In citing sources, short titles are used to lead the reader to the accompanying bibliography. Page or chapter numbers of referenced works are not cited.
INTRODUCTION
1 Auschwitz-Birkenau, or Auschwitz II, was a second camp near the original concentration camp at Auschwitz in Poland, renamed Auschwitz i.
2 This is the figure reported by Edmund Veesenmayer, Reich plenipotentiary for Hungary, to his superiors; the number reported by Hungarian gendarmerie chief Colonel László Ferenczy was 434,351.
3 Schindler is the hero of Thomas Keneally's book Schindler's Ark (later retitled Schindler's List) and of the movie Schindler's List.
4 Schindler, Ich, Oskar Schindler.
PART ONE: THE JEWISH QUESTION
1 Attributed to Burke (1729–97), Irish philosopher and statesman. Possibly it is a distillation of the words found in his Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770).
CHAPTER 1:
DESPERATELY SEEKING PALESTINE
For personal information I relied primarily on Rezső Kasztner's writings in Új Kelet; Dezsö Hermann's memories in Ofry, Egy Évszázad Tanúja; information provided by Yitzhak Katsir, Rezső Kasztner's nephew; and interviews with Adam Heller and George Bishop.
1 Information provided to the author by Yitzhak Katsir.
2 Ofry, Egy Évszázad Tanúja.
3 MacMillan, Paris 1919.
4 Gilbert, The Holocaust.
5 Herzl, The Jewish State.
6 Information from Yitzhak Katsir.
7 Ben-Gurion in 1948 became the first prime minister of Israel.
8 In parts of Europe, the social title “Dr.” is bestowed on lawyers and other professionals.
9 Ofry, Egy Évszázad Tanúja. Dezsö Hermann was on the Kasztner train. He became a celebrated lawyer in Israel and spent the last years of his life trying to clear Kasztner's name.
10 Information from Yitzhak Katsir.
11 Ofry, Egy Évszázad Tanúja.
12 Information from Yitzhak Katsir.
13 Ofry, Egy Évszázad Tanúja.
14 The Ihud was formed in 1930 from two other leftist parties.
15 Chaim Weizmann in 1948 would become the first president of Israel.
16 It is now called the Babelplatz.
17 Times (London), September 17, 1935.
18 Information from Yitzhak Katsir.
19 Hansard, April 14, 1937.
20 Gilbert, The Holocaust.
21 Wasserstein, Britain and the Jews of Europe, 1939–1945.
22 Gilbert, The Jews in the Twentieth Century.
23 Ofry, Egy Évszázad Tanúja. “Albion” is among the ancient names for Britain.
24 Born in Lithuania, Chaim Barlas had been a Zionist youth worker. He was director of the Agency's Palestine Office in Warsaw from 1919 till 1925, when he emigrated to Palestine. From 1926 to 1948, he was stationed in Geneva, then Istanbul, as a director of the Jewish Agency's Immigration Department.
25 Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David.
26 Gilbert, The Jews in the Twentieth Century.
27 Levin, The Holocaust. The judge used these words at the trial of one of a few German soldiers.
28 Haganah membership was estimated at about sixty thousand; it undertook a range of missions, including assisting with illegal immigration.
29 Wasserstein, Britain and the Jews of Europe, 1939–1945.
30 In his Memoirs, Horthy did not see this pact as an affirmation of Hungary's commitment to Germany.
31 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
CHAPTER 2: THE GATHERING STORM
For scenes in this chapter I relied on my interviews with Eva Berg, Zsuzsi Kasztner, Sári Reuveni, and Peretz Révész; Salamon, Keresztény Voltam Európában (I Was a Christian in Europe); Der Kasztner-Bericht (The Kasztner Report); Benshalom, We Struggled for Life; Horthy, Memoirs; Stern, Emlékirataim; Biss, A Million Jews to Save; Joel Brand's testimonies at the trials of Malchiel Grünwald and Adolf Eichmann; Hansi Brand's interviews by Dr. Gabriel Barshaked and her trial testimonies; and Szilágyi, Ismeretlen Memoár a Magyar Vészkorszakról (An Unknown Memoir about the Hungarian Holocaust).
1 Under the Jewish calendar.
2 Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
3 Zweig, The Gold Train.
4 Eva Berg, interviewed by the author in Toronto in 2006.
5 Komoly, “What May Jews Learn from the Present Crisis?”
6 Benshalom, We Struggled for Life. When Rafi Benshalom arrived in the capital in January 1944, he was astonished at the open animosity among the various groups. The fact that this rivalry continued during the German occupation is difficult to understand.
7 These halutzim (in the singular, halutz) were getting ready to emigrate to Palestine. During the war years, the word “halutz” had the additional romantic connotation of a revolutionary spirit.
8 Salamon, Keresztény Voltam Európában.
9 Ibid.
10 Kasztner, Der Kasztner-Bericht.
11 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
12 Braham estimates that by 1943 there were fifteen thousand refugees in Hungary.
13 The committee had been set up in 1914 to help European Jews, with its headquarters in New York and branch offices in various countries in Europe. After 1942, it experienced difficulty in transferring funds to Europe because of U.S. regulations governing the transfer of funds to Nazi-occupied areas.
14 Salamon, Keresztény Voltam Európában.
15 Horthy believed this to have been an unprovoked attack by the Soviets.
16 Weizmann had applied directly to Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
17 St. John, The Man Who Played God.
18 Gabriella Mauthner, interviewed by Lajos Erdelyi.
19 The Abwehr under Admiral Wilhelm Canaris had become a competitor to the Sicherheitsdienst (Reich Security Office, or SD) and the Gestapo when it came to information gathering. It had well-trained agents throughout the world. Springmann said both Hitler and SS boss Heinrich Himmler liked the idea of competition among the Reich agencies.
20 Friling, Arrows in the Dark.
21 Biss, A Million Jews to Save.
22 Joel Brand, in Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead.
CHAPTER 3: A QUESTION OF HONOR, LAW, AND JUSTICE
For some scenes I relied on Der Kasztner-Bericht; my interviews with Peretz Révész and Sári Reuveni; Egon Mayer's articles; Braham, The Politics of Genocide; Braham's three-volume Hungarian Jewish Studies; Joel Brand's testimonies at the trials of Malchiel Grünwald and Adolf Eichmann; Hansi Brand's interviews by Barshaked; Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead; and Schindler, Ich, Oskar Schindler.
1 Horthy, Memoirs.
2 Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead.
3 Lévai, Fehér Könyv.
4 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
5 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Dr. Gabriel Barshaked in 1995. The author also reviewed several filmed interviews with Hansi.
6 Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead.
7 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Barshaked.
8 Information provided to the author by Zsuzsi Kasztner.
9 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
10 Peretz Révész, interviewed by the author in 2005 and 2006.
11 According to Bauer, seven thousand to eight thousand Slovak and Hungarian Jews had fled Slovakia for Hungary by the early spring of 1942.
12 Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David.
13 Bauer, A History of the Holocaust.
14 Friling, Arrows in the Dark.
15 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
16 Much of this account is based on Der Kasztner-Bericht and on Barshaked's interviews with Hansi Brand; some descriptions here are from Keneally, Schindler's Ark.
17 Gilbert, The Jews in the Twentieth Century.
18 Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews.
CHAPTER 4:
THE POLITICS OF GENOCIDE
Both here and in Chapter 5 I relied on several sources, including Vrba and Bestic, Escape from Auschwitz; Höss's statements at Nuremberg and his autobiography, Death Dealer; Rees, Auschwitz; and survivors’ accounts, including those at Yad Vashem Archives and at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
1 By this time, according to Yehuda Bauer, there were about 2,500 Polish Jews in Hungary. Other historians put the figure even higher.
2 Kontler, A History of Hungary.
3 Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
4 Horthy, Memoirs.
5 Horthy, Memoirs; Bauer, Jews for Sale?; Stern, Emlékirataim. Buda Castle is also known as the Royal Palace.
6 Horthy, Memoirs.
7 Ibid.
8 Braham, The Politics of Genocide; in an interview, Adam Heller told the author of the current text that his own father was one of the few who escaped, clawing his way through the flames and the burning bodies.
9 Schindler, Ich, Oskar Schindler.
10 Szita, Aki Egy Embert Megment (He Who Saves a Single Life) .
11 Bauer, A History of the Holocaust. She did not know that about 2.5 million of Poland's Jews were dead by the spring of 1943.
12 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
13 Wisliceny's testimony before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, January 3, 1946.
14 Feig, Hitler's Death Camps; author's translation of the SS oath.
15 Hersh and Mann, Gizelle, Save the Children!
16 Horthy, Memoirs.
17 Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
CHAPTER 5: BUDAPEST: THE BEGINNING OF THE END
1 Rees, Auschwitz.
2 Vrba and Bestic, Escape from Auschwitz.
3 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
4 This chapter is based on Joel Brand's memoirs, Gabriel Barshaked's interviews with Hansi Brand, and Der Kasztner-Bericht.
5 Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead. As Brand said: “One of our most capable men, fit for any conceivable job—except that of army commander.”
6 The clandestine army of the Yishuv from which Israel's army evolved after the creation of the State of Israel.
7 By 1944 there were about thirty thousand Jews in the British army.
8 Brand's recollection, in Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead.
PART TWO:
THE KINGDOM OF THE NIGHT
The headline for this part is drawn from Elie Wiesel's Night.
CHAPTER 6: THE OCCUPATION
For scenes in this chapter I relied on Munkácsi, Hogyan Történt?; Joel Brand's testimonies at the trials of Malchiel Grünwald and Adolf Eichmann; Hansi Brand's interviews by Barshaked; Der Kasztner-Bericht; Révész, “Against a Tidal Wave of Evil”; and my interviews with Peretz Révész.
1 It was revealed later that when Veesenmayer was shown the lists of those arrested, he did not think enough Jews had been imprisoned, so he ordered that the numbers be doubled.
2 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
3 Chorin and his brother-in-law, Móric Kornfeld, had actually gone into hiding at the Zirc Cistercian Abbey some sixty miles west of Budapest, but the Va’ada members did not know that at the time.
4 István Deak's personal recollection, told to the author in 2006.
5 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Gabriel Barshaked.
6 Munkácsi, Hogyan Történt?; Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
7 Krumey's testimony at Nuremberg and, later, at Eichmann's trial.
8 In his evidence at Eichmann's trial, Krumey said that he had not “taken the term ‘special treatment’ to mean extermination,” though it had been established already that these words were a euphemism for murder.
9 There are several accounts of this event. I relied most on Ernő Munkácsi's Hogyan Történt?
10 Munkácsi, Hogyan Történt?
11 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
CHAPTER 7: OBERSTURMBANNFÜHRER ADOLF EICHMANN
The early biographical details in this chapter are based on Eichmann's pretrial and trial testimonies and Wisliceny's testimonies at Nuremberg.
1 Von Lang, ed., Eichmann Interrogated.
2 Wisliceny's testimony at Nuremberg.
3 Among other things, Max Nordau wrote a paper for the First Zionist Congress; Moses Hess wrote Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Question.
4 Wisliceny's testimony at Nuremberg.
5 Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
6 Carpathian Ruthenia and northeastern Hungary were designated Zone I, and northern Transylvania—including Kolozsvár—was Zone II in the agreed order of ghettoization and deportation. Northern Hungary was designated Zone III; the southeast was Zone IV; the southwest, Zone V; Zone VI, the last, was to be Budapest. For details, see Braham, The Politics of Genocide, vol. 1.
7 Braham, The Politics of Genocide, vol. 1.
8 Horthy, Memoirs.
9 This meeting is recorded in Szilágyi Ismeretlen Memoár.
10 Kasztner was referring to the deals the Germans had made with various Jewish leaders to allow the exit of large numbers of Jews to Palestine.
11 This section is based on the memoirs of Carl Lutz; on Benshalom, We Struggled for Life; and on Der Kasztner-Bericht.
12 Sources for information about this meeting include Braham, The Politics of Genocide; Munkácsi, Hogyan Történt?; Komoly, “The Diary Of Ottó Komoly”; Stern, “A Race against Time.”
13 Munkácsi, Hogyan Történt?
14 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
CHAPTER 8:
IN THE ANTEROOM OF HELL
This chapter is based on Der Kasztner-Bericht; Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead; Hansi Brand's interviews with Gabriel Barshaked, and Szilágyi, Ismeretlen Memoár.
1 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
2 Munkácsi, Hogyan Történt?
3 Stern, Emlékirataim.
4 Elizabeth Zahler never recovered the pension, nor the loan she had given the manageress.
5 Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
6 Kasztner, “A Nagy Embervásár” (The Great Trade in Lives).
7 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
8 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
CHAPTER 9:
BARGAINING WITH THE DEVIL
This chapter is based on Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead; Joel Brand's testimonies at the trials of Malchiel Grünwald and Eichmann; Der Kasztner-Bericht; Tschuy, Dangerous Diplomacy; Hansi Brand's interviews with Gabriel Barshaked and Randolph Braham; and Wisliceny's testimonies at Nuremberg.
1 The Nazis referred to the ghettoization and deportation of the Jews as “the Aktion.”
2 Brand's testimony at Eichmann's trial.
3 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
4 Salamon, Keresztény Voltam Európában.
5 Stern, Emlékirataim.
6 Tschuy, Dangerous Diplomacy.
7 Szilágyi, Ismeretlen Memoár.
CHAPTER 10:
THE AUSCHWITZ PROTOCOLS
1 Vrba and Wetzler, “Auschwitz Protocols.”
2 Though acknowledged as providing the first credible information about mass murder at Auschwitz, Vrba's accounts of events in general caused ongoing controversy.
3 This meeting and conversation are based on Brand's recollections in Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead, and his testimonies at the Grünwald and Eichmann trials.
CHAPTER 11: THE REICHSFÜHRER's MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT
1 The conversations between Brand, Klages, and Eichmann are based on Brand's recollections in Weiss-berg, Advocate for the Dead, and his testimonies at the Grünwald and Eichmann trials. Becher's personal history is based on Müller-Tupath, Reichsführers gehorsamster Becher, on his Nuremberg testimonies, and on Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
2 Becher's interrogation at Nuremberg.
3 Gabriella Mauthner, interviewed by Lajos Erdelyi.
4 This information is based on Tschuy, Dangerous Diplomacy. Several other writers question the timing indicated by Tschuy for Kasztner's receipt of the Auschwitz Protocols and his subsequent actions.
5 Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
6 Ben-Tov, Facing the Holocaust in Budapest.
7 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
8 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
9 To this day there are emotional debates about who made the final list, how many people were involved in the selection, and why some were excluded. For example, see András Gáll, “Volt Egyszer Egy Huszadik Század” (Once There Was a Twentieth Century).
10 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
11 Kasztner, “A Nagy Embervásár.”
12 Moshe Shertok later changed his name to Moshe Sharett.
13 Der Kasztner-Bericht; Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David.
CHAPTER 12: MISSION TO ISTANBUL
The Istanbul scenes in this chapter are based on Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead; Joel Brand's testimonies at the Grünwald and Eichmann trials; Friling, Arrows in the Dark; Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David; Bauer, Jews for Sale?; Hadari, Against All Odds; and Grosz's testimony at the Grünwald trial.
1 Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead.
2 After the annexation of former Hungarian territories in Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia, the Jewish population of Hungary was estimated to be 800,000, including converts to Christianity, who, by Nazi definition, were also Jewish.
3 Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David. Formed in 1942, shortly after Yishuv leaders learned of the planned annihilation of three to four million Polish Jews, the committee's formal name was “Committee for the Jews of Occupied Europe.” Initially, it represented all factions of the Yishuv.
4 Friling, Arrows in the Dark; Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David.
5 Hadari, Against All Odds.
6 Ben-Gurion was chairman and Shertok was head of the Agency's Political Department.
7 Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David.
8 Peretz Révész, interviewed by the author.
9 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Gabriel Barshaked.
10 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
11 The first and subsequent meetings are reported on in Der Kasztner-Bericht; Biss, A Million Jews to Save; Bauer, Jews for Sale?; and Hansi Brand's interviews with Barshaked.
12 Hans Frank had been named governor general of the General Government of Nazi-occupied Poland, after the annexation of the western provinces by the Reich.
13 Rees, Auschwitz.
14 Hajj Amin el Husseini was a leader of the Arab revolt against the British mandate and against Jewish immigration. His enthusiasm for Nazism was well known, as was his support for the extermination of Jews.
15 The Bermuda Conference between Britain and the United States opened on April 19, 1943, in Hamilton, Bermuda. All suggestions that the Allies accept the unlimited emigration of Jewish refugees were rejected there. Ian Henderson of the British Foreign Office minuted: “We have already opposed the idea of a general appeal to the German Government suggesting that they should unload all Jews under their control on the Allies. German acceptance would raise insuperable difficulties connected with transport, supply, passage through neutral countries…”
16 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Barshaked.
17 Der Stürmer, a rabidly anti-Semitic Nazi weekly published by Julius Streicher, had but one purpose: to vilify Jews and urge actions against them.
18 Eichmann denied this story at his trial.
19 Salamon, Keresztény Voltam Európában.
20 Stern, “A Race against Time.”
21 Wisliceny's testimony at Nuremberg.
22 July 7, 1947, and March 2, 1948.
CHAPTER 13:
A MILLION JEWS FOR SALE
The Istanbul parts of this chapter are based on Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead; Joel Brand's testimonies at the Grünwald and Eichmann trials; Friling, Arrows in the Dark; Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David; Bauer, Jews for Sale?; Hadari, Against All Odds; and Grosz's testimony at the Grünwald trial.
1 Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead.
2 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
3 Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead.
4 Munkácsi, Hogyan Történt?
5 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
6 Becher testified at Nuremberg that Himmler's instructions had been: “Get out of the Jews everything that can be got out of them… As to what we’ll keep, we’ll just have to see.”
7 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
8 Szita, Aki Egy Embert Megment.
9 Tschuy, Dangerous Diplomacy.
10 In his book Against All Odds, Zeev Venia Hadari (formerly Pomerantz) writes about repeated warnings to Jews in the ghettos about the deportations.
11 In his written testimony from abroad for Eichmann's trial, Becher claimed he and Kasztner had been “introduced by Dr. Billitz.”
12 Born in Galicia, Bader had been a leader of Hashomer Hatzair, the Histadrut Jewish trade union, and the Zionist Action Committee.
13 This account is based on Der Kasztner-Bericht; Biss, A Million Jews to Save; and Hansi Brand's interviews with Gabriel Barshaked.
14 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
15 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
16 Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead; Bauer, Jews for Sale?; Brand's testimonies at the Grünwald and Eichmann trials.
17 Kollek, One Jerusalem.
18 Hadari, Against All Odds.
19 Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead.
20 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
21 Ibid.
22 In 1949 the government of Israel established the Ha-Mossad le-Modiin ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim, the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations. It is this incarnation of the Mossad that today is known worldwide.
23 Bauer, Jews for Sale?; Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David.
24 Avriel had been involved in negotiations for the escape of five thousand Jewish children and accompanying adults from Europe in 1943.
25 The right-wing Zionist Revisionist movement, active in eastern Europe, advocated the establishment of a Jewish state and an armed struggle to achieve its goals. Its youth wing was known as Betar, and in Europe a number of Betar members took part in the resistance movement against the Nazis.
CHAPTER 14: A GAME OF ROULETTE FOR HUMAN LIVES
Various scenes in this chapter are based on Der Kasztner-Bericht; Wisliceny's testimonies at Nuremberg; Hadari, Against All Odds; and Joel Brand's testimonies at the Grünwald and Eichmann trials.
1 Tschuy, Dangerous Diplomacy.
2 Ibid.
3 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
4 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
5 Hadari, Against All Odds.
6 Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David.
7 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
8 The War Refugee Board had been established in January 1944 in response to the European refugee crisis.
9 Wisliceny's testimony at Nuremberg.
10 Lowy, A Kálváriától a Tragédiáig.
11 Dinur, Kastner.
12 Information from Zsuzsi Kasztner.
CHAPTER 15: ROLLING THE DICE
1 Author's translation.
2 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
3 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
4 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
5 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Gabriel Barshaked in Tel Aviv.
6 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
7 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
8 Freudiger, “Five Months.”
9 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
10 Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
11 Schiller has the number as 5,239.
12 According to Schiller, in A Strasshofi Mentőakció (The Strasshof Rescue), the number registered on arrival was only 14,700. Argermayer's numbers have been debated by several historians; some have put the figure as low as 14,000, others as high as 25,000. I have chosen to stay with the Argermayer estimate because this is the one that Kasztner received.
13 There were 6,641 from Debrecen, 2,567 from Szolnok, and 564 from Baja.
14 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
15 Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
16 Report on the Activities of the Red Cross in Hungary, 1944–45.
17 In his Memoirs, Horthy claimed he had not seen the Auschwitz Protocols until later.
18 Kasztner, “A Nagy Embervásár.”
19 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
20 Jaross's people convinced Serédi that the government was already taking action on the matter of the converted Jews. It was not.
CHAPTER 16:
BLESSINGS FROM HEAVEN
My sources for scenes and dialogue include Kasztner's and Palgi's testimonies at the Grünwald trial; Hansi Brand's interviews by Barshaked; Palgi, Into the Inferno; Biss, A Million Jews to Save; and notes from Kasztner's secretary, Lily Ungár.
1 Interviewed by Gabriel Barshaked.
2 Since 1941, Yishuv leaders had pressured the British to establish a special Jewish squadron. David Ben-Gurion had been assured that the United States would be onside for at least elite commando units of the Haganah to be used against the Reich. In 1942 Moshe Shertok had asked if they could be used in Poland or Bulgaria. His proposals were rejected.
3 Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David.
4 Schur, Hannah Szenes.
5 Kasztner discovered later that he was in Mauthausen, a concentration camp in Austria.
6 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Barshaked.
7 Ibid.
CHAPTER 17: STRASSHOF: THE JEWS ON ICE
Some information in this chapter is based on Braham, The Politics of Genocide; Szita, Aki Egy Embert Megment and Utak a Pokolból; Schiller, A Strasshofi Mentőakció; and Der Kasztner-Bericht.
1 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
2 Szita, Aki Egy Embert Megment.
3 Letter from Kaltenbrunner to Blaschke, June 7, 1944.
4 Paul Varnai, interviewed by the author in Budapest in 2006.
CHAPTER 18: THE LAST TRAIN
1 Interviewed by the author in Toronto in 2003–05.
2 Ibid.
CHAPTER 19: THE MEMORIES OF ERWIN SCHAEFFER
1 Interviewed by the author in Budapest in 2003–04 and 2007, and in New York by phone.
2 To this day, Erwin is convinced that one of those men was Rezső Kasztner.
CHAPTER 20: THE JOURNEY
I read numerous accounts of this journey and the arrival at Bergen-Belsen and interviewed several people who were on the train.
1 According to André Biss, the number leaving Budapest was 1,300, and the other 200 clambered aboard at various stages when the train stopped.
2 Szita, Aki Egy Embert Megment.
3 In his memoir, “Five Months,” Fülöp von Freudiger writes of how deeply he resented being given so few seats for the Orthodox, who, in his view, “constituted half of the Jewish population in the country,” though only 10 percent in Budapest.
4 Szita, Aki Egy Embert Megment.
5 Margit Fendrich, interviewed by the author in June and December 2006.
6 “Erőltetett Menet” (Forced March), by Jenő Kolb, is a diary of the train journey. I have relied on it for some details in this chapter.
7 Auspitz bei Brunn, in Austria.
8 Biss, A Million Jews to Save.
9 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
10 Schiller, A Strasshofi Mentőakció.
11 Zsolt, Kilenc Koffer; author's translation.
12 Kolb, “Erőltetett Menet.”
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
CHAPTER 21:
THE END OF THE GREAT PLAN
1 Dated July 12, 1944, the letter was sent to Schwalb in Geneva.
2 Freudiger, “Five Months.”
3 Bader would, from 1949 to 1951, be a Mapai member of the Knesset.
4 Friling, “Nazi-Jewish Negotiations in Istanbul in Mid-1944.”
5 Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead.
6 Ibid.
7 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
8 Ibid.
9 Hirschmann, Life Line to a Promised Land.
10 Churchill to Eden, July 11, 1944, cited in Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David.
11 Weissberg, Advocate for the Dead.
12 Kasztner, “A Nagy Embervásár.”
13 The coffee had been paid for by the Joint.
14 Report on the Activities of the Red Cross in Hungary, 1944–45.
15 Stern, “A Race against Time.”
16 Wisliceny's testimony at Nuremberg.
17 Cole, in Holocaust City, estimates the number of people deported between May 15 and July 8, 1944, as 437,402.
CHAPTER 22:
STILL TRADING IN LIVES
1 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
2 Brand's testimony at the Grünwald and Eichmann trials. Hecht, in Perfidy, says: “His Lordship had already tried the bottom of the Mediterranean for the Jews on the refugee ships,” a reference to the sinkings of the vessels Struma, Patria, and others.
3 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
4 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
5 Kasztner, “A Nagy Embervásár.”
6 Biss, A Million Jews to Save.
7 Braham, in The Politics of Genocide, says that only seven thousand people held these emigration certificates, but Porat, in The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David, claims there were eight thousand. Given that none of these would-be emigrants made it out of the country, this difference is of purely academic interest.
8 Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David.
9 Salamon, Keresztény Voltam Európában.
10 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
11 Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
12 Report of Roswell McClelland on the Activities of the War Refugee Board in Switzerland, Dossier on the Saly Mayer Negotiations.
13 Wallenberg arrived on July 9, the day that the Hungarian countryside was emptied of Jews.
14 LeBor, Hitler's Secret Bankers.
15 Freudiger, “Five Months.”
16 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
17 Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews.
18 The effort included two volumes containing all the particulars and photographs of 2,200 people.
19 Telegram from the American Legation to the War Refugee Board, August 11, 1944.
20 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
21 Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David.
22 Kasztner's notes from the meeting, dated July 15, 1944.
23 Eichmann told Kasztner he had been told to let about five hundred go, but he could use his judgment for the exact number. “It could be more or less,” he said.
CHAPTER 23: THE BRIDGE AT SAINT MARGARETHEN
All the participants wrote, reported, or testified about the first meeting on the bridge and its aftermath. See also Bauer and Guttman, “The Negotiations between Saly Mayer and the Representatitves of the SS in 1944–1945,” and Dossier on the Saly Mayer Negotiations, Records of the War Refugee Board.
1 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
2 John Pehle of the War Refugee Board had written to U.S. undersecretary of state Edward R. Stettinius on August 17: “I feel strongly that we cannot enter into any ransom transactions with the German authorities in order to obtain the release of the Jews.”
3 Cabled report on the meeting from the American legation in Bern.
4 George Bishop, interviewed by the author in New York.
5 Lowy, A Kálváriától a Tragédiáig.
6 Hausner, Justice in Jerusalem.
7 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
8 The Bratislava Working Group was still convinced that all that stood between Slovak Jews and deportation was Wisliceny's greed.
9 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
10 Ibid.
CHAPTER 24: THE END OF SUMMER
1 Wisliceny's testimony at Nuremberg.
2 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
3 Ibid.
4 In his account, André Biss takes credit for sending Grüson into this meeting with Brunner.
5 Biss, A Million Jews to Save.
6 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
7 Ibid.
8 Biss, A Million Jews to Save.
9 Biss described him as “a member of the SS equipment section,” one of the “moderate group of economists.”
10 There are three versions of what was said at this meeting. I have chosen the one related by Wyler-Schmidt.
11 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
12 Ibid.
13 Davies, Europe.
14 Szita, Aki Egy Embert Megment; report prepared by Lily Ungár, Kasztner's secretary.
15 Kollek was born near Budapest but grew up in Vienna.
16 According to the Bratislava Working Group's estimates, there were between two thousand and three thousand Jews in hiding.
CHAPTER 25:
THE DYING DAYS OF BUDAPEST
1 Braham, Hungarian Jewish Studies, vol. 3.
2 Keegan, The Second World War.
3 “The Diary Of Ottó Komoly”; Der Kasztner-Bericht.
4 In his Memoirs, Horthy claims that had the Allies followed his suggestion, the war would have ended several months before it did.
5 Biss's “gentleman soldier” Klages died of his wounds.
6 Braham, The Politics of Genocide.
7 Szita, Aki Egy Embert Megment.
8 Later, he changed his name to Yehuda Lahav and became a successful journalist and author in Israel. He was an early and helpful critic of the author's manuscript.
9 Interviewed by the author.
10 Der Kasztner-Bericht, and Kasztner's typed records of meetings.
11 Geschke, as SD commander, had been directly responsible for the reprisals against the civilian population of Lidice following the killing of Heydrich by partisans.
12 Schwartz, Living Memory.
13 Interviewed by the author in Toronto in 2006.
14 October 17 memorandum from Byron Price of the Office of Censorship, Washington, to John Pehle: “Transactions of this nature are clearly in violation of the ‘Trading with the Enemy Act.’ ”
15 Cohen, “The Halutz Resistance.”
16 Benshalom, We Struggled for Life.
17 Hausner, Justice in Jerusalem.
18 Interviewed by the author in Toronto in 2006.
CHAPTER 26: IN THE SHADOW OF THE THIRD REICH's FINAL DAYS
The dialogue in this chapter is based on both Kasztner's and Saly Mayer's recollections.
1 Mayer warned Becher to stop negotiating on the basis of a “trade in humans.” Becher responded that the actual words used were irrelevant, but he agreed to say “performance” and “counterperformance” when he met McClelland the next day.
2 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
3 Kasztner, “A Nagy Embervásár.”
4 Jüttner's testimony for Eichmann's trial.
5 Becher's testimony at Nuremberg.
6 Cohen, “The Halutz Resistance.”
7 Schmidt, “Mentés Vagy árulás?”
8 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
9 The total number of Jews sent on the “death march” is reported to have been between forty thousand and eighty thousand, about half of whom arrived alive.
10 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
11 Cole, Holocaust City.
12 The last murders by gassing in Auschwitz had taken place at the end of October. Whether Becher had anything to do with Himmler's change of attitude is doubtful. The crematoria in Auschwitz-Birkenau were demolished starting on November 25, and it would have taken a few days for them to be completely destroyed.
13 Margit Fendrich, interviewed by the author.
14 Biss, A Million Jews to Save.
15 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
16 Ibid.
17 Hansi explained in her taped interviews with Gabriel Barshaked that she had not agreed to his proposal but merely let it hang in the air, as they both waited for the atrocities to end.
18 Most of the money for medicines and food came from the Joint via the International Red Cross.
19 According to Kádár and Vági, in Self-financing Genocide, eight hundred wagons and thirty barges carried Becher's loot out of Hungary.
20 Zweig, The Gold Train.
21 Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
22 Zweig, The Gold Train.
23 Musy, staunchly Catholic, initially had been an admirer of the Nazis.
24 Kasztner had to check in with Dr. Adolf Ebner, the Gestapo's second-in-command in Vienna, who instructed him to have no contact with Aryans and not to reveal to anyone at the Grand that he was a Jew.
25 According to Kasztner, the records showed 18,220 people.
26 Schiller, A Strasshofi Mentőakció.
27 Rees, Auschwitz.
28 According to Randolph Braham, approximately 440,000 people.
29 The first estimate, by the Soviet government, of the number of people murdered at Auschwitz was four million. Historians still disagree on the exact number: Hilberg's figure is one million, Gilbert's is two million, and Bauer's is 2.5 million for the Jews only. Numbers for the different nationalities vary as well. I have chosen to go with Kádár and Vági's numbers because they are among the most recent estimates.
30 Piper, in his book Auschwitz, estimates that the number could be as high as 1.5 million, but as the Germans kept no record of those murdered in the gas chambers immediately on their arrival, it is difficult to find the exact number.
31 International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 15 April, 1946.
32 Krumey's testimony for Eichmann's trial.
33 Szita, Aki Egy Embert Megment.
34 Wisliceny's testimony at Nuremberg.
35 Der Kasztner-Bericht; Wisliceny's testimony at Nuremberg.
36 Schiller, A Strasshofi Mentőakció.
37 Already, in 1943, he had told an SS audience that “it is now deplorable by reason of the loss of labor that the prisoners died in tens and hundreds of thousands of exhaustion and hunger.”
38 Varnai, “Jaj a Gyermekkor Milyen Tündéri Szép Volt.”
CHAPTER 27: BUDAPEST IN THE THROES OF LIBERATION
1 On November 7 General Ottó Hátszegi-Hatz had defected to the Soviets with the complete Margarethen line defense plans, and on November 13 Major Ernő Simonffy-Tóth delivered the plans for the defense of the city.
2 Interviewed by the author in Toronto in 2006.
3 Dani Brand, interviewed by the author in Tel Aviv in 2005 and 2006.
4 Ungvary, The Siege of Budapest.
5 Schwartz, Living Memory.
6 A photocopy of the certificate was displayed at the Citadel in Budapest in 2006 at an exhibition commemorating the siege. Jerezien is mentioned in Gilbert, The Righteous, his account of non-Jews who assisted the Jews during these terrible years.
7 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Gabriel Barshaked.
8 Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
9 Nuremberg testimony, November 26, 1947; Ungvary, The Siege of Budapest.
10 Mendelsohn and Detwiler, eds., The Holocaust, vol. 15; Becher took the credit during his direct questioning by Kasztner at Nuremberg on July 7, 1947.
11 Kasztner, “A Nagy Embervásár.”
12 At his trial, even Ferenc Szálasi claimed credit for stopping the destruction of the ghetto.
13 Salamon, Keresztény Voltam Európában.
14 Ungvary, The Siege of Budapest.
15 Ibid.
16 Davies, Europe; Keegan, in The Second World War, says the numbers were grossly exaggerated and estimates only thirty thousand.
17 The deposit had been approved “for humanitarian purposes” on January 24. See also the letter from the American Joint Distribution Committee of February 16.
18 According to Szita, in Aki Egy Embert Megment, between November 28 and December 21 the money was deposited with Th. Willy, a Lucerne firm that used the cash to pay for sixteen tractors for a German firm. Der Kasztner-Bericht says the deposit purchased 122 tractors and 30 trucks. In addition, three truckloads of food were sent from Switzerland to the concentration camps.
CHAPTER 28: NAZI GOLD
1 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
2 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
3 This order, issued in October 1944, was submitted in evidence against Ernst Kaltenbrunner at Nuremberg on April 12, 1946.
4 Becher's testimony for Eichmann's trial; Der Kasztner-Bericht.
5 In March alone, 18,168 prisoners had died of hunger and disease.
6 Margit Fendrich, interviewed by the author; Hansi Brand, interviewed by Gabriel Barshaked.
7 Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
8 Szita, in Aki Egy Embert Megment, says the journey took twelve days.
9 Der Kasztner-Bericht reported that Wisliceny had, in fact, been appointed “inspector of Theresienstadt” and was traveling there in his new capacity.
10 Szita, Aki Egy Embert Megment.
11 When Kaltenbrunner was confronted at Nuremberg on April 12, 1946, with testimony given earlier by Ziereis, he denied having given such an order.
12 After Himmler was given a fierce tongue-lashing by Hitler, according to Bauer in Jews for Sale?
13 Becher's testimony for Eichmann's trial.
14 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
15 Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
16 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
17 According to Bauer, Wallenberg saved 4,500 Jews with his papers and his personal intervention with both the Arrow Cross and the Szálasi government operatives.
18 Bauer, A History of the Holocaust.
PART FOUR: DEATH WITH HONOR
1 Segev, The Seventh Million.
CHAPTER 29: IN SEARCH OF A LIFE
For some scenes I relied on Szilágyi, Ismeretlen Memoár; my interviews with Tom Margittai, Eva Carmeli, and Margit Fendrich; Hansi Brand's interviews by Barshaked; and interviews in the Brubyak Studio film Kasztner.
1 Weitz, “The Man Who Was Murdered Twice.”
2 Tom Margittai, interviewed by the author.
3 Novák, “Egy Ismeretlen Kronikája.”
4 In Bill Jones's documentary film Secret History.
5 Tschuy, Dangerous Diplomacy.
6 In the English-language edition published in 2003, Palgi talks of the horror with which Kasztner received him and Goldstein in Budapest, particularly his consternation at the Yishuv's belated and completely useless rescue plan. But he also claims that Kasztner had promised to help all three of the parachutists escape from prison if he and Goldstein succeeded in convincing their captors that they had come as emissaries of the Jewish Agency on behalf of the blood-for-goods deal.
7 Information from Zsuzsi Kasztner.
8 Menachem Begin was from Poland, and most of his family and his village had been murdered during the Holocaust. He survived the Nazis and a Soviet slave camp. In 1943 he became the leader of the clandestine Irgun, the Revisionists’ army. He was, from the beginning, against all deals and negotiations with the British—at least while they were ensconced in Palestine.
9 Central Zionist Archives.
10 Statement of Israel Kastner before the American Investigative Committee for War Crimes, Headed by Justice Jackson, Regarding the Jews of Hungary.
11 Barri, “The Question of Kastner's Testimonies on Behalf of Nazi War Criminals.” The statements by Kasztner were made on September 13, 1945.
12 Zweig, The Gold Train.
13 The affidavit is dated October 21, 1945.
14 Information from Zsuzsi Kasztner.
15 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Gabriel Barshaked.
16 Eva Carmeli, interviewed by the author in Tel Aviv in 2006.
17 Der Kasztner-Bericht.
18 A short version of his report appeared in the Hungarian newspaper Haladás (Progress) on December 25, 1946.
19 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Barshaked.
20 Shoshana Barri's research on this change of attitude and the reasons for it can be seen in her articles “The Question of Kastner's Testimonies on Behalf of Nazi War Criminals” and “The Kastner Affair: Correspondence between Kurt Becher and Dr. Chaim Posner, 1948.”
21 January 20, Central Zionist Archives.
22 Zweig, The Gold Train.
23 The sentences against the twenty-four defendants in the first of the Nuremberg Trials before the International Military Tribunal, the so-called Trial of the Major War Criminals, were handed down on October 1, 1946. The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials began on October 25.
24 Margit Fendrich, interviewed by the author.
25 Zweig, The Gold Train.
26 Wisliceny's testimony at Nuremberg.
27 Kasztner's statement at Nuremberg, August 4, 1947.
28 Kasztner's testimonies at Nuremberg. Transcripts of testimonies can be found in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal Sitting in Nuremberg, Germany… from the Official Transcripts and online through the Nizkor Project.
CHAPTER 30:
THE JEWS OF THE EXILE
I relied for some scenes in this chapter on my interviews with Zsuzsi Kasztner, Adam Heller, and Dani Brand; information provided by Yitzhak Katsir; Hansi Brand's interviews by Barshaked; the Brubyak Studio film Kasztner; and Segev, The Seventh Million.
1 In a telephone interview with the author in December 2006.
2 Having failed to prevent another world war, the League of Nations dissolved itself in 1946. Its mandates were transferred to the United Nations, founded in 1945 to replace the League and operate under a more effective structure.
3 In his testimony before the International Military Tribunal, Wisliceny had also credited Krumey with selling Eichmann on the idea of Kasztner's “Jews on ice” in Austria.
4 Segev, The Seventh Million.
5 Ibid.
6 Adam Heller, interviewed by the author in 2007.
7 Segev, The Seventh Million.
8 Johnson, A History of the Jews.
CHAPTER 31: THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS IS A GENTLEMAN
For details of Becher's life I relied on Müller-Tupath, Reichsführers gehorsamster Becher; Becher's testimonies at Nuremberg and for Eichmann's trial; and Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
1 Kádár and Vági, Self-financing Genocide.
2 Bauer, Jews for Sale?
3 Barri, “The Kastner Affair: The Correspondence between Kurt Becher and Dr. Chaim Posner, 1948.”
4 Müller-Tupath, Reichsführers gehorsamster Becher.
5 Zsuzsi Kasztner, interviewed by the author.
6 Interviewed by Gabriel Barshaked.
7 Barri, “The Kastner Affair.”
8 Alois Brunner, Cinevision film.
CHAPTER 32: LETTERS TO FRIENDS IN THE MIZRACHI
I used as my main sources for scenes the Israeli Broadcasting Authority's miniseries Mishpat Kastner, written by Motti Lerner and based on his extensive interviews and the Grünwald trial's transcripts; Weitz, “The Man Who Was Murdered Twice”; Hecht, Perfidy; Segev, The Seventh Million; information provided by Yitzhak Katsir; and Hansi Brand's interviews by Barshaked.
1 No. 51 (August 1952).
2 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Gabriel Barshaked.
3 Ofry, Egy Évszázad Tanúja.
4 Segev, The Seventh Million.
5 Bilsky, “Judging Evil in the Trial of Kastner.”
6 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Barshaked.
7 Ofry, Egy Évszázad Tanúja.
8 The reparations and compensation agreements between West Germany and Israel were signed in September 1952 by Moshe Sharett and Konrad Adenauer. Throughout the long negotiations there were protests, including one assassination attempt, by Jews who disagreed with any deals with the murderers of six million Jews. At the end of the process, the German government committed to pay 3.4 million marks, partly in German goods, partly in fuel, and to compensate Nazi victims for lost property, imprisonment, and slave labor. Many Holocaust survivors viewed the appearance of German-made products in Israeli stores as disturbing reminders of the past; others found the bureaucratic maneuverings around the applications for restitution humiliating. However, the total positive effect of the financial gains on Israel's shaky economy was indisputable.
9 This, strictly speaking, was true.
10 Hecht, Perfidy.
11 Ben-Gurion to Yehoshua [Gyula] Kastner, February 2, 1958.
12 Barri, “The Question of Kastner's Testimonies on Behalf of Nazi War Criminals”; Barri, “The Kastner Affair: Correspondence between Kurt Becher and Dr. Chaim Posner, 1948.”
13 In a letter to Judge Halevi, Kasztner accused Dobkin of extraordinary forgetfulness.
14 Segev, The Seventh Million.
15 Yitzhak Katsir, in a note to the author. Adam Heller's father went to see the Szatmár rabbi, personally, to ask him to testify. He refused.
16 It has since been established that the Jewish Agency, via Saly Mayer, did succeed in sending more than $150,000 to Bratislava by courier, though Rabbi Weissmandel does not mention this fact in his book.
CHAPTER 33:
THE PRICE OF A MAN's SOUL
For scenes at and around the trial I relied most on Israeli Broadcasting Authority's miniseries Mishpat Kastner; Weitz, “The Man Who Was Murdered Twice”; Hecht, Perfidy; Segev, The Seventh Million; information provided by Yitzhak Katsir; Hansi Brand's interviews by Barshaked; Zsuzsi Kasztner's recollections; Nagy, A Kasztner Akció; and coverage of the trial in the New York Times. Regarding the information from Kolozsvár, see also Tibori Szabó's thesis, “Az Erdélyi Zsidóság Identitástudatának Alakulása.”
1 Numbers vary with the source. Szita in A Humánum Példái cites 1,552.
2 Records of the War Refugee Board, box 43, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, ny.
3 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Gabriel Barshaked.
4 Segev, The Seventh Million.
5 Hansi Brand, interviewed by Barshaked.
6 Nagy, A Kasztner Akció.
7 Weitz, “The Man Who Was Murdered Twice.”
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Dreyfus was a Jewish French army officer who in 1895 was wrongfully imprisoned for treason; he was officially exonerated years later.
11 Haboker, June 23, 1955; official statement for the Voice of Israel, the government's broadcasting service.
12 Gilroy, “Quisling Charge Stirs All Israel.”
13 Information from Zsuzsi Kasztner.
CHAPTER 34: THE CONSEQUENCES
1 Weitz, “The Man Who Was Murdered Twice.”
2 Gilroy, “Israeli Cabinet Asked to Resign.” “Greenwald” is a variant of “Grünwald.”
3 Segev, The Seventh Million.
4 Gilroy, “Quisling Charge Stirs All Israel.”
5 Karen, Haaretz. June 24, 1955.
6 Segev, The Seventh Million.
7 Tomy Lapid, interviewed in the film Kasztner.
1 Weitz, “The Man Who Was Murdered Twice,” was my main source for the funeral and its aftermath.
2 Márton, Új Kelet. April 17, 1957.
3 Adam Heller, interviewed by the author.
4 Friling, “Nazi-Jewish Negotiations in Istanbul in Mid-1944.”
5 Weitz, “The Man Who Was Murdered Twice.”
6 Born in Vienna, Kollek emigrated in 1934. He was an emissary of Hechalutz in Europe, a member of the Jewish Agency's Political Department from 1940 till 1947, and a close friend of Ben-Gurion, and he had been chief of staff in the prime minister's office. He was elected mayor of Jerusalem in 1967, a position he continued to hold for a quarter of a century.
7 Shlomo Aronson, interviewed by the author in Tel Aviv in 2006.
8 Tschuy, Dangerous Diplomacy.
9 Eva Carmeli, interviewed by the author. She was proud to have been one of Hansi's friends.
CHAPTER 36: THE BANALITY OF EVIL
1 A German-born American journalist, editor, professor, and author, Arendt subtitled her book about the Eichmann trial A Report on the Banality of Evil. For some portions of this chapter I relied on her report but also on Eichmann's own testimonies; Hausner, Justice in Jerusalem; Reitlinger, The Final Solution; and Von Lang, Eichmann Interrogated.
2 Throughout the Eichmann trial, newspapers in Jordan, Syria, and Egypt voiced their sympathy for the accused and their regret that he had failed in his mission.
3 Biss, A Million Jews to Save.
4 Saturday Evening Post, November 3, 1962.
CHAPTER 37: OTHER LIVES
1 The three-part 1994 television mini-series Mishpat Kastner (The Kastner Trial, or Kastner Family), written by Motti Lerner, was shown by Israeli television in 1995; the program renewed the debate about Kasztner's role in saving Becher's life and the issue of his dealings with the SS in 1944–45.
2 At www.kasztnermemorial.com/.
3 Mayer, “Jewish Holocaust Rescuer Murdered in Tel Aviv.”
4 Szilágyi, Ismeretlen Memoár.
5 Ibid.
6 Novák, “Egy Ismeretlen Kronikája.”
7 Financial Post, December 23, 2005.
8 Toronto Star, May 31, 2006.
9 Anna Perczel, an architect and historian I met in 2006 and 2007, explained the danger of losing buildings that still hold Hungarians’ collective memory of the Holocaust and of the only ghetto in Europe that most people survived. She co-authored the book Séták a Zsidónegyedben (Walks in the Jewish Quarter), published in 2006.