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Rudolf (Resző) Kasztner (1906, Cluj, Transylvania–March 15, 1957, Tel Aviv, Israel) was the head of a small Jewish organization in Budapest, Hungary known as the Zionist Vaad or the Rescue and Relief Committee during the Nazi occupation of Hungary during World War II. Prior to the war, Kasztner was a lawyer and journalist. As the head of Zionist Vaad, Kasztner coordinated with the Nazis and was the conduit between the Nazis and the Jewish community in Budapest. 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
Map of Romania showing Cluj_Napoca Cluj_Napoca (Hungarian: Kolozsvár, German: Klausenburg, Latin: Claudiopolis), the seat of Cluj county, is one of the most important academic, cultural and industrial centers in Romania. ...
Transylvania (Romanian: Transilvania or Ardeal; Hungarian: Erdély; German: Siebenbürgen; see also other languages) forms the western and central parts of Romania. ...
March 15 is the 74th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (75th in Leap years). ...
1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Tel-Aviv was founded on empty dunes north of the existing city of Jaffa. ...
Nickname: Pearl of the Danubeor Queen of the Danube Motto: Official website: www. ...
Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths World War II, also known as the Second World War (sometimes WW2 or WWII), was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as...
Negotiations to save Jews
During the summer of 1944, Kasztner met with Adolf Eichmann, who was in charge of the extermination of the Jews, in Budapest, Hungary. At this meeting, an agreement was reached for 1,685 Jews to be saved for $1,000 per Jewish person saved, or a total of more than $1.5 million. The passangers on the train were indeed saved and the train eventually reached Switzerland, a country that was neutral during World War II. Among the passangers Kasztner negotiated to be saved was Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum. Adolf Eichmann, Germany 1940 Photo from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives. ...
Nickname: Pearl of the Danubeor Queen of the Danube Motto: Official website: www. ...
Rabbi Joel (Yoel) Teitelbaum, (1887-1979), known variously as Reb Yoelish and the Satmar Rav, was a prominent Hungarian Hasidic rebbe and Talmudic scholar. ...
Debate There is much debate over whether Kasztner is a hero who saved thousands of Jewish lives or whether Kasztner was a traitor to the Jews who collaborated with the Nazis.
Collaboration with the Nazis The consequences of this meeting between Kasztner and Eichmann had long last repurcussions in the Israeli and Hungarian Jewish communities that are still being felt today. Part of these repurcussions revolve around the fact that Kasztner helped to draw up the list of who was going to be among the Jews who were chosen to be saved. According to some sources [1], many of the Jews who were saved were personal friends of Kasztner as well as "community and Zionist leaders." However, even as these very negotiations were taking place, thousands of Hungarian Jews were being deported to Birkenau. Birkenau may mean the following: the municipality Birkenau in Hesse, see Birkenau, Hesse the German spelling of the Polish Brzezinka the death camp and part of the concentration camp Auschwitz located near Brzezinka, see Auschwitz concentration camp This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that...
Understandbly, the majority of the Hungarian Jews who were among the Jews who Kasztner saved considered Kasztner to be a hero who risked his life in negotiating with Eichmann. However, other Hungarian Jews questioned why Eichmann and Kasztner were even negotiating at all and if Kasztner was more of a collaborator than a hero. In 1960, 26 years after the meeting between Kasztner and Eichmann, Eichmann himself told Time Magazine that Kasztner "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 to Palestine. It was a good bargain." (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...
By August of 1944, Kasztner and many other Jewish leaders of various Jewish organizations were fully aware that Jews were being sent to their deaths, having recieved the Auschwitz Protocol in April of 1944. The Auschwitz Protocol was released to the leaders of different Jewish organizations in the hopes that Hungarian Jews would be warned of their impending deaths and would somehow be saved. However, the warning never went out and by the end of the war around 450,000 Hungarian Jews had been killed. Critics of Kasztner allege that Kasztner agreed with Eichmann to not warn Hungarian Jews about the death camps and only cared about saving the one train of around one thousand Jews, while supporters of Kasztner argue that Kasztner was so unknown and had so little power that no one would have paid much attention to any warning from Kasztner anyway. To this day no one is quite sure why this warning was never sounded.
In defense of SS officer Kurt Becher In early 1945, Kasztner traveled with an SS officer by the name of Kurt Becher to Germany. Becher was also the envoy of Heinrich Himmler and had recieved the $1.5 million to save the Jewish lives on the train. Himmler had ordered Becher to attempt to stop the destruction of the concentration camps as the Allies gained further ground in the closing days of World War II. This may have been for humanitarian reasons. Even though Kasztner was a Hungarian Jew and Becher was an S.S. officer, Kasztner and Becher worked well together. Heinrich Himmler ▶ (help· info) (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. ...
At the conclusion of the war, Becher was put on trial for being a war criminal. Kasztner testified in defense of Becher, stating that "[Becher is] cut from a different wood than the professional mass murderers of the political SS". This defense of an SS officer has further angered the Hungarian Jewish community, even more so than the original negotiations had with Eichmann.
Post World War II Rudolf Kasztner lived in Israel after the war, adopting the name Yisrael Kastner (ישראל קסטנר). In the 1950s he was accused of profiting from his dealings with the Nazi occupation government. He was exonerated by the Supreme Court of Israel but was killed by an assassin shortly afterwards. Model of the Israel Supreme Court Building. ...
References - "Kasztner, Resző Rudolf, 1906-1957" subject authority record at Library of Congress Authorities, retrieved October 10, 2005.
- Hecht, B. Perfidy, Milah Press, Inc ISBN 0964688638
- LeBor, A., "Eichmann's List: A Pact With the Devil" at The Independent (payment required for full access to article), published August 23, 2000. Complete text available at [2] David Irving's Action Report. Retrieved December 23rd, 2005. This is a very detailed article about the different views and perspectives of Rudolph Kasztner.
David Irving, 2003 David John Cawdell Irving (born March 24, 1938) is a British Holocaust denier, who for many years had the reputation of a professional historian. ...
See also The Kasztner train was a transport of Hungarian Jews from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp organised in 1944 by Rudolf Kasztner. ...
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