Kasztner's Train: The True Story of an Unknown Hero of the Holocaust [Hardcover]

Anna Porter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 2008

The heroic story of the “Hungarian Oscar Schindler” who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from certain death at the hands of the Nazis, only to be accused of collaboration and assassinated in Israel twelve years after WWII ended.

Oscar Schindler’s and Raoul Wallenberg’s efforts to save people from Nazi extinction are legendary; Rezso Kasztner, by contrast, is practically unknown, even though he may have been the greatest rescuer of Jews during World War II. He was also the most controversial, and that, along with the relative lack of focus on events in Hungary toward the end of the war, has no doubt led to his anonymity. Now, with the publication of Anna Porter’s remarkable chronicle, Kasztner’s achievements are in full view.

When the German army invaded its ally Hungary in March 1944, followed soon after by Adolf Eichmann and his SS, Rezso Kasztner and a small group of Zionist activists stood in the way of mass deportations. They had met the well-informed Schindler, providing him with funds for food and clothing, and had been involved in previous efforts to rescue Jews from Slovakia and Poland. Now, in meeting after meeting with Eichmann and other SS officers, Kasztner negotiated for freedom, exploiting the Nazi weaknesses of greed and need—“blood for goods,” as the Nazis called it—organizing a train out of Hungary for almost 2,000 while several thousand more were protected in work camps in Austria. Inevitably he saved some and not others. After testifying at the Nuremberg trials, Kasztner emigrated to Israel where, in 1956, he was stunningly convicted of collaborating with the Nazis more than a decade before. As he awaited the appeal that would ultimately exonerate him, he was assassinated by right-wing activists in Tel Aviv on March 4, 1957.

Based on interviews with those who were on the train and with family members of those denied a place on it, as well as documents and correspondence not previously published, Anna Porter tells the dramatic full story of one of the heroes of the twentieth century.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Porter (The Storyteller) seeks to rehabilitate the reputation of Rezso Kasztner. This Hungarian Jew was branded a Nazi collaborator by Academy Award–winning screenwriter Ben Hecht in his 1961 book, Perfidy. But more recently Kasztner has been exonerated by Israel's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem. After 400,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz in 1944, Kasztner, a point man in a goods-for-blood deal with Nazi henchman Adolf Eichmann, arranged for a train to carry 1,684 Jews from Hungary to Switzerland, wealthy Jews paying $1,500 per person while the poor paid nothing. For $100 a head, Eichmann kept an additional 20,000 Jews alive in Austrian labor camps. After the war Kasztner relocated to Israel, where in 1952 he was accused of being a Nazi collaborator who saved a privileged few at the expense of thousands of others. Kasztner sued for malicious libel and lost on most counts; the trial made international headlines; and Kasztner was assassinated in 1957 by right-wing extremists. Although a well-researched counterbalance to Hecht's account, Porter's defense may swing too much in favor of Kasztner, given that most of the participants are deceased and much of the evidence is anecdotal. Readers, however, will welcome the opportunity to debate the ever-relevant moral issues of doing business with the enemy. Illus. 16 pages of b&w illus., 3 maps. (Mar.)
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From Booklist

The unknown hero of the title is Rezso Kasztner, a member of the Jewish Rescue Committee in Hungary during World War II. He was able to negotiate a deal with the Nazis, which resulted in Kasztner’s Train—a train that transported 1,684 Hungarian Jews out of Nazi-controlled Hungary to safety in Switzerland in July 1944. The wealthy Jews of Budapest paid an average of $1,500 for each family member; the poor paid nothing. Kasztner also was able to save 20,000 Hungarian Jews by having them sent to an Austrian labor camp instead of extermination camps. Kasztner moved to Israel after the war, and in 1954 he was accused of being a Nazi collaborator. Kasztner claimed that his dealing with the Nazi officials, including Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Eichmann, were necessary to save lives. In 1957, he was assassinated by right-wing activists in Tel Aviv. Porter interviewed 75 people and had access to diaries, notes, taped interviews, memoirs, and courtroom testimonies; her book, with three maps and a 16-page black-and-white insert, offers the most complete, fully documented account of this Holocaust story. --George Cohen

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company; First Edition edition (March 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802715966
• ISBN-13: 978-0802715968
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #829,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very well written, but clearly biased, December 9, 2009

By 

je "concerned-citizen" (ny,ny) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kasztner's Train: The True Story of an Unknown Hero of the Holocaust (Hardcover)

This book should be read by anyone who is interested in the Holocaust and its' unimaginable horrors. Rudolf Kastner, a Hugarian Jewish leader, goes into negotiations with Adof Eichmann and Kurt Becher (2 leading Nazis) in order to save as many Jews as he can. In the end, Kastner manages to save 1685 Jews via a special train. Clearly, Kastner was in an impossible situation, where he negotiates with Nazi beasts who could send him to death with a crook of their finger. After moving to Israel in 1952, he is accused of collaboration. In a subsequent trial (which is detailed in the book "Perfidy" by Ben Hecht), very disturbing facts emerge. The trial was actually a libel trial against a man named Grunwald who made these allegations. The result of the trial was that Grunwald was found innocent of the main charges. As a result of the facts that emerged, public opinion became extremely negative toward Kastner, and he became a recluse. Shortly thereafter, he was shot to death by Ze'ev Eckstein. In an appeal after Kastner's death, the verdict was reversed.

There is no real way for any of us to judge Kastner, and the author does an excellent job going into great detail about the terrifying predicament the Hungarian Jews were in. Ultimately, the author feels that Kastner is much more good than bad, and should be lauded as a hero. I respectively disagree. I find 2 points quite disturbing:

1. Why did Eichmann and Becher feel the need to negotiate with Kastner at all? What did they need him for? According to Eichmann, he used Kastner as a tool to fool the other Hungarian Jews into inaction. Kastner knew about the transports to Auschwitz, and never informed anyone.

2. After the war was over, why did Kastner see the need to testify at the Nuremberg trials in favor of Kurt Becher? Thanks to his testimoney, Becher was freed, and went on to become of Germany's richest men, thanks to the money he stole from the Jews. Kastner testified in favor of other Nazi war criminals as well. The author explains Kastner's motives as a sense of honor.

Frankly, I found these explanations forced. However, I would advise readers to read this in conjunction with Perfidy and decided for themselves.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 65 years later, it is possible to be more dispassionate., July 12, 2009

By 

HM "Neurodoc" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kasztner's Train: The True Story of an Unknown Hero of the Holocaust (Paperback)

Kasztner remains controversial, but this book dispels many aspects of the criticism of his intent and character. Kasztner left the safety of Switzerland in 1944, during the depths of the depravity, to reenter Hungary and to continue his own rescue efforts, at the risk of his own life. He did save thousands, with many more thousands of descendants, including myself, owing him their lives.

Hecht's Perfidy was a lawyer's rendition (Shmuel Tamir's) of an ambitious politician in the 1950s. In those times, Holocaust survivors rarely spoke of their experiences and were even embarassed due to having survived. Within Israel, prejudice against survivors precluded an honest and full accounting of what happened. Otherwise, Hecht's book could not have been written. This book provides some balance and perspective 50 years after Hecht's book, and those who are intoxicated by Hecht owe to themselves to read this one to learn the other side. Interestingly, one area on which Hecht and Porter agree is that the Jewish Agency did far too little to help save Hungarian Jewry.

The debates about what Kasztner did can now be moved to the academic arena as highly specific inflammatory charges can be summarily dismissed. Kasztner was brave and sincere. Kasztner did save thousands. Kasztner did not profit from rescue. Kasztner did partner with a Nazi SS, specifically Kurth Becher, a rival of Eichmann, who used Kasztner to establish an alibi at Nuremburg Trials, perhaps but who did come through in certain instances.

The record should also include the accomplishments of those on the train, and their descendants. They include professors, doctors, a UN ambassador, businessmen, diplomats and many others. Each of them owes the life to Kasztner.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars He was a hero of his time., June 15, 2009

By 

GaborBachi "Gaborman" (Brooklyn New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kasztner's Train: The True Story of an Unknown Hero of the Holocaust (Paperback)

It's easy to castigate Mr.Kasztner that he dealt with the SS, etc. And who exactly was there to deal with, other than the ones who had power about certain events? I personally can thank him for being alive, since my grandmother was transferred to Theresienstadt -Terezin- where my father was born. If not for his deal, they would have been sent to Auschwitz immediately. Self-serving, not self-serving, he did save 1500 Jews, and with their descendants, it's a whole town full of Jews. It's a shame that he was murdered by fellow Jews. If he did not do what he did, the rest would have been killed as well. It's not fair that not everybody was saved, of course, but one has to see historical events in their context.