36 used & new from $4.65

See All Buying Options

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

Kasztner's Train: The True Story of an Unknown Hero of the Holocaust Paperback – March 3, 2009

by Anna Porter (Author)

23 customer reviews

See all 6 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Amazon Price New from Used from

Hardcover

"Please retry"

—

$19.30

$0.77

Paperback

"Please retry"

—

$17.29

$4.65

“A tale of rescue as remarkable as Wallenberg or Schindler…An important piece of forgotten history.”-Kati Marton, author of The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World
The heroic story of Rezsö Kasztner, the “Hungarian Oskar 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 I srael twelve years after World War II ended. Based on interviews with those who were on the train 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.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Gaylen Ross

20

DVD
$24.95
Randolph L. Braham

5

Paperback
$20.85
Yehuda Bauer

1

Paperback
$29.56

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Walker & Company; Reprint edition (March 3, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0802717411
ISBN-13: 978-0802717412
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.4 x 8.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,726,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3169 in Books > History > World > Jewish > Holocaust
- #8624 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > Europe
- #35332 in Books > History > Europe

Would you like to update product info, give feedback on images, or tell us about a lower price?

Customer Reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars

5 star		44%
4 star		26%
3 star		13%
2 star		0%
1 star		17%

See all 23 customer reviews

Share your thoughts with other customers

Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

very well written, but clearly biased

By je on December 9, 2009

Format: 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?Read more ›

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

He was a hero of his time.

By GaborBachi on June 15, 2009

Format: 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.

3 Comments Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful

65 years later, it is possible to be more dispassionate.

By HM on July 12, 2009

Format: 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.

3 Comments Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful

A Bad Set of Choices in Worse Times

By Stuart M. Wilder on January 6, 2009

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

First, I feel guilty that I did not write this review earlier: it deserves more discussion that it received. Porter's book cause me, more than any other book on this subject I have read so far, to ask myself what I would have done faced with the same opportunities and dilemma Kasztner faced. I bought the book upon its release and swallowed it whole. Anna Porter's writing is compelling. I do not think that she had to resort to reconstructions of scenes and dialogs as she sometimes did-- the story and her writing seem compelling enough. I tried to imagine the book without the "reconstructions," and I think I would still give it 5 stars. All that being said, this book gave me a great deal to think about.

Kasztner and his fellow Jews faced an unimaginable threat: a monstrous machine led by heartless men determined to kill every last mother, father, son, daughter grandmother and grandfather for no other reason than their hearts pumped Jewish blood. There are no lessons that can train anyone how to confront such a situation. Kasztner made a decision to save as many as he thought he could but in a way that to many others who lost loved ones seemed crass and heartess. After reading the book though, I concluded that as a result of what he did, more survived than would have had he done nothing. To me, the proof that his actions were selfless was that he traveled out of Hungary more than once on missions to save the Jews, yet returned to complete his mission to save those he thought he could. How many others would have left a safe refuge in Switzerland to face death at the hands of the rabid Eichmann to save other members of their people?

With a new movie on the subject making the independent film rounds, I hope this book will receive more attention. It, and the story it tells so well, deserves it.

2 Comments Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

See all 23 customer reviews (newest first)

Write a customer review

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Review of a holocaust survivor

It is a good book but it has many irrelevant details. It could be edited by cutting out the description of events that are of common knowledge.

Published 1 month ago by Ficso

I would have liked the narrative to have read more like a historical...

A little disappointing.Always a depressing subject.Lots of people android have places, a little confusing. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Philip W. Chesley

unrealized story

Long arduous but detailed account of little known tragedy that culminated at end of shoah, inexplicable and to me still resounding in complicities by the British, allies, Hungarian... Read more

Published 8 months ago by Amazon Customer

An astonishing insight into the horror of the holocaust. ...

An astonishing insight into the horror of the holocaust. A revelation as to the inhumane nature and character of some of the perpetrators, debased beyond human understanding. Read more

Published 9 months ago by DJR

Excellent book. Thank you, Anna Porter

This is an excellent book , footnoted and researched. For those who want to hate Kasztner and also the Zionists, this book will do nothing to change their minds because their minds... Read more

Published 11 months ago by reeder

Tribute to a Belittled Hero

A study in both character and the moral quandry of dealing with evil. If you have Hungarian heritage, this is a must read.

Published 14 months ago by Stephen J. Angell

A balanced presentation of an interesting event during the Holocaust

Not everyone would agree with the position taken by the author, that Kasztner was a positive force, but the facts speak for themselves. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Martin

Misrepresentation of "Unknown Hero", who was credibly (if not...

Exceptionally contentious book. Basically ignores the court records of testimony, when Kastner sued an obscure writer of a "roneo-ed" hand-sheet, accusing him of being a... Read more

Published 20 months ago by mattis kantor

great factual essay

material never before released. excellently written. the author really researched the topic and presented it very well ! One of the finest books about the Holocaust.

Published 23 months ago by Dr S Schoenbaum

A COMPELLING BIOGRAPHY

This is a review of KASZTNER'S TRAIN: THE TRUE STORY OF AN UNKNOWN HERO OF THE HOLOCAUST by Anna Porter. Read more

Published on March 9, 2013 by John M. Lane