Joel Brand

Joel Brand (1907 – 1964) was a Hungarian Jew who played a prominent role in trying to save the Hungarian Jewish community from deportation to the German death camp at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. During a meeting with Brand in April 1944, SS officer Adolf Eichmann offered to release up to one million Jews in exchange for trucks, soap, tea, and coffee from the Allies. The deal, which failed, became known as the "blood for trucks" ^[1] or "Blood and Cargo" ^[2] proposal. History of the Jews in Hungary concerns the Jews of Hungary and of Hungarian origins. ... Extermination camp (German: Vernichtungslager) or Death Camp was the term applied to a group of facilities set up by Nazi Germany during World War II for the express purpose of killing the Jews of Europe, although members of some other groups whom the Nazis wished to exterminate, such as Roma... Auschwitz, Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau, KL Auschwitz is the name used to identify the largest of the Nazi German extermination camps, along with a number of concentration camps, comprising three main camps and 40-50 sub-camps. ... Selection at the Auschwitz ramp in 1944, where the German Nazis chose whom to kill immediately and whom to use as slave labor or for medical experimentation, such as those of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. ... The infamous double-sig rune SS insignia. ... Adolf Eichmann, Germany 1940. ... The group of countries known as the Allies of World War II, was those nations opposed to the Axis Powers during the Second World War. ...

Whether Eichmann's offer was genuine or a ploy, and whether the British government and Jewish Agency acted to thwart it — and if so, why — has been the subject of bitter debate ever since. Jewish Agency for Israel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Background

Brand's wife, Hansi, with Oskar Schindler in the mid-1960s. It was rescuing Hansi's sister from deportation that led to Brand becoming involved in "buying" Jewish refugees. [3]

Rudolf Kastner

Brand was born in Năsăud, Transylvania, now Romania, moving in 1910 with his family to Erfurt in Germany, where he was raised and educated. He became a communist and worked for the Comintern as a sailor and odd-job man, spending time in the Philippines, Japan, China, and South America before returning to Germany, where he became a middle-ranking communist functionary. His position led to his arrest after the Reichstag fire in 1933, when the Nazis began rounding up socialists and communists. ^[3] When he was released in 1934, he left Germany and settled in Budapest, Hungary, where he got a job with the Budapest Telephone Company and became a Zionist, joining the Mapai (Israel Labour Party) youth movement. ^[4] Oskar Schindler (April 28, 1908 – October 9, 1974) was an industrialist who saved his Jewish workers from the Holocaust. ... County BistriÅ£a-Năsăud Status City Mayor MureÅŸan Dumitru , since 2004 Area  km² Population (2000) 12,000 Density  inh/km² Geographical coordinates 47°17 N / 24°26 E Web site http://www. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Map of Germany showing Erfurt Mariendom and the Severikirche Erfurt [ˈɛrfÊŠrt] is a city in central Germany. ... Communism is a philosophical way of thought that pertains to a conjectured future classless, stateless social organization based upon common ownership of the means of production, and can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement. ... The Comintern (from Russian Коммунистический Интернационал (Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional) – Communist International), also known as the Third International, was an independent international Communist organization founded in March 1919 by Vladmir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and the Russian Communist Party (bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... The Reichstag fire was a pivotal event in the establishment of Nazi Germany. ... Nickname: Paris of the East, Pearl of the Danubeor Queen of the Danube Official website: www. ... Poster promoting a film about Jewish settlement in Palestine, 1930s: Toward a New Life (in Romanian),The Promised Land (in Hungarian), in small (down) text is written First Palestinian sound movie 1844 Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews by Mordecai Noah, page one. ... The Israel Labour Party (Hebrew: העבודה, Ha‘Avoda (Labour), officially מפלגת העבודה הישראלית, Mifleget Ha‘Avoda HaIsra’elit) is a political party in Israel. ...

In 1935, he married another member of the Zionist movement in Budapest, Hansi Hartmann, who owned a factory that produced gloves, socks, and sweaters. ^[5] In July 1941, Hansi's sister ^[6] got caught up in the so-called Kamenets Podolskiy deportations, when the Hungarian government decided to deport to German-occupied Ukraine between 18,000 ^[7] and 25,000 ^[8] Jews who could not prove Hungarian citizenship, 14,000-16,000 ^[7] of whom were gunned down on August 27-8, 1941 by the SS. Brand paid Josezf Krem, a Hungarian espionage agent, to get Hansi's sister back, and from that point on, Brand became involved in smuggling Jewish refugees from Poland and Slovakia to the relative safety of Hungary. General view of the fortress. ... The infamous double-sig rune SS insignia. ...

Bauer writes of Brand that he was a man who enjoyed easy living and adventure, who felt at home in cafés and bars, in "underground conspiracies and card-playing circles," and whose truthfulness was "not always impeccable," but he was also a brave and intelligent operator who genuinely wanted to help Jews escape death. ^[9]

As the situation for Jewish communities in Europe worsened, Brand teamed up in his rescue activities with Rudolf Kastner, a Zionist lawyer and journalist from Cluj, and Samuel Springmann, a Polish Jew and center-left Zionist who owned a jewellery store, and who began to function as the treasurer of their fledgling rescue committee. In 1941 and 1943, Kastner tried to interest the Hungarian Social Democrats in joining forces with the committee to undertake the large-scale rescue of Jews, but the non-Jews among them were allegedly not willing to endanger themselves for the sake of Jews, and the proposal came to nothing. ^[4] Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ... Rudolf (Resző) Kasztner (1906, Cluj, Transylvania–March 15, 1957, Tel Aviv, Israel) was the head of the Jewish community in Budapest, Hungary during the World War II occupation of the country by Nazi Germany. ... Cluj (Hungarian: Kolozs) is a county (judeţ) in the center of Romania, in Transylvania, with the capital city at Cluj-Napoca (population: 333,607). ... The history of the Jews in Poland reaches back over a millennium. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ...

In early 1943, the group was joined by Otto Komoly, a Budapest engineer, reserve officer, war veteran, and member of the Liberal Zionist Party, who was known and highly respected among the Jewish community in Budapest. He became their chairman, and with that, the Va'adat Ezrah Vehatzalah (Vaada), or Aid and Rescue Committee, was born, ^[10] consisting of Komoly, Kastner, Joel and Hansi Brand, Moshe Krausz and Eugen Frankl (both Orthodox Jews and Zionists), and Ernst Szilagyi from the left-wing Hashomer Hatzair. ^[11] Operating outside the structure of the formal Jewish institutions, the committee embodied a "daring and activist ethos" that the Judenrat, for example, lacked entirely. ^[12] Orthodox Judaism is one of the three major branches of Judaism. ...

Meeting with Eichmann

Brand told his story as a prosecution witness at the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961

On Sunday, March 19, 1944, the Germans invaded Hungary, with relatively weak forces which met no resistance. Brand was abducted and hidden in a safehouse by Josef Winninger, a courier for the German Abwehr (military intelligence), who had been taking money from Brand in exchange for information about Jewish refugees, and who took between $8,000 and $20,000 from Brand for providing him with a place to hide. ^[13] Eichmann in bulletproof glass booth during the open trial This work is copyrighted. ... Eichmann in bulletproof glass booth during the open trial This work is copyrighted. ... Adolf Eichmann, Germany 1940. ... Jerusalem (; Hebrew: Yerushalayim; Arabic: al-Quds, Greek Ιεροσόλυμα), the capital of Israel, is an ancient Middle Eastern city on the watershed between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea at an elevation of 650-840 meters. ... March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... The Abwehr was a German intelligence organization from 1921 to 1944. ...

According to testimony Brand gave in 1954 to the District Court in Jerusalem during a libel case, ^[14] and which he repeated during the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961, on April 16 or 25, 1944, ^[15] he was told by one of the German agents in Budapest, probably Winninger, that he was to wait at a certain street corner at an appointed time, and would be taken to meet Eichmann. ^[16] Jerusalem (; Hebrew: Yerushalayim; Arabic: al-Quds, Greek Ιεροσόλυμα), the capital of Israel, is an ancient Middle Eastern city on the watershed between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea at an elevation of 650-840 meters. ...

Brand was taken to a luxury hotel that Eichmann was using as his headquarters. He told the court in German that "[t]he words which then passed between us have imprinted themselves on my memory till I die." ^[16] Brand later told the court during Eichmann's trial that Obersturmbannführer Kurt A. Becher, an SS officer who worked as an emissary of Heinrich Himmler, ^[17] was standing behind Eichmann during the meeting. ^[18] The infamous double-sig rune SS insignia. ... (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. ...

If this is correct, it means the meeting was of extraordinary importance, according to historian and Holocaust specialist Yehuda Bauer, because Brand also testifed that Gerhard Clages, the chief of Himmler's Security Service in Budapest, and a rival of Eichmann's, was present at a later meeting, again with Becher and Eichmann. This means that Himmler had involved three of his men of the same rank to negotiate with Brand: Eichmann, whose job it was to kill Jews; Clages, whose task for Himmler was to reach out to forge a positive relationship with the West, because Germany knew it was losing the war; and Becher, who Bauer writes was meant to ensure the SS did not lose any money or goods. ^[19] Selection at the Auschwitz ramp in 1944, where the German Nazis chose whom to kill immediately and whom to use as slave labor or for medical experimentation, such as those of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. ... Yehuda Bauer Yehuda Bauer (born 1926) is an historian and scholar of the Holocaust. ...

Brand said that Eichmann asked him "Do you know who I am?" and continued:

I have carried out the Aktionen in the Reich — in Poland — in Czechoslovakia. Now it is Hungary's turn. I let you come here to talk business with you. Before that I investigated you — and your people. Those from the Joint and those from the Agency. And I have come to the conclusion that you still have resources. So I am ready to sell you — a million Jews. All of them I wouldn't sell you. That much money and goods you don't have. But a million — that will go. Goods for blood — blood for goods. You can gather up this million in countries which still have Jews. You can take it from Hungary. From Poland. From Austria. From Theresienstadt. From Auschwitz. From wherever you want. What do you want to save. Virile men? Grown women? Old people? Children? Sit down — and talk. ^{[20] [21]} American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is a United States Jewish Jews, but also gentiles in more than 85 countries worldwide. ... The Jewish Agency for Israel also known as The Jewish Agency (or sochnut in Hebrew), was previously called the Jewish Agency for Palestine (during the British Mandate of Palestine) is an Israeli organisation that advocates for Israel and is composed mainly, but not entirely, of Jewish people. ...

Brand told Eichmann that he was not empowered to make that decision and asked where they were supposed to obtain the cargo from, given that the Germans had confiscated Jewish property. Eichmann suggested he go abroad and negotiate directly with the Allies. ^[20] Eichmann told him they wanted any kind of cargo, but particularly trucks. "Ten thousand trucks are worth a million Jews to me," Brand quoted him as saying. ^[21] Eichmann also asked for one thousand tons of tea and coffee, and soap. According to Bauer, Hermann Krumey, an assistant of Eichmann's, also asked for machine tools, leather and other goods, but the proposal soon settled into 10,000 trucks and various consumer items. ^[15] Figures that were mentioned according to later testimony from Rudolf Kastner were 200 tons of tea, 200 tons of coffee, 2,000,000 cases of soap, 10,000 trucks for the Waffen-SS to be used on the eastern front, and unspecified quantities of tungsten and other war materials. ^[22] Waffen-SS recruitment poster; Volunteer to the Waffen-SS The Waffen-SS was the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel. ...

Eichmann said he was willing to offer one thousand Jews in advance, and on receiving the first payment, a further ten per cent. He told Brand: "Pick them anywhere you want. Hungary, Auschwitz, Slovakia — anywhere you want and anyone you want." ^[21] Brand was asked where he wanted to go to make the offer to the Jews and the Allies. He chose Istanbul. ^[15] "The Jews, in the meantime, would be sent to Auschwitz to be gassed until such time as a favorable reply was received," according to historian Raul Hilberg. ^[23] Satellite image of Istanbul and the Bosphorus Istanbul (Turkish: Ä°stanbul) is Turkeys largest city, and its cultural and economic center. ...

Brand asked what assurance Eichmann could offer the Allies that the Jews really would be released. Eichmann responded:

You think we are all crooks. You hold us for what you are. Now I am going to prove to you that I trust you more than you trust me. When you come back from Istanbul and tell me that the offer has been accepted, I will dissolve Auschwitz and move 10 percent of the promised million to the border. You take over the 100,000 Jews and deliver for them afterwards one thousand trucks. And then the deal with proceed step by step. For every hundred thousand Jews, a thousand trucks. You are getting away cheap.^[24]

Brand told the court: "On leaving the building, I felt like a stark madman." ^[21] It was the first time anyone from the Aid and Rescue Committee had met Eichmann. Brand testified: "What were we to do with this monster's offer? ... I had gotten to know the Germans and their cruel lies exceedingly well. But the thought of 100,000 Jews 'in advance' tortured my mind and gave me no respite. I had no right to think of anything but this advance payment." ^[2] He felt if he could only return from Istanbul with a promise, at least that 100,000 might be saved. ^[24]

He met Eichmann again, with the last meeting taking place on May 14, 1944. Eichmann told him the deportations to Auschwitz were about to begin at a rate of 12,000 ^[25] Jews a day, but that they would not be exterminated while negotiations were ongoing. According to Brand's testimony, Gerhard Clages, chief of Himmler's Security Service in Budapest, and Eichmann's rival, ^[26] was present, and handed Brand $50,000 and SFR 270,000. Brand told U.S. emissary Ira Hirschmann during an interview on June 22, 1944 that Eichmann had offered to blow up Auschwitz — "dann sprenge ich Auschwitz in die Luft" ^[24] — and free the first "ten, twenty, fifty thousand Jews" as soon as he received word from Istanbul that an agreement had been reached in principle, ^[26] although during his trial, Eichmann denied having said he would blow up Auschwitz, because he had no jurisdiction to do so. ^[27] May 14 is the 134th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (135th in leap years). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 192 days remaining. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ...

Eichmann told Brand he was free to travel but that he should return to Budapest soon. According to Yehuda Bauer, Brand was not consistent in his testimony regarding how long Eichmann had given him, but said at various points that it was within one or two weeks, within two or three weeks, and that he could "take [his] time." ^[19] A report prepared by Kastner and discussed during the trial of Adolf Eichmann states that Eichmann expected Brand to return within two weeks. ^{[28] [29]}

Hansi Brand testified during Eichmann's trial that she and her husband met Eichmann the day before Joel left for Istanbul, and that she was given to understand that she and her children would effectively be held hostage in Budapest until Joel returned. "It was very obvious, although it was not actually said in so many words, 'you will remain behind as hostages.' I cannot recall that precisely. But I was told that I was not allowed to leave Budapest with the children, and that I had to report every day. By then we had had so much experience with our illegal work that it was not necessary to give any further explanations. What it means is obvious, if someone is told that he may not leave Budapest, and I have to report every day." ^[5]

Negotiations and arrest

Brand and Bandi Grosz, a Hungarian Jew whose relationship with the Germans remains unclear, but who is alleged by various sources to have been a spy for the Germans, Hungarians, British, and Americans, ^{[30] [31]} left Budapest on May 17, 1944 and were driven by the SS to Vienna, where they stayed the night in a hotel reserved for SS personnel. In fact, Brand's trip is believed to have been a cover for Grosz's mission. Grosz, who was low level enough to provide plausible deniability for the Germans in case anything went wrong, later testified that he had been told by Clages, on behalf of Himmler, to arrange a meeting in a neutral country between two or three senior German security officers and two or three American officers of equal rank, or British officers as a last resort, in order to negotiate a separate peace between the German Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the Allies. ^{[32] [33]} May 17 is the 137th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (138th in leap years). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]; Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian: Beč, Czech: Vídeň, Hungarian: Bécs, Romanian: Viena, Romani: Bech or Vidnya, Russian: Вена, Slovak: Viedeň, Slovenian: Dunaj) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ...

The next day, Brand was given a German passport in the name of Eugen Band. Brand cabled ahead to the Jewish Agency in Istanbul (then Constantinople) to say he was about to arrive, then flew first to Sophia, then on to Istanbul, by German diplomatic plane, arriving on May 19. He had been told by the Jewish Agency by return cable that "Chaim" would be in Istanbul to meet him, and he believed this referred to Chaim Weizmann, then president of the World Zionist Organization who later became the first president of Israel, but in fact they meant Chaim Barlas, head of the Istanbul group of Zionist emissaries. ^[34] Jewish Agency for Israel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Satellite image of Istanbul and the Bosphorus Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul) is Turkeys largest city, and its cultural and economic center. ... Constantinople[1] was the name of the modern-day city of İstanbul, Turkey over the centuries that it served as the second capital of the unified Roman Empire, and after its division into East and West, of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire (from the city... Look up Sophia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Sophia is a common name that comes from the Greek word σοφία (wisdom), that may refer to: // Spiritual Sophia (goddess), wisdom Sophia (gnosticism), a gnostic deity The Sophia of Jesus Christ, gnostic tractate from Nag Hammadi Pistis Sophia Women named Sophia Sophia Kang... Chaim Weizmann and Harry S. Truman, May 25, 1948 Chaim Azriel Weizmann (Hebrew: חיים ויצמן) (also: Chaijim W., Haim W.) (November 27, 1874 – November 9, 1952) chemist, statesman, President of the World Zionist Organization, first President of Israel (elected May 16, 1948, served 1949 - 1952) and founder of a research institute in... The World Zionist Organization, or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization, or ZO, on September 3, 1897, at the First Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland. ...

Brand told the court that he was surprised to find that, not only was no one waiting to meet him at the airport and no entry visa had been arranged, ^[35] but that he was threatened with arrest and deportation, which he later took as the first sign of what he came to see as his betrayal by the Jewish Agency. Yehuda Bauer argues that Brand, then and later, never understood the actual powerlessness of the Jewish Agency, and the fact that his passport was in the name of Eugen Band, and not Joel Brand, would in itself have been enough to cause the confusion. ^[34] Yehuda Bauer Yehuda Bauer (born 1926) is an historian and scholar of the Holocaust. ...

Moshe Sharett, then head of the Jewish Agency's political department, did not arrive in Istanbul, but met Brand in Aleppo, after Brand's arrest by the British

The visa situation was eventually sorted out and he was taken to meet the Jewish Agency, who told him that Moshe Sharett, head of the Jewish Agency's political department, and the Zionist movement's chief ambassador and negotiator with the British in the British Mandate of Palestine (and later the second prime minister of Israel), would be arriving in Istanbul to meet him, which gave Brand hope that Eichmann's deal was being taken seriously. In the meantime, the Agency gave him a written agreement saying that it would accept in principle Eichmann's offer. The document promised the Germans $4,000 for each 1,000 Jewish emigrants to Palestine and SFR one million for each 1,000 Jewish emigrants to Spain. In return for allowing the Allies to supply goods to the Jews in the concentration camps, the Germans would receive equivalent supplies for themselves. ^[36] Brand took the document to deliver to Eichmann. It might halt the deportations, ^[37] which had started on May 15, but Brand took it mainly with a view to trying to save his own life, hoping it would convince Eichmann the mission had not failed. ^[36] Stamp issued by the State of Israel in honor of Moshe Sharett. ... The Jewish Agency for Israel also known as The Jewish Agency (or sochnut in Hebrew), was previously called the Jewish Agency for Palestine (during the British Mandate of Palestine) is an Israeli organisation that advocates for Israel and is composed mainly, but not entirely, of Jewish people. ... Stamp issued by the State of Israel in honor of Moshe Sharett. ... Map of the territory under the British Mandate of Palestine. ...

After a few days in Istanbul, it became clear that Sharett was not going to arrive, and Brand was told he had been refused a visa and that the British were actively preventing him from traveling to Turkey. Brand was asked instead to travel to Aleppo on the Syrian-Turkish border to meet Sharett there. ^[35] Brand was reluctant to do this because the area was under British control at the time. He was afraid that the British would interfere with his travel plans and would want to interrogate him, in part because they were at war with Germany, and in part because they were restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine and might be concerned by any proposal that would involve the large-scale immigration into the area of Jews from Hungary, if the blood for trucks deal went ahead. However, he was persuaded to go, and left by train accompanied by two members of the Jewish Agency. Old Town Aleppo viewed from the Citadel Aleppo is also the name of two townships in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. ...

On the train, Brand was approached by agents of Zeev Jabotinsky's Alliance of Zionists-Revisionists Party and the World Agudath Israel Orthodox religious party, who told him that the British were going to arrest him in Aleppo. ^[38] Brand told the court that he was terrified when he heard this, because it might mean he would not be able to return to Budapest within the timeframe he said had been specified by Eichmann. "It meant the failure of my mission and the extermination of my family and a million other Jews in Hungary." ^[38] However, he was assured by one of his traveling companions from the Jewish Agency that nothing was going to happen to him in Aleppo. After arriving in Ankara, they continued by train to Aleppo. Just before arriving, the same man who had assured him he would not be arrested told him that, should he indeed be picked up by the British, he was not to speak to them without a member of the Jewish Agency being present. As soon as he arrived in Aleppo on June 5, he was arrested by British intelligence. ^[38] Zeev Jabotinsky Zeev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky (alternatively Zhabotinski) (Hebrew: , Russian: ; October 18, 1880 - August 4, 1940) was a Zionist leader, author, orator, soldier, and founder of the Jewish Legion in World War I. // Early life Born in Odessa, Ukraine, he was raised in a traditional Jewish home and learned... Hatzohar, (Union of Zionists-Revisionists or Alliance of Zionists-Revisionists) was organisation found by Zeev Jabotinsky in 1925. ... World Agudath Israel (The World Israelite Union) was established in the early twentieth century as the political arm of Orthodox Judaism. ... Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the countrys second largest city after Ä°stanbul. ...

Brand's failure to return to Budapest within the two weeks apparently expected by Eichmann was later regarded as a disaster by other members of the Aid and Rescue Committee. A report written by Kastner stated that Eichmann started demanding that Brand return, and wanted a "clear-cut answer" as to whether the blood-for-trucks proposal had been accepted. The report says: "We had to explain to him every day that discussions on this matter between London, Washington and Moscow could be protracted. There were enough reasons for delay. Apparently the Allies could not easily be brought to a common denominator about such a delicate matter. The continuation of the deportations of Hungarian Jews was complicating the negotiations." On page 48 of the report, Kastner wrote "... on 9 June Eichmann said, 'If I do not receive a positive reply within three days, I shall operate the mill at Auschwitz'." ^[28] (Ich lasse die Muehle laufen. ^[5]) This article is about the British city. ... This article is the current U.S. Collaboration of the Week. ... Moscow (Russian: Москва́, Moskva, IPA: ) is the capital of Russia and the countrys principal political, economic, financial, educational and transportation center, located on the river Moskva. ...

Meeting with Moshe Sharett

Brand testified that he was taken to an elegant Arab villa where some high-ranking British officers were staying and was introduced there to Moshe Sharett with whom he spoke for a whole day, explaining the situation of the Jews in Hungary and giving details of Eichmann's offer. Sharett told him that Brand would not be able to return to Budapest and had to travel to Cairo instead. In Cairo, he was questioned by the British for ten or twelve hours every day. On the tenth day, Brand went on hunger strike, insisting that he be allowed to return to Budapest. On the seventeenth day, he was handed a note from one of the Jewish Agency men he had traveled to Aleppo with, urging him not to be difficult. Brand testified that Lord Moyne, the British Minister Resident in the Middle East, was present during one of the interrogations ^[39] and is alleged to have said: "What can I do with this million Jews? Where can I put them?" ^[40] Stamp issued by the State of Israel in honor of Moshe Sharett. ... Old Town Aleppo viewed from the Citadel Aleppo is also the name of two townships in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. ... Walter Edward Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne (29 March 1880 - 6 November 1944) was a British politician. ...

Brand said he wrote a letter to the Jewish Agency Executive while he was being held, in which he said: "It is apparent to me now that an enemy of our people is holding me and does not intend to release me in the near future. I have decided to go on a hunger strike again and will do my utmost to break through the bayonets guarding me." ^[40]

The British were convinced they were dealing with a Himmler trick of some kind, possibly an attempt via Bandi Grosz to strike up a separate peace deal with the West in order to cause a rift between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. Bauer also writes that, if the trucks-for-blood deal had gone through and large numbers of Jews had been released from Nazi-held territories, a consequence of people being gathered together and transported through Central Europe would have been to halt Allied airborne military operations, and possibly also land-based ones, ^[41] turning the Jews, in effect, into human shields. The British feared this may have been Himmler's primary motive in proposing the deal, because the suspension of Allied attacks would have allowed the Germans to concentrate more of their forces against the East. Regions of Europe Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. ... Human shield is a military term describing the presence of civilians in or around like combat targets to deter an enemy from attacking those targets. ...

British intelligence leaked details of the Brand mission to the press. On July 19, BBC radio broadcast a story that two emissaries of the Hungarian government had appeared in Turkey proposing that all Jews still in Hungary would be allowed to leave if England and America would supply a certain amount of pharmaceuticals and transport, including trucks, with a promise that the equipment would not be used on the Western front. The proposal, which the BBC called "humanitarian blackmail" ^[42] was reported as a crude attempt to set the Allies against each other, and the report added that it was not clear whether the plan had the approval of the German and Hungarian authorities. Documents released during Eichmann's trial show that, after the broadcast, Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Foreign Minister, asked to be informed about the facts of the matter. ^[28] The New York Herald Tribune carried the same story and The Times of London called it one of the "most loathsome" stories of the war. Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (born Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim Ribbentrop) (April 30, 1893–October 16, 1946) was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. ...

The leaks killed whatever might have remained of the initiative, although the mass deportations of Jews from Hungary had already been stopped by the Hungarian government on July 7, fearful that government ministers might be held personally responsible by the Allies.

The British released Brand in October 1944 but, according to Ben Hecht, would not allow him to travel to Hungary, compelling him instead to travel to Palestine. Yehuda Bauer disputes this, arguing that the story of Brand being forced to travel to Palestine was spread around Israel at the time of the trial of Malchiel Greenwald, a freelance writer who accused Kastner, by then a government minister, of having collaborated with the Nazis. The story was repeated by Amos Elon in his Timetable: The Story of Joel Brand in 1981. In fact, writes Bauer, Brand himself was terrified of returning to Budapest, convinced the Germans would murder him. Ben Hecht (February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was one of the most prolific of all Hollywood screenwriters, even though he professed disdain for the motion picture industry, and a human rights and Zionism activist. ... Amos Elon is an Israeli journalist and author. ...

In Palestine, Brand tried to contact Chaim Weizmann, the president of the World Zionist Organization. Weizmann responded to Brand's letter, saying that his secretary would arrange an appointment for the men to meet. Brand alleges that the appointment was never made. The last lines of Brand's testimony to the District Court in Jerusalem during the libel trial were: "Rightly or wrongly, for better or for worse, I have cursed Jewry's official leaders ever since. All these things shall haunt me until my dying day. It is much more than a man can bear." ^[43] Chaim Weizmann and Harry S. Truman, May 25, 1948 Chaim Azriel Weizmann (Hebrew: חיים ויצמן) (also: Chaijim W., Haim W.) (November 27, 1874 – November 9, 1952) chemist, statesman, President of the World Zionist Organization, first President of Israel (elected May 16, 1948, served 1949 - 1952) and founder of a research institute in... The World Zionist Organization, or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization, or ZO, on September 3, 1897, at the First Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland. ...

How genuine was the blood-for-trucks proposal?

Heinrich Himmler in 1945. It is obvious, argues Yehuda Bauer, that Adolf Eichmann was Himmler's reluctant messenger during the meetings with Brand.

Bauer writes that we know the deal originated with Heinrich Himmler because a cable from Edmund Veesenmayer of the SS to the German Foreign Office on July 22, 1944 stated that Brand and Grosz had been sent to Turkey on the orders of Himmler. ^[44] Kurt Becher also indicated that his orders came direct from Himmler: "So I came into contact with Joel Brand ... Trucks were a big problem. So trucks were discussed, 10,000 trucks that is. There were many discussions. Himmler said to me: 'Take whatever you can from the Jews. Promise them whatever you want. What we will keep is another matter'." ^[45] Download high resolution version (488x660, 82 KB)Heinrich Himmler in 1945 This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Download high resolution version (488x660, 82 KB)Heinrich Himmler in 1945 This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. ... Yehuda Bauer Yehuda Bauer (born 1926) is an historian and scholar of the Holocaust. ... Adolf Eichmann, Germany 1940. ... (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. ...

Eichmann himself later testifed that the order came from Himmler, and a report from Kastner shows that Eichmann did not seem happy about having to deal with Brand. Kastner wrote that when Brand failed to return from Istanbul, Eichmann said: ""Yes. I saw all of this in advance. I warned Becher countless times not to allow himself to be led by the nose. If I do not receive a positive answer within forty-eight hours, I will have all this Jewish bag of filth from Budapest laid low." (Werde ich das ganze juedische Dreckpack von Budapest umlegen lassen.) ^[28]

Bauer writes that the "clumsiness of the approach has been a wonderment to all observers." ^[44] He argues that it is obvious that Eichmann was Himmler's reluctant messenger, and that Eichmann's own inclination was clearly to continue murdering Jews, not to sell them. On the day that Brand left for Vienna and Istanbul, Eichmann traveled to Auschwitz to make sure that Rudolf Hoess, the commander of the camp, would be ready to receive the first arrivals due to leave Hungary on May 14. ^[44] Hoess told him there would be problems processing such large numbers, whereupon Eichmann ordered that there should be no selections but that all the new arrivals should be gassed immediately, ^[46] which does not indicate that he was willing to delay the exterminations until Brand returned from Istanbul, as Brand seemed to believe. Auschwitz, Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau, KL Auschwitz is the name used to identify the largest of the Nazi German extermination camps, along with a number of concentration camps, comprising three main camps and 40-50 sub-camps. ... Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höß (in English commonly Hoess or Höss; November 25, 1900 – April 16, 1947) was a senior Nazi official, member of the SS and Waffen-SS (with the rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer) and commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp where he was responsible for the murder...

Bauer argues that the presence of Clages at the meetings signals that Himmler had changed the emphasis from trucks-for-blood to the hidden agenda of secret talks aimed at peace. Bauer writes that there is no indication of what exactly Himmler wanted to achieve, because he did not commit his thoughts to paper, but Bauer points out that Brand and Grosz arrived in Istanbul just two months before the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler, and that Himmler knew there was a plot, though did not know where and when it would be carried out. ^[46] It is possible that Himmler wanted to open negotiations for peace in the event that Hitler did not survive, using two low-level agents, a Jew and a spy, in case he had to distance himself from their mission; and if Hitler did survive, Himmler could offer him the chance to conclude a separate peace deal with the West, excluding the Soviet Union. ^[46] July 20 is the 201st day (202nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 164 days remaining. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer (Leader) of Germany from 1934 until his death. ...

Aftermath

In Budapest, the Vaada had waited anxiously for Brand's return and for some news that the Allies would help. Raul Hilberg writes that the committee did not expect the Allies actually to supply goods to Eichmann, but it hoped for some gesture that would allow protracted negotiations with the Nazis to begin while the Jews waited for the arrival of the Red Army. ^[47] Brand's failure to return to Budapest meant the Vaada was thrown back on its own resources, bitter about the lack of help from the outside world, and in particular from Jews living in safe countries. Dr. Raul Hilberg Raul Hilberg (born June 2, 1926) is one of the best-known and most distinguished of the Holocaust historians. ...

Yehuda Bauer argues that the mistake the Vaada had made was to adopt the almost anti-Semitic belief in unlimited Jewish power. ^[41] The Committee believed that Jewish leaders could move freely during the war and could persuade the Allies to do whatever needed to be done to save the Jews of Hungary. They had similar trust in the goodwill and power of the Allied leadership, but the Allies were gearing up for the Normandy invasion just as Brand set out on his mission, and "[a]t that crucial moment," writes Bauer, "to antagonize the Soviets because of some hare-brained Gestapo plan to ransom Jews was totally out of the question." ^[48] Bauer writes: "Perhaps, in their hopeless situation, [the Aid and Rescue Committee] had to believe these things in order to survive, but when their beliefs had to be tested against the cold realities of a world war, they proved to be so many illusions." ^[48] Yehuda Bauer Yehuda Bauer (born 1926) is an historian and scholar of the Holocaust. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... Combatants Allied Powers Nazi Germany Commanders Dwight D. Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (land) Bertram Ramsay (sea) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe B) Strength 326,000 (by June 11) Unknown Casualties 53,700 dead, 18,000 missing, 155,000 wounded About 200... The Deaths Head emblem similar to Skull and crossbones, often used as the insignia of the Gestapo The (contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei; secret state police) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ...

Kastner later wrote that the Vaada had no choice but to believe in the possibility of rescue. Of Jewish communities living in countries unaffected by the Holocaust, he wrote: "They were outside, we were inside. They moralized, we feared death. They had sympathy for us and believed themselves to be powerless; we wanted to live and believed rescue had to be possible." ^[49]

On May 27, 1944, Hansi Brand was arrested and beaten, though she testified at Eichmann's trial that she withstood it and gave the Hungarians no information ^[50] about the deal that Eichmann had told her was a "state secret" (Reichsgeheimnis). Brand was a bitter man when released by the British; he joined the Lehi (Stern Gang) who were fighting to remove the British from the land that became the State of Israel in 1948. The Istanbul mission created a rift between him and his wife, who for many years wondered what the truth was behind her husband's inability to return to Budapest. Lehi (IPA: , Hebrew acronym for Lohamei Herut Israel, Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) was an armed underground faction in pre-state Israel that had as its goal the eviction of the British from Palestine to allow unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state. ...

Bauer concludes that, despite the haphazard nature of the mission and its ultimate failure, Brand was an extremely courageous man who had passionately wanted to help the Jewish people, and yet whose life was thereafter plagued by the suspicion of family and friends, part of a serious misunderstanding, according to Bauer, of "all the Jewish actors in the situation." ^[9] Brand died in Israel in 1964, probably of liver disease caused by alcohol consumption. ^[9]

See also

• Aid and Rescue Committee
• Rudolf Vrba
• Rudolf Kastner
• Kastner train
• Ben Hecht
• History of the Jews in Hungary
• Adolf Eichmann
• Kurt Becher

Dr. Rudolf Vrba Rudolf Rudi Vrba (11 September 1924 – March 27, 2006) was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia in Canada. ... Rudolf (Resző) Kasztner (1906, Cluj, Transylvania–March 15, 1957, Tel Aviv, Israel) was the head of the Jewish community in Budapest, Hungary during the World War II occupation of the country by Nazi Germany. ... Ben Hecht (February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was one of the most prolific of all Hollywood screenwriters, even though he professed disdain for the motion picture industry, and a human rights and Zionism activist. ... History of the Jews in Hungary concerns the Jews of Hungary and of Hungarian origins. ... Adolf Eichmann, Germany 1940. ...

Notes

Ben Hecht (February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was one of the most prolific of all Hollywood screenwriters, even though he professed disdain for the motion picture industry, and a human rights and Zionism activist. ... Yehuda Bauer Yehuda Bauer (born 1926) is an historian and scholar of the Holocaust. ... Yehuda Bauer Yehuda Bauer (born 1926) is an historian and scholar of the Holocaust. ... Rudolf (Resző) Kasztner (1906, Cluj, Transylvania–March 15, 1957, Tel Aviv, Israel) was the head of the Jewish community in Budapest, Hungary during the World War II occupation of the country by Nazi Germany. ... Frontal view The Supreme Court (Hebrew: בית המשפט העליון, Beit Hamishpat Haelyon ) is at the head of the court system in the State of Israel. ... Dr. Raul Hilberg Raul Hilberg (born June 2, 1926) is one of the best-known and most distinguished of the Holocaust historians. ... Book cover The Destruction of the European Jews is a three-volume work published in 1961 by historian Raul Hilberg. ... Dr. Raul Hilberg Raul Hilberg (born June 2, 1926) is one of the best-known and most distinguished of the Holocaust historians. ... Book cover The Destruction of the European Jews is a three-volume work published in 1961 by historian Raul Hilberg. ... Dr. Raul Hilberg Raul Hilberg (born June 2, 1926) is one of the best-known and most distinguished of the Holocaust historians. ... Book cover The Destruction of the European Jews is a three-volume work published in 1961 by historian Raul Hilberg. ... Dr. Raul Hilberg Raul Hilberg (born June 2, 1926) is one of the best-known and most distinguished of the Holocaust historians. ... Book cover The Destruction of the European Jews is a three-volume work published in 1961 by historian Raul Hilberg. ... Lehi (IPA: , Hebrew acronym for Lohamei Herut Israel, Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) was an armed underground faction in pre-state Israel that had as its goal the eviction of the British from Palestine to allow unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state. ... Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician and author, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... Dr. Raul Hilberg Raul Hilberg (born June 2, 1926) is one of the best-known and most distinguished of the Holocaust historians. ... Book cover The Destruction of the European Jews is a three-volume work published in 1961 by historian Raul Hilberg. ... Dr. Raul Hilberg Raul Hilberg (born June 2, 1926) is one of the best-known and most distinguished of the Holocaust historians. ... Book cover The Destruction of the European Jews is a three-volume work published in 1961 by historian Raul Hilberg. ...

References

Yehuda Bauer Yehuda Bauer (born 1926) is an historian and scholar of the Holocaust. ... Ben Hecht (February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was one of the most prolific of all Hollywood screenwriters, even though he professed disdain for the motion picture industry, and a human rights and Zionism activist. ... Dr. Raul Hilberg Raul Hilberg (born June 2, 1926) is one of the best-known and most distinguished of the Holocaust historians. ... Book cover The Destruction of the European Jews is a three-volume work published in 1961 by historian Raul Hilberg. ...

Further reading