JTS Israel's “Other” Holocaust Trial: the Little Known Story of Rudolph
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
JTS Israel’s “Other” Holocaust Trial: The Little Known Story of Rudolph Kasztner Sources Compiled by Rabbi Matthew Berkowitz JTS Director of Israel Programs, Jerusalem 1. J’Accuse: What Would Your Judgment Have Been? Born in 1906, Rudolf Israel Kasztner, also known as Rezső Kasztner, was a Jewish- Hungarian journalist and lawyer. Kasztner was one of the leaders of the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee (Va'adat Ezrah Vehatzalah, or Vaada), which smuggled Jewish refugees into Hungary during World War II, then helped them escape from Hungary when in March 1944 the Nazis invaded that country too. Between May and July 1944, Hungary's Jews were deported to the gas chambers at Auschwitz at the rate of 12,000 people a day. In exchange for money, gold and diamonds, Kasztner negotiated with Adolf Eichmann, to allow 1,684 Jews to leave instead for Switzerland on what became known as the Kasztner train. Kasztner moved to Israel after the war, becoming a spokesman for the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 1952. In 1953 he was accused of having been a Nazi collaborator in a pamphlet self-published by Malchiel Gruenwald, a freelance writer. The allegation stemmed from his 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. Gruenwald also claimed that Kastner had agreed to the rescue in return for remaining silent about the fate of the mass of Hungarian Jews. The Israeli government sued Gruenwald for libel on Kasztner's behalf, resulting in a trial that lasted 18 months. The court issued its verdict in 1955. 2. Memorial Day and The Rebels, Natan Alterman, 1954 And on the day of remembrance the fighters and rebels said: Do not place us apart from the Exile under shining lights At the hour of commemoration we step down from the pedestal To mingle again in the darkness with the chronicles of the masses of the House of Israel The fighters and the rebels said: this is a day of testimony Its main and true image is not a barricaded stronghold aflame. Neither is it the image of a young man and a girl who came out to assault or die Such as in the classical images of world revolts eternally burning. No, this is not the source of the period, do not crown it with battle flags To see only in them its essence, its redemption and justification. The fighters and rebels said: we are part of many people Part of its honor and bravery and its stifled deep weeping We are part of a time, with no brother, a time that rejects the monotony of high phrases. Nor does it stand open faced among common symbols. Those who fell with their weapons in their hands perhaps will not accept the division between them and the death of their communities all the way to some leaders and dealers. Therefore we, the fighters and the rebels say: the essence of this day Is not just that which is highlighted by speeches and writings by our brothers. The sword, the battle, the barricades – there is nothing to match them. Yet they are not the only symbols of this Memorial Day, not in them does it reside. The dignity of the nation should not seek its only sublime justification By saying apologetically, I have fought, I have raised the flag of rebellion . The uprising is just one note in this whole story, it was not its heart and goal. Our people will yet compete for honor with any other nation . The fighters and the rebels said: the bravery and honor of this people, Are also shared by Jewish fathers who said: ‘the underground will bring disaster upon us’ And also that boy or girl who walked and walked until they were lost somewhere And left behind just one white sock in the archives of rememberance. These too are the symbols of the time and its war, let us not dim them with the shining sword. Like nations who had not thus been tested by the heavens. Thus spoke the fighters and the rebels; and the people listened unmoved—God’s stars are witness on the faces of both. 3. The Allegation, Malchiel Gruenvald Friends, Member of HaMizrahi from Hungary: Dear Friends: The smell of a corpse scratches my nostrils! This will be a most excellent funeral! Dr. Rudolph Kasztner should be eliminated! For three years I have been awaiting this moment to bring to trial and pour the contempt of the law upon this careerist, who enjoys Hitler’s acts of robbery and murder. On the basis of his criminal tricks and because of his collaboration with the Nazis, I see him as a vicarious murderer of my dear brothers. 4. The Verdict, page 45 On June 22, 1955, Justice Halevi read the verdict. He had acquitted Gruenvald of all charges except the one libeling Kasztner for getting rich at the cost of the victims. a) Kasztner should have never come in close contact with Nazis as he had done. A Jew, furthermore a Jewish leader, should have abstained from associating with the murderers. b) He should have never chosen between blood and blood, namely to agree to save just a part of the Jews. c) Kasztner should have made public everything he knew about the crimes of the Nazis, in real time, to allow the Jews to seek ways to save themselves. His active obligation, as a Jewish public figure was to initiate an armed rebellion, even if their arms were minimal. d) Kasztner had added to his crimes, when after the war, as a free man, he volunteered to testify in favor of four Nazi criminals. The moment Kasztner had turned from a public figure to a traitor, was according to the verdict, the moment he had agreed to organize the famous train, in which by the end, there were 1,684 passengers: “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 . 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.” 5. While Hearing the Verdict, Chaim Guri, 1956 Jerusalem—The reading of the verdict had lasted for hours. It seemed as if the small room of the Supreme Court was filled again with that period. The years of blood and fear, years of the most sublime heroism and years of annihilation and loss of human dignity. The scars were torn up anew with merciless cruelty. The judge, with his monotonous tired voice, described chapter after chapter. His words fell in our ears harsh and heavy. Countless people had asked themselves a question that will not leave you any peace of mind, a question that seizes the soul: who is innocent, who is a traitor, who is pure, who is guilty? The judge rose to address this question as well as others, not less cruel: was the splendor of a wondrous affair, full of heroism and sacrifice, the story of the parachutists, tarnished?! Many who had watched the judge, had asked how a single man accepted the weight of such moral responsibility towards the dead and the living, towards the nation, towards the chronicles of our nation? The man had spoken with a shocking clarity. It seems the pure became sevenfold purer. The mission was pure, the parachutists were pure. Pure was their battle against the German annihilation machine. And the image of our immortal murdered sister Hannah Szenes, shown anew with a precious light, alongside the killed youth of Peretz Goldstein. Against them stood those who broke down, who erred, and who betrayed, either knowingly or unknowingly. Those who helplessness, illusion, despair and a broken heart have turned into collaborators. 6. The Kasztner Appeal Verdict, Justice Simon Agranat, 1958 The major danger that lurks, according to my opinion, to anyone who attempts to objectively judge the behavior of the ‘Dramatis Personae’ who were active in the past, including the near past, emanates from the fact that he cannot always put himself in their shoes. To evaluate the problems they were facing . To understand that life the way they understood it. This is why it is paramount, that whoever takes upon himself such a mission, be it historian or a judge – must make maximum effort to set aside his earlier, hostile preconceptions and strive for a point of view that is independent of the event he is considering. In other words, his main effort should be to shake off the ‘hindsight’ he now has, so that he is not mislead by it to err in his evaluation of the conduct which is the object of his evaluation. I think this was one of the weak spots in the reasoning of Justice of Halevi. 7. Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat & The Zionist Century, Pnina Lahav The heroism of the rebels of the Warsaw Ghetto added . a glorious chapter to the history of the Jewish people; it became an inseparable part of our national saga; it will return to influence the national spirit and strengthen, among those who need it, the sense of national honor.