1944 Mercilessly, the police dragged those in Kraus, Lutz, and Wallenberg seek government excess of the 7800 to the Big Ghetto. Some recognition of emigration certificates were murdered, including a few holders of 24.07.1944 genuine certificates. Glass House opens as Swiss Embassy The Arrow Cross regime ordered all emigration office Schutzpasses replaced with new ones stamped in French. Yet the original roster 15.10.1944 Germany replaces Hungarian government with of 7,800 was somehow withheld from the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross regime authorities, so dummy lists could be made up as needed to protect any given Jew. 23.10.1944 Though he stood at the center of this America protests resumed deportations diplomatic and personal fiasco, Lutz and threatens to prosecute Hungarian resolved to prevent the collapse of leadership for murder the rescue network; only his support 8.11.1944 could maintain its “legality.” Disgusted Death marches to Austrian border begin by his connections with a bunch of counterfeiters, the Swiss government 15.11.1944 reprimanded him, leaving him to face the Deadline for registration in Nazi forces alone. international ghetto’s safe houses 21.11.1944 Germans search safe houses for holders of fake permits On the March About two weeks after the death marches 03.12.1944 began, Krausz urged Hungarian police Death marches end 23.12.1944 officer Dr. Nandor Batizfalvy to exploit Arrow Cross attacks Swedish Embassy his rank in order to follow the column of 15.01.1945 marchers and come up with a rescue plan. Arrow Cross members flee pending He left on November 21 and returned two arrival of Red Army days later. After receiving Batizfalvy’s 18.01.1945 report, Krausz called a meeting of all Red Army liberates Pest the neutral countries’ consuls, the International Red Cross, and the Vatican 4.04.1945 representatives, which was held in Raoul Hungary liberated

www.segulamag.com Glass House

Wallenberg’s office. So far, the policeman he managed to squeeze from Ferenczy The forgeries recounted, twenty-five thousand Jews had opened the doors to similar activities. placed Carl Lutz been marched to the Austrian border. The The policeman repeated the dangerous cruelty of their guards defied belief. stunt, as did others. Lazslo Kepes (Eliezer at the center Batizfalvy had brought back as many Kadmon) and Zvi Reich Nedivi (my of a diplomatic deportees holding safe passes or other spouse’s uncle), for example, were Zionist official permits as he could, as well as youth activists whose Aryan appearance fiasco. Yet he orders from the Hungarian directing the allowed them more freedom than other kept the entire deportations, László Ferenczy, allowing Jews. Both donned Arrow Cross uniforms consular officials to visit those Jews under and pursued the marchers. Accompanied rescue network their protection. They could then provide by a young Christian acquaintance, alive assistance and even take them back to Zvi sought out other pioneer youth and Budapest. their families, while Lazslo wandered The very next day, a delegation of around Arrow Cross headquarters, even neutral countries’ representatives – delaying the departure of a thousand Jews including Wallenberg – set off to bring the overnight; by morning, most had run Diplomatic vehicles followed deportees food, medicine, and clothing. away. Kepes also made several journeys the marchers, collecting Krausz’s aides, Arye Breslauer and from Budapest to the Austrian border, bearers of safe passes, whether real or fake. Carl Ladislaus Kluger, went along on behalf saving up to two hundred Jews. Lutz with his driver by the of the Swiss Consulate, retrieving seven On December 3, 1944, as the Red Army Swiss Consulate gates hundred Jews with the help of Swiss approached, the Arrow Cross government passports. The Spanish delegate freed finally discontinued the death marches. Budapest’s Jews were the last another thirty already theoretically under Not only had Switzerland, Sweden, and to be sent to Auschwitz, and his protection. other neutral countries pressured the the deportations stopped in Batizfalvy’s mission, the information he regime to do so, but the long, slow- time to save many of them. brought back, and the vital concessions moving columns were clogging the roads, Insignia of Budapest

The Jewish Journey through History Shvat 5779 35 Unsung Heroes Moshe Krausz and Carl Lutz ran the largest rescue operation of the Holocaust, so why have so few heard of them?Amit Assis The case of Budapest’s Jews, for whom the danger lost. The verdict was successfully appealed, but not was greatest just when the end of World War II before Kasztner’s assassination by three young Jews was in sight, is unique in Holocaust history. Allied on March 4, 1957 victories, Hungarian regime changes, and the Kasztner was a member of Ben-Gurion’s Mapai awareness that a reckoning would soon be made (Labor) party, and was therefore an establishment affected the decisions of all those in positions of figure. Moshe Krausz, by contrast, was affiliated power. Hungary was the first country in which the with the Mizrahi movement. According to Dr. Ayala Jewish leadership in Mandate Palestine tried to Nedivi, author of Between Krausz and Kasztner: The save Jews before the Nazis’ arrival. For example, the Struggle for the Rescue of the Hungarian Jews, this is Jewish Agency masterminded the parachuting of why Krausz and Carl Lutz are relatively unknown. volunteers from Palestine, notably Hannah Szenes The most challenging part of Nedivi’s research and Enzo Sereni, into Yugoslavia to organize was the lack of documentation, since government- partisan resistance and Jewish rescue there and funded bodies like Yad Vashem and the Israel State in Hungary. Likewise, considerable resources Archives present information selectively. Thus the were invested in Israel Kasztner’s Aid and Rescue protocol of the w trial was unavailable on the Yad Committee. Vashem databases in the 1990s, and its publication A controversial figure, Kasztner was accused remains restricted. Even the State Archives version of receiving information about Auschwitz from is missing most of the evidence. “Yad Vashem keeps escapees Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wexler but recordings of interviews with a host of Holocaust withholding it from the rest of the Hungarian survivors and activists, but most were left-wing Labor Jewish community in order to safeguard the Zionist pioneers,” says Nedivi. “No one even bothered passengers on his rescue train, then still in Nazi interviewing Moshe Krausz.” hands. Furthermore, he was allegedly involved At Nir Galim, near , Krausz’s story in the capture of the Jewish parachutists, and he is being told at last. The kibbutz was founded mainly testified on behalf of such senior Nazi officials as by from Hungary and Central Eichmann aide in the . Europe. In 1991 they set up Testimony House, As a result, Kasztner hesitated before moving displaying archival material and artwork chronicling to Israel. Once there, however, he joined the Jewish life before and during the Holocaust. Four Labor Party and was awarded a government job. years ago, after Nedivi published her research, an But in August 1952, the accusations against him exhibit called The Glass House was mounted there; resurfaced, disseminated by Hungarian immigrant a model and audiovisual presentation dedicated Malchiel Gruenwald in his weekly newsletter, to the destruction of Hungarian Jewry recounts Letters to My Friends in the Mizrahi Party. The State Krausz’s rescue efforts. The museum is open to the Attorney’s Office sued Gruenwald for libel but public, by appointment.

Commemorating a forgotten story. The Glass House model and audiovisual exhibit in Testimony House, Kibbutz Nir Galim Courtesy of Testimony House

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Not everyone was saved by the rescue operation. Shoes on the Danube, a memorial to the hundreds of Jews thrown to their deaths from the riverbank, Budapest Photo: Nikodem Niaki

making it hard for government officials bitter enemies, but the Jewish community and German “administrative staff” to generally respected his honesty and escape the advancing Russian forces. As directness. a result, Krausz claimed, some fifteen Lutz later claimed that with more thousand marchers just turned around adequate funds, the safe houses could and went home. have saved many more Jews. Krausz had Meanwhile, Arrow Cross thugs estimated that the protected buildings terrorized Budapest. The Swedish cost him about ten thousand dollars Consulate was attacked on December 23, to run, most of it donated by two Jews so the Swiss legation took responsibility sheltering in one of these facilities. for the Jews under Swedish protection. Though the American Jewish Joint Nazi attempts to deport the residents of Distribution Committee had transferred the safe houses were thwarted at last on large sums to Budapest via Switzerland, January 15, when the Arrow Cross fled not a penny reached Krausz and the Swiss the city. Consulate’s rescue operation. A Jewish Agency report delivered at the Freedom! first Zionist Congress after the war stated The Soviet army conquered Pest on that forty thousand Hungarian Jews January 18, 1945, removing the threat survived under Swiss protection and were to the city’s Jews once and for all. Tens saved from deportation to Auschwitz of thousands had been deported and by the immigration certificates. Yet that murdered under the Arrow Cross regime, number reflects only the forty thousand but between 120,000 and 150,000 Jews had citizenship certificates produced by the survived. British Foreign Office, not the safe passes In his first interview after leaving issued by neutral countries such as Spain Hungary, Carl Lutz maintained that and Sweden as well as the mass-produced the Swiss Consulate had issued some forgeries. The true figure is thus clearly fifty thousand letters of protection, much larger. with “other sources” producing another fifty thousand forgeries. Lutz pointed Dr. Ayala Nedivi Nedivi lectures at the Michlala Women’s College, out that Krausz’s power to choose the Jerusalem. Her doctorate from the University of Haifa has lucky recipients of the 7,800 “tickets” been published as a book, Between Krausz and Kasztner: to Mandate Palestine won him no few The Struggle for the Rescue of the Hungarian Jews

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