New York – “Were you on the train?”
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Hedy Mayer, Devora Spira, Peska Friedman and Berta Rubinsztejn felt no need to ask: which train? Only one train was on everyone’s lips on Tuesday night at a Manhattan gathering of Hungarian Jews who had escaped the Holocaust. There had been many trains to Auschwitz. There had been only one train to life, and the four women, now all in their 80s, had been on it, along with about 1,680 others.
It was a train from Budapest that stopped for several months at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and finally made its way to Switzerland and salvation. The trip was arranged in 1944 during the darkest days of the Nazi genocide by Rezso Kasztner, also known as Rudolf or Israel Kastner, a Jew who was to rescue more Jews than Oskar Schindler.
He had done this by negotiating face to face with Adolf Eichmann, the administrator of Hitler’s Final Solution, and paying $1,000 a head while concealing, enemies later said, the full measure of the peril that was to claim an estimated 550,000 of Hungary’s 825,000 Jews, and vouching at the Nuremberg trials for an SS colonel, Kurt Becher. For this, Mr. Kasztner was shot to death in 1957 at age 51 in Tel Aviv.
For years his name was anathema. Reviled as a Nazi collaborator whom an Israeli judge said had “sold his soul to the devil,” Mr. Kasztner, a journalist and official in Israel’s ruling leftist workers party, Mapai, was denounced in court, demonized in print and spat upon on the street. Rage against him brought down the Israeli government in 1955 and all but ignited a civil war. His three right-wing killers were pardoned seven years into their life sentences. Israel’s Supreme Court later cleared him of all charges, but the stigma stuck. His name graced no memorial walls, even at Yad Vashem, Israel’s shrine to victims of the Shoah, although in 2007 it accepted some of his papers.
But on Tuesday, growing research by historians and a long campaign by his aggrieved family and the many he saved culminated in a joyous tribute at the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research at 15 West 16th Street, where a respectful new documentary about him was screened before its American movie house opening on Friday.
The two-hour film, “Killing Kasztner: The Jew Who Dealt With Nazis,” took its director, Gaylen Ross, more than eight years to make. The movie presents new information, including allegations by the confessed gunman, Ze’ev Eckstein, that others were in on the plot but never prosecuted, and it has already been acclaimed in Israel, Canada, England and Hungary. It also suggests that Mr. Kasztner had acted with the knowledge of Jewish Agency officials he later protected.
“There were some things I didn’t know; there was a lot of politics involved,” said Gabriela Shalev, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, who listened to a discussion afterward with Ms. Ross, members of the Kasztner family and historians.
“We heard he was killed and we were shocked,” said Ms. Friedman, who had been on the train and now lives in Brooklyn. “He did not deserve it.”
Ms. Mayer, also of Brooklyn, said that she was several months pregnant when she boarded Mr. Kasztner’s train. Her child, Egon, was born in Switzerland and lived to become a professor of sociology at the City University of New York.
Ms. Spira, another Brooklyn resident, said it was not just the people on the train who were saved. “I have two children, 13 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren,” she said. “He saved them, too.”
Mr. Kasztner’s daughter, Zsuzsi, 63, a nurse in Israel, and two of her three daughters — Merav Michaeli, 42, a television journalist, and Michal, 38, a marketing consultant — were smothered in embraces. “I want to thank you for your grandfather,” said Irene Grossman, 67, of Riverdale, in the Bronx, who was 3 years old when she joined her family on the train.
Manny Mandel, 73, a psychotherapist in Silver Spring, Md., who was also aboard the train, said he had heard all the stories about Mr. Kasztner’s outsize ego and abrasiveness. “I’m not sure I would have liked that man personally,” he said. “But if not for all that arrogance, imagine how he could have negotiated with Eichmann — he could have had him shot on the spot.”
Ladislaus Löb, 76, who was 11 when he was on the train, came to the screening from England, where he is emeritus professor of German at the University of Sussex; he published a book last year on his experiences and what he called Mr. Kasztner’s “daring rescue of Hungarian Jews.”
“He was a hero of circumstances,” Dr. Löb said. “Somebody had to do something. It’s better to save lives than not save lives.”
Ms. Rubinsztejn, also from Riverdale, claimed the last word before the Yivo Institute audience of 300. “Who has something to say about Kasztner should come to me,” she said. She was there, alive.
This is a wonderful example as to why we should not judge!
One thing for sure, he did do something great.
he saved many.
the question is, did he do something evil to.
the People who testify that he saved them, do not reveal the truth about Kastner.
He did addmit in court, that he had collaborated with the Nazis. he did shamefully.
if was wrong for working with the Nazis, or was it the right thing.
did he do it for a purpose, or not. was the purpose a evil one or did he have good intentions.
that is to debate.
Kol hamekayem nefesh achas meyisroel keilu kayem molei olam.. Now imagine that close to 1700 times… Wow!! What a tzadik.. I think, I heard that he saved the Satmar Rebbe’s life too.
anyone who wants to know the “real kastner story” read ‘Perfidy’ by Ben Hecht you can find free downloads on the web or buy it at Amazon.com
“In the Kastner affair, as it is known, a seemingly insignificant refugee from Hungary accuses an important member of David Ben Gurion s Mapai party “kastner” of collaborating with the Nazis during the murder of Hungarian Jewry. Over 30 years out-of-print, “Perfidy” is back, Playwright and historian of public conscience, Ben Hecht chronicles one of the most sensational yet least remembered stories in the history of Israel.
The Satmar Rebbe was on that train. Satmar has a seudas hodaah every year on that date, the 21st of Kislev.
No one denied that he saved a relative handful of Jews. But it is only those Jews and their descendants (and Satmar and Wien) who owe him personal thanks. He could have and should have done a lot more. This documentary is in the ranks of the harmful revisionism put out by Finkelstein, though not on the low madrega of David Irving or Robert Faurisson.
It’s funny how some people believe that all Ben Hecht’s articles and books are plain lies and fiction, only Perdify is a reliable history book…
kastner himself testified that he did not put the satmar rebbe on the train – kastner being the zionist operative he was, i believe him on that – in reality it was Dr. Fisher his father in law a more orthodox jew who persuaded the satmer rebbe to join the train, arguing that in his sechus the rescue train will be successful.
al tadin es haverhe at shetakia limkomo dont judge anyone until youre in the same situation as he was in short this is what we should all do
You missed the part where he did not tell Jews the truth of where they were going – while he knew. The Nazis let one train go, in exchange for him being quiet and in the hope of getting more ransom money. Had the Jews been alerted, maybe they would have not been so passive.
‘Perfidy’ by Ben Hecht has been discredited by almost every single historians as error filed and not a work of history.
But since it serves some yiddins agenda to portray Zionist as bad Jews they keep it and use as if it was a real scholarly work to fit in their agenda or believe. Because that is more important than the truth
If kastner who ‘sold out’ the hungarian jews by ‘rescuing’ a handful mostly his zionist cronies is considered a hero, by that logic why not eichman and the fuehrer himself who had the final saying on the rescue mission, to be considered rescuers to (at least by those who got rescued) .
He knew well where the jews are being taken. That they are taken to Aushwitz and they are bing killed there. He knew that the letters (fake letters) that was received in Kluj supposedly from the deported, that they are being well taken care of in a place called (something like), Kenjer, were all false.
Very few in Kluj knew the truth that they are being taken to death camps. When these few spoke up (I knew personally one who did) Kastner called in the SS to torture him to hush him up.
OK. He had this train (BTW, the deal was robbed out of the hand of R’ M.B. Weismandei z”l who had many many more then 1,700 included in the deal). But how many has he personally sent to the gas hambers by collaborating with tha nazis?
Make him a Hero? A Zionist killed him not because he saved so many. Also not because he sent so many to the gas chambers. He was killed because they were afraid he will reveal even more then he did, that the Zionist movement (not only him) were collaborators with the nazis.
Oh yeah, name the historians who consider “Perfidy” error-filled? Kaster, indeed, sold his soul to the devil, not for the lives he saved, but for the people he misled to have them believe that they weren’t going to their death.
why did all the chassidisha rebbis tell the people not to leave yet they all tried to leave themselves?
To 15, perfidy is mostly a chronicle of the kastner trial a ‘public record’ (of which kastner was convicted – by an Israeli court) plus many other well documented sources which the author painstakingly lists , these are facts not so called ‘historians believe’ with known and unknown agendas
i was on that train
so was my mother,brother,2 aunts,and 2 cousins as was esther jungreis and her parents and brothers as was the satmar rebbi,debercina rav,rav johonoson steif and his daughters and son in laws and 4 grand children, as was some very prominent individual from london and gevea and new york and israel eaven a former ambassador from israel to the U.N.
many names that have many decendants that have filled prominent positions in the jewish world.
it was not kastner that did this it was the BOREH OLOM that wanted these people saved and HE made the cheshbon not eichman himmler or hitler yemach shemom vezricho.
HASHEM works his way and it is not for us to understand but for us to accept.
to all those that did not survive
it is the obligation of all the survivors and people who lived thru those terrible times and their survivors to remember and treat each other with caring and kindness so that we may bring on the geulah shelomeh.
do not blame the messenger but learn from the message.
for all of you readers who like Lippeh Schmelzer if not for what kastner did you would not be enjoying his music (lippes)
his father was on the transport.
I hope VIN will allow this post. Just a little of the history of what was going on in Kluj.
Gruenwald had denounced Kasztner for having kept silent about the German lies that the Hungarian Jews were only being resettled at Kenyermezo. In return, he was allowed to organise the special convoy, which ultimately became a train to Switzerland, and place his family and friends on it.
Eichmann described Kasztner as follows:
This Dr Kastner was a young man about my age, 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.
Would you still call him a hero?
To 18, this is a myth no rebbe told or for that matter no one asked them if they can leave or not (when their life’s where literally in danger) , the plain truth is 1) their was no place or country they could have gone none where open for them (including israel which for years you needed a ‘special’ certificate – not available for ‘satmar’ non-zionist people), 2) many did ran thru the border illegally to rumania and other places when and how they could, yes they did believe that it will not happen in hungary because at that time the germans where already loosing the war but in the end they stormed that country with the help of the hungarians and their faith was unfortunately locked by the germans hungarians and their collaborators.
~ Indeed Hecht himself does not claim to be an historian – he just calls a spade a spade i.e a murderer/collaborator as such, it may not be painstakingly (over 100 pages) for you in today’s computer age to accumulate all the facts he did but, as he writes it was for him.
~ kastner was convicted – found guilty – by an israeli (mapei) court not by Hecht.
~yes, Hecht had an agenda he was an active ‘zionist’ as he claims, but with a conches I suppose.
there are only two groups of people who view believes ben Hecht book as a work of real history.
Cherideim and Neo-nazis
good company you keep
#26
It is a well know historical fact satmer, beltz, ger and many other robbonom told their flock do not worry not to leave including many witness testimony to that fact
can you name the 40-50 ‘orthodox rabbonim’ ? i doubt and, would you happen to know they weren’t ‘zionist cronies’ ?
Harav Chaim Schmelczer zt’l Rosh Hayeshiva Yeshivas Telshe-Chicago was on that train as was Reb Yonasan Shteif z’tl
Perfidy is the most powerful book I ever read.It makes you understand why Ben Gurion’s Haganah wanted Begin’s Irgun out of the ruling government for most of the first 50 years of the State of Israel.The Haganah collaborated with the nazis,and the Irgun was the real deal.It is a must read,just make sure not to show it to the Mr.Obama! Thats all we need!
a guy who actually did something to save people is reviled, while the cowardly Satmar Rebbe who deserted his flock to save himself is revered
The Belz rebbe The satmar rebbe. They all told the chassidim not to leave Europe . Most of theyre chassidim ended up in the gas chambers. Interesting enough how they saved themselves.
A quick reading of Perfidy will cure most fools of any Secular Zionist leanings!!!
the ends do not justify the means. How many ordinary Jews were on that train? He gave money and trucks to the enemy. He helped subdue other Jews for the enemy and he offered weapons and fuel to the enemy to save a few select Jews. This at the expense of other Jews.
I think if I was on that train the guilt would be to much to bear.
I don’t know how to judge these things. Nor can I even begin to formulate an opinion. I cannot imagine the positions any of these people were in at the time. How am I supposed to know what he had to sacrifice in order to save those he did. Who knows what terrible things he may have done in order to save more. Many people had to make terrifying decisions about life and death under the barrel of a gun. All I do know is that he saved many, many people. I’d like to think that whatever he did, he did it with the intention of saving as many as possible, even if it went wrong. Maybe he made some bad deals. Maybe at times he was double-crossed by the SS. Maybe he was willing to sacrifice too much to save too few. Maybe… Maybe… Maybe…
FACTS ARE FACTS!!
but you facts are not facts.
maybe ask the robonum satmer, Ger , beltz and many others why they told their chassidiem to stay behind. Those are the real culprits
Your are basing you fact on someone who has been discredited as a truth teller, and historian.
Belief what you want to believe if it makes you feel better about the robonum who betrayed your family but saved themselves and your hatred of Zionist.
.PS in the same book, that Chabad mentions about a Nazi who saved the rebbie. They omitted some very important facts.
the most important was when he weas recudes and came to the US, did he ask for help to save other yiddin from his rescuers NO, he ask begged that his personal stuff should be saved read the book
I am a decedent of an Auschwitz survivor, And so are many if not all my older relatives. and probably most who comment on this issue.
Yes and someone who did research and spoke to 100’s of survives has a much different opinion about Katzner than you. and sites vast amount of evidence, documents that Katzner saver 20-30 thousand of Jews if not more.
Two books KASZTNER’S TRAIN by Porter sites documents, and sites interviews, and the research she did, as opposed to hecht
another book written by a frum woman who discusses the actions or non actions of many of the rebbies, she does not deny the fact that many, satmer, beltz, Gerr told their flock to say and they left since that is historically truth.
She does try to excuse them or give reason. One can debate if her reasons are valid. But the fact remains they said STAY
Farbstein is seen as a trailblazer in Holocaust studies in the ultra-Orthodox community. Some say that had she not been the daughter of a family of rabbis, she would not have been permitted to go so far.…
Is anyone familiar with the book by Edwin Black on the secret agreement between Palestine and the Nazis? I do not want to waste time reading a book that is filled with inaccuracies.
How does one find out if there are additional showings of this film? Thank you.
confession by Kasztner killer
Ross’ coup is her interview with the assassin himself, Ze’ev Eckstein, followed by the climactic moment Eckstein meets the Kasztner family. What is newsworthy here, apart from illuminating the story in general, is Eckstein’s reluctant confession that it wasn’t his gunshot alone that killed Kasztner, and that a political conspiracy had been at work (i.e., the right wing trying to discredit the Ben-Gurion government, which had supported “the Jewish Schindler”).
A book came out in the ’60’s titled ” The Man Who played G-d” by Robert St. John. Its available on ebay and Amazon. This is a “MUST READ”. It is an accurate novel based on the life and death of Kastner. It is a truly amazing book! Read it and then decide…..
“The Man Who Played G-d”. Author: Robert St. John. Publisher: Doubleday & Company. 1962. 573 pp. This novel is so powerful and vivid that it will stun you. It is so deeply human that it will move you to great emotion. It tells the story of a man driven by desire for supreme power: the power of deciding life and death.
Panoramic novel about how Jews were lulled into a sense of false security, how they were methodically liquidated at Auschwitz, how Horvath (Kastner) arranged for the famous rescue train which eventually brought 1,659 Jews to safety. Part I : his life in Hungary Part II his trial and murder.
Many of St. John’s 22 books were on Jewish or Israeli topics.
His credentials are quite impressive!
READ THE BOOK ”The Man Who Played G-
The only group that says he was bad are
heridiem
neo-nazis
holocaust deniers
Don’t forget that some right-wingers also buy into these theories. By the way, reading the American Yated can give one the impression that charedim are closer to right-wing Zionists than they appear. In particular, in the wake of the Rabin assasination, the Yated picked up on conspiracy theories that implicated the Israeli left….
I don’t know how widespread the acceptance of Perfidy is among latter day Irgunists. There’s a big Zionist talmud chacham who’s an expert on Rav Kook who takes Perfidy seriously and is not convinced by Bauer’s refutation. He’s a real scholar who knows history, but I suspect he’s too biased here to be reliable.
“is Eckstein’s reluctant confession that it wasn’t his gunshot alone that killed Kasztner, and that a political conspiracy had been at work “
Of course! He was a hot-headed minor who was used by the extremists. Also undertand that there was alot of (attempts of) vengeance against those seen as collaborators. It was a tragic time.
So let’s assume he did save hundreds of Jews, does that make less of a rotzeiach for the ones he helped kill?
Every second Nazi commander has some Jew that he once saved from his pistol.
In reply to #81 the book the man who played g-d is a book of fiction. It is loosely based on the life of Rudolph KASTNER. Get your facts straight. IT IS A WORK OF FICTION NOT FACTS.
Read min hameitzar from reb mb weissmandel ztl and see all the facts for yourself. He had worked out an agreement with eichmann yms to leave hungarian jewry alone in exchange for money. joel brand pulled the rug from under his feet because the zionists didn’t want the old fashioned hassidic jews to ruin their grand plans for establishing Israel. After all he did only some 1600 jews were saved, a far call from the hundreds of thousands of hungarian jews that were killed. For the rest of his life RMB weissmandel admonished himself for not preventing the zionists to get hold of his plan.
I don’t need to read a book to know what happened with Kastner y”sh. I just have to ask my Hungarian relatives—they had an opportunity to escape to Romania, but were talked out of it by friends and other family members who assured them that the Rabbis said that everything would be ok and told them to stay where they were. Kastner may have “saved” a few hundred well-connected Jews, but the price was the lives of hundreds of thousands of less-fortunate ones.
In 1969 I was in a yeshiva in Jerusalem.
At that time, the Israeli government had banned Perfidy by Ben Hecht.
If it was such drivvel, as some write, why ban it?
I later read it in the States and treasure my copy. It is definitely worth reading. I really don’t care if Hecht had an agenda. Kastner was a traitor and is burning in gehenom.
those calling the”zionist cohorts should know that these cohorts saved Jewish children from places you never heard Izbica and Maly Trostinec , gas chambers,one of those cohorts Aron Menczer [his father was a vicznitzer chosid,]arrived in Palestine accompaning a Youth Aliyah transport returned to Vienna , wound up in Theresienstadt and volunteered to accompany a group of children from Baranowicz to Birkenau and was gassed
For those of you who talk so cynically and passionately about details of the holocaust I say this: If you weren’t there, you can’t fathom the suffering our people went through, and have no right to speak with such assurance and arrogance. The holocaust was not just a piece of history and deserves more respect and humility.
Kastner squelched the Rudy Vrba report and actually approached Eichmann and asked if it were true. Eichmann said of course not and then speeded up the Hungarian deportations knowing that it was only a matter of time before the report surfaced. had the report been released the Huingarians would have fought tooth and nail before getting on trains for “resettlement”. The blood of 438,000 Hungarian Jew rest on Kastner’s head. He saved 1600 Jews mostly his friends and zionist leaders for which he was handsomely paid, that outwieghs being complicit in the murder of 438,000 innocent men women and children? Not in my opinion.
At the time of the trial, Rav Michoel Ber Weissmandl called on all those saved by Kaszner to testify on his behalf.