Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Dealing With Satan: Rezso Kasztner’s Daring Rescue Mission, by Ladislaus Loeb. 2008. Jonathan Cape, London

Kastner Train: The Nazis Obviously Did Not Try To Kill Each and Every Jew

The author, an 11-year-old boy at the time, was one of the nearly 1,700 Jews released in 1944 by the Nazis as part of a deal reached by Adolf Eichmann and Rudolf Kastner. Eichmann agreed to release some Jews, and, in return, Kasztner agreed to keep the Hungarian Jews docile by deceiving them about their safety in German hands. Here is how the deal happened.

TOP NAZIS HIMMLER, EICHMANN, AND BECHER APPROVE THE RELEASE OF JEWS

Loeb comments, “In a slow and laborious process of bluffing and haggling, Kasztner persuaded Eichmann to approve the departure of 1,300 Jews. With a hard-won air of confidence hiding his dread of Eichmann’s U-turns, he offered a ransom of 100 dollars per head. Eichmann demanded 200 dollars and raised this to 500 dollars, while Becher, who was also present, demanded 2,000 dollars. Eichmann and Becher were constantly in touch with Himmler, each jockeying for a better position. Finally, Himmler fixed the price at 1,000 dollars per Jew.” (p. 87).

MONEY OVER IDEOLOGY: SUCCESSFULLY BRIBING THE GERMANS TO FREE SOME JEWS

The Nazi German officials obviously thought that getting a little rich was more important than killing each and every Jew. So much for the mythical unique Nazi obsession of ridding the world of all its Jews! Loeb recognizes as much, as he writes, “Our release from Bergen-Belsen seemed to prove that the Germans were prepared to spare Jews for the right price…” (p. 208). Indeed!

The author describes the ransom, “On 20 June [1944] three suitcases containing 200,000 US dollars, 100,000 Swiss francs, various other foreign currencies, gold, diamonds, share certificates and 13.5 million Hungarian pengos were delivered by Kasztner, Offenbach and Hansi Brand to Klages at the Gestapo headquarters on Svabhegy Hill.” (p. 87).

KASTNER TRAIN: NAZIS FOLLOW THROUGH AND ACTUALLY FREE NEARLY 1,700 HUNGARIAN JEWS

The train with the to-be-freed Jews left Budapest for Bergen-Belsen on June 30, 1944 (p. 89), with, according to Kasztner, 1,684 Jews. (p. 114).  Loeb’s group arrived at Bergen-Belsen on July 9, 1944. (p. 109).

Author Loeb describes the few-month stay of the to-be-freed Jews at Bergen-Belsen, “Because the Germans regarded us as a valuable commodity, we were treated better than most other inmates of Bergen-Belsen. We were allowed to keep our own clothes and were not obliged to wear prison issue or the yellow star. Apart from keeping our compound in order, we did not have to work…We were relatively well fed and permitted to engage in some cultural or religious activities.” (p. 121).

A first group, consisting of 318 Jews, arrived in Switzerland on August 18, 1944. (p. 161). A second group, consisting of the remaining more-than 1,300 Jews, stayed a total of five months at Bergen-Belsen (p. 152), and was finally taken to Switzerland on December 6, 1944. (p. 203).

A total of 1,670 Jews finally made it to Switzerland because of the Kasztner train. (p. 114).

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NAZIS RELEASING SOME JEWS

The central argument for the Holocaust being unique (or, in its softer form, of the Holocaust being unprecedented) is the claim that the Nazis were out to kill every single Jew, and that this had never happened before (or since) in the case of any other genocide directed against any other targeted group. This argument is used to justify the customary over-attention to the Holocaust that saturates American society, and to the Holocaust monopolizing the West’s classrooms.

The argument is patently false. The Nazis were, regardless of motives, willing to let some Jews live. The Holocaust was not something mystical, unique, or unprecedented: The Holocaust was governed by pragmatic as well as ideological issues, just like every other genocide.

What’s more, the Kastner train was not an isolated incident. The Nazi German authorities periodically released some Jews throughout the key years that they were conducting the Holocaust (1942, 1943, and 1944). See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/holocaust-exceptional-all-jews-die-a-myth-shulman/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/07/11/jews-released-all-jews-must-die-a-myth-actual-captive-jews-freed-by-the-nazis-the-term-shoah-preceded-the-extermination-of-jews-jewish-holocaust-disbelief-holocaust-blame-game-porat/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/07/12/jews-ransomed-all-jews-must-die-a-myth-actual-captive-jews-freed-by-the-nazis-dutch-and-german-jews-wasserstein/

NAZIS SPARE AN ADDITIONAL 18,000 JEWS FROM DEATH: NOT ONLY FORCED LABORERS

In another agreement, Kasztner paid Eichmann 100 dollars for each Jew that was sent, by Kaltenbrunner, to the Vienna area (the detention camp of Strasshof) to build fortifications against the encroaching Red Army. This was instead of them being sent to Auschwitz, and included those who could not do heavy physical work, specifically Jewish women and children. The Jewish councils paid for the living expenses. (p. 93). In early 1945, some 12,000 of these Jews were found alive by the Red Army. (p. 94).

THE NAZI HOLOCAUST OF HUNGARIAN JEWS WAS FAR FROM COMPREHENSIVE

Let us put all this in broader context. Author Loeb assesses the overall fate of his fellow Hungarian Jews as follows, “The deportation started on 15 May [1944] with Zone I and was completed on 8 July [1944] with Zone V. In less than two months about 150 trains left the Hungarian provinces, carrying some 450,000 Jews to Auschwitz. About 330,000 were gassed on arrival. Including those who died in Budapest, in the forced-labor service, and on the infamous ‘death marches’, more than 500,000 Hungarian Jews were killed during the German occupation. Some 255,000 survived the war, about half of them in Budapest and half in concentration camps liberated by the Allies.” (pp. 33-34).

Now consider the fact that the Holocaust of Hungarian Jews had been an all-out, speeded-up, 11^th-hour effort by the Third Reich. If the Nazis were really out to kill every single Jew of Europe, as stated by the Holocaust supremacists, shouldn’t the Nazis have done better than that?

KASZTNER ACCUSED OF NAZI COLLABORATION

Kasztner’s original trial, that found him guilty of collaboration, is recounted by Loeb, “[Lawyer] Tamir called a large number of witnesses, many of them from Kolozsvar, who had lost their relatives and almost their lives in the death camps. They all accused Kasztner of keeping them in the dark or actively misleading them about the true purpose of the deportations…Yechiel Shmueli affirmed that the Jews had not resisted being put on the train ‘because we had all been told that we were being taken to Kenyermezo to work.'” (p. 253).

ISRAELI SUPREME COURTS’ EXONERATION OF KASZTNER SHOULD ALSO EXONERATE POLES OF COMPLICITY IN THE HOLOCAUST

Loeb discusses the decision of the Jerusalem Supreme Court to find Kastner not guilty of collaboration with the Nazis. He comments, “In contrast to [Judge] Halevi’s blunt notion that Kasztner had collaborated with Eichmann on the basis of an evil contract, [Judge] Agranat pointed out that where Eichmann had all the power and Kasztner none, there could be no question of a contract, which presupposed freedom of choice and equality for both partners.” (p. 280).

OK, then, let’s apply this standard to accusations of Poles killing or denouncing fugitive Jews. The German conquerors had all the power and the conquered Poles had none. The Poles had no freedom of choice. In no sense were the Germans and Poles equal. There can therefore be no contract between the Nazi German masters and the Polish slaves in the killing of Jews. So let us stop this canard about an “evil contract” between Nazis and Poles that is patently present in the “Polish complicity in the Holocaust” canard.

There is also the question of motive. Loeb comments, “Nevertheless, he [Judge Chesin] concluded that Kasztner’s silence–‘premeditated and calculated’ as it was–could not be considered ‘willful collaboration and assistance in the extermination, because all the signs indicate that Kasztner’s efforts were aimed at rescue and rescue on a big scale.'” (p. 281). Likewise, all signs indicate that Poles who denounced or killed fugitive Jews did so in order to protect themselves from German reprisals. There is no evidence that such acts were conducted, by Poles, out of any kind of agreement with Hitler’s goal of exterminating Europe’s Jews.

Finally, the innocence or guilt of Kasztner is no settled issue. See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/judenrat-collaboration-kasztner-bogdanor/