Bargaining For Lives

,i-CONEY
ISLAND

Documentary probes infamous case.

D

$1.00

f the Kasz tner fam ily

Michael Fox
Special to the Jewish News

$

Off

r. Rerso (Israel) Kasztner,
whom history agonizingly
E.
placed between the Nazis
and the destruction of Hungarian
Jewry, is one of the more controver-
sial and mysterious figures in mod-
ern Jewish history. He negotiated
(or bought, if you prefer) the lives
of 1,685 Jews from the Nazis — and
was gunned down as a traitor on the
streets of Tel Aviv in 1957. His story
Rerso Kasztner in Israel
is portrayed in Gaylen Ross' docu-
mentary film Killing Kasztner.
The Nazis didn't occupy Hungary
marked the first real discussion of
until 1944 but displayed extraor-
the Holocaust in Israel — seven
dinary alacrity in deporting and
years before the testimony of survi-
exterminating the country's Jewish
vors in Eichmann's trial galvanized
population. American Jews were well the nation.
aware of the Final Solution by this
This is important yet messy (and
time, and Adolf Eichmann schemed
largely forgotten) history, laced
to extract some of their dollars in
with prickly moral questions. For
ransom.
example, Yad Vashem has long made
He approached Kasztner, who was a point of honoring Righteous
not a particularly powerful fellow
Gentiles who hid and saved Jews,
but apparently did not lack for con-
but did not (until recently) acknowl-
fidence. The Hungarian lawyer suc-
edge Kasztner's efforts.
ceeded in bartering for a trainload
Killing Kasztner includes lengthy
of Jews — and compiled the list of
interviews with Ze'ev Eckstein, who
lucky passengers, including his own
was recruited by the Shin Bet to
family, which contributed to the
infiltrate a right-wing group in the
enmity that built toward him — but mid-1950s and instead became so
they were initially sent to Bergen-
enamored of their beliefs that he shot
Belsen until he delivered enough
Kasztner in 1957.
money for Eichmann to let them
He received a life sentence and
proceed to Switzerland.
served just seven years, his sentence
Kasztner has never gotten enough
commuted based on the recom-
credit for engineering the largest
mendation of Israeli Prime Minister
rescue of Jews during the war, say
David Ben-Gurion.
the survivors from the train as well
as his daughter and granddaughters.
His opponents portray him as a col-
In a joint program of the JCC's
laborator who benefited personally
Jewish Book Fair and Lenore
and, even worse, made a separate
Marwil Jewish Film Festival, at
secret deal with the Nazis.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, at
After Kasztner and his family
the Jewish Community Center
moved to the new State of Israel, he
in West Bloomfield, author
found both opportunities and ene-
Ronald Florence will discuss his
mies. In 1954, tired of one crackpot's
book Emissary of the Doomed:
unrelenting attacks, Kasztner sued
Bargaining for Lives in the
for libel. The turning point in the
Holocaust, and filmmaker Gaylen
lengthy, high profile trial occurred
Ross will join in a screening and
when he falsely denied writing let-
discussion of her film Killing
ters to war crimes investigators on
Kasztner. Tickets are required:
behalf of some of the Nazi officers
$10; www.jccdet.org or at the
he had dealt with in Hungary.
door.
The film informs us that the case

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