B"H
The following details about the Satmarer Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum are taken from Esther Farbstein's book "Hidden in Thunder".
When the Nazis occupied Hungary, also the Satmarer Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum (1886 – 1979) was in life danger. Until 1944, the Rebbe helped newcomers settling in Budapest. Furthermore, he worked in cooperation with Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandel as well as with his father – in – law, Rabbi Shmuel David Ungar of Nitra.
His Chassidim tried to smuggle the Satmarer Rebbe into Romania but his car was caught by the Hungarian police. The Rebbe then was taken to the Klausenburg (Cluj) Ghetto. At that time, the Kastner (Kasztner) – Eichmann negotiations were already in progress and later on, Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum left with the train.
Many people claim until today that the anti – Zionist Rebbe Teitelbaum was actually rescued by the Zionists, as it was them organizing the train. Nevertheless, the train was financed by various groups and the passengers came from all kinds of different community backgrounds.
From Cluj (Klausenburg), the Kastner train ended first in Bergen Belsen and on December 7, 1944 (21 Kislev), Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum finally reached Switzerland. There was lots of grief when the Rebbe left Klausenburg, but, on the other hand, there was also plenty of relief, when the Rebbe was finally saved. The Satmarer thought that now, maybe the Rebbe can help them and these thoughts gave them strength.
_________________________
The Kastner train was loaded with almost 1,700 Jews who, in the second half of 1944, escaped from Nazi occupied Hungary to Switzerland. 450,000 members of the Hungarian Jewish community were deported to the gas chambers in Auschwitz. Rudolf Kastner had made an agreement with the SS Officer Adolf Eichmann to let a number of Jews escape when they pay a certain amount of money and diamonds.
I am planning to write a separate article on the "Kastner Transport" as well as why 450.000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz and didn't escape before the Germans occupied Hungary.
Friday, October 24, 2008
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Hello,
ReplyDeleteI am also interested in the Kasztner affair. You may be interested in the following recently published book -
Ladislaus Lob, Dealing With Satan: Rezso Kastzner's Daring Rescue Mission (Jonathan Cape, 2008)
This particular book is pro Kasztner and the author was a passenger on the Kasztner train. The reason I mention it is not for that reason but that for one chapter that is quite interesting - Chapter 8 - Life in the privileged camp. This is the camp at Bergen Belsen where the train passengers were taken to before being freed to Switzerland.
On pages 150-152 there is some interesting recollections about Yoel Teitelbaum in that camp - particularly about the Simchat Torah service.
Consequently if you are interested in the Satmarer and the train, then if nothing else in that book, you may wish to read those few pages.
On a different matter, in my opinion, if you are looking for a reliable book on the Holocaust in Hungary without the political or other biases of many, then you should look at the excellent two volume work Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary by Randolph L. Braham.
I look forward to reading your follow up article on the Kasztner train.
Regards,
Mikey
B"H
ReplyDeleteHi Mikey,
Thanks so much for all the information. The Kasztner Transport really is an extraordinary subject and there are so many opinions and information to it. I know a Chassid who knew Rebbe Teitelbaum and he claims to be a kind of an expert on this transport. We will see ...
However, there is a lot to write about it.
Dear Miriam,
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is an extraordinary subject. I will caution you slightly on what you do read, the reason is as follows. The Kasztner case became very political and a lot of people have political bias when writing about it. That bias can be from either side.
The original portrayals of attacks on Kasztner came from Herut and other right wing Zionists. They were joined in their attacks by Israeli Communists. But there is more to it; as I am sure you are aware the Kasztner case got tied up by many of the writers with attacks on the Jewish Agency leadership in WWII - notably David Ben Gurion and Chaim Weizmann. For Herut and the Communists this was a way of trying to discredit Mapai and they had some success in the 1955 election in Israel - Herut did quite well in that election approximately doubling their seats in the Knesset.
A classic example of this type of attack was published in Ben Hecht's 1961 polemic Perfidy. This book has inaccuracies and does not tell the full story. Some opponents of Kasztner who use this book in isolation are not getting a full enough story.
Sections of Ultra-Orthodox have another reason for using the Kasztner case and that is more because of a theological opposition to Zionism. A famous book written on the Holocaust from this ultra-Orthdox stand point is the following:
Reb Moshe Shonfeld The Holocaust Victims Accuse – Documents and testimony of Jewish war criminals Part 1 (New York: Bnei Yeshivos, 1977)
This book contains unsubstantiated arguments and is simply not reliable. An example would be on page 22 where Rabbi Moshe Schonfeld, formerly of Agudat Israel Youth, falsely alleges that Jewish Agency Executive member Yitzhah Gruenbaum’s motto was “Death to Orthodoxy.” There is simply no evidence for this. I guess part of the problem is that when a historian writes something they have to justify it with footnotes providing a source in order to be taken seriously - but when a respected rabbi writes something, his followers do not need such items to be believed.
One should similarly be wary of Rabbi Weissmandel’s book Min Hametzar (From the depths)that was published posthumously in rabbinical Hebrew in 1960 by his New York followers.
The attacks on Kasztner - and similarly the Zionist leadership - were then used by the Soviets in their anti-Zionist campaign in the 1960s through 1980s. I should say that when I use the term anti-Zionist campaign, that is what it is referred to, if you took the trouble to read much of it, it is blatantly antisemitic. Western based Marxists were also using a similar basis of attack by the 1980s. Yet again, these attacks on Kasztner may have been motivated by anti-Zionism, but some have also been denounced as anti-Semitic.
By the mid 1980s, defenders of Kasztner started to fight back. In Tel Aviv, there was a play my Motti Lerner portraying the Kasztner legal case that presented a more sympathetic case of the Kasztner affair. This was followed up in 1994 with a three part television dramatisation of the affair shown on Israeli television.
Around this time, Yehuda Bauer, professor of Holocaust studies at the Hebrew University published his important book Jews for Sale? Nazi Jewish Negotiations, 1933-1945 which presents a very sympathetic portrayal of Kasztner. If this was the only book read on the matter, you may have a feeling that Kasztner was a hero. Professor Bauer's book came under attack a few years ago by Professor Randolph Braham in an excellent article published in Yad Vashem Studies.
More recent portrayals of Kasztner have also been very sympathetic. One of them being Professor Lob's book that I mentioned and the second one being Anna Porter's book Kasztner's Train: The True Story of Rezso Kasztner, Unknown Hero of the Holocaust. This book has also come under substantial attack. Finally there is a new film by Gaylen Ross that was recently shown in Haifa, that to the best of my knowledge is also very sympathetic to Kasztner.
The point I am trying to make in this message is that you should be very careful what you read. Defenders of Kasztner will rely upon the arguments made in the Supreme Court Judgement and those attacking Kasztner (a man who "sold his soul to the devil") will rely upon the judgement given by Judge Benjamin Halevey in the District Court of Jerusalem.
The reason I mentioned Randolph Braham's two volume work is that it is highly respected by all serious scholars of the Holocaust in Hungary irrespective if they are pro or anti Kasztner.
I hope this helps.
Warm regards,
Mikey
B"H
ReplyDeleteHi Mikey,
Wow, sounds like lots of professional information and a lot to read.
Indeed, Ben Hecht's book is mentioned anywhere you look. I haven't read it so far, as I am still in the midst of sorting out information. It is unbelievable how many opinions and information there are on Kasztner, his intentions and his transport.
I think that lots of it is connected to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were send to Auschwitz. Nobodt can obviously deal with the question why those Jews weren't warned before the Nazis invaded Hungary. A great tragedy and the question coming up everywhere is why the chassidic Rebbes, e.g. the Belzer and the Satmarer Rebbe, didn't warn their Chassidim. This is a great mystery and Esther Farbstein investigated quite a but and published it in her book "Hidden in Thunder".
This alone is a huge subject. Why weren't the Hungarian Jews warned and why did only a 1700 got out through Kasztner.
I received the writings of Rabbi Weissmandel from a Stoliner Chassid, and many Chassidim emphasize the guilt of the religious Zionist movement anyway.
I am very grateful for your information. Do you know any details about the role of Malchiel Gruenwald ?
Hi Miriam,
ReplyDeleteYes, there is a lot to read and of the amount that you read, you have to be careful with a lot of it. This is because of the bias of the authors. As I mentioned this bias can be both ways. The one problem with the Braham volumes is that they are very long and not light reading. They are more the sort of thing to be found on the shelves of a university library than amongst general interest readers. Any specialist on the subject will probably agree with me that it is the most reliable account of the Holocaust in Hungary.
I am not personally religious but I have a friend who recently spent some time on a yeshiva in Israel and he informed me that Ben Hecht's book is widely used as a source. The book does contain errors and you should be very careful with it. In 1962, the American Section of the Executive of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency published a response entitled Ben Hecht’s Perfidy: An Analysis of His Rewriting of History. The original publishers of the book included this response in later editions of the book. A copy of this criticism has been copied to the Internet. If you do read Hecht's book, I do suggest that you also read the criticism.
Regarding what the Jews of Hungary knew or did not know is one of the thorniest and most controversial subjects of the Holocaust in Hungary and I would argue of the Holocaust at large. Professor Yehuda Bauer is one of the most senior, if not the most senior Holocuast historian in the State of Israel. He expresses his opinion as follows: “There is a gap…between information and knowledge. There was information, but there was no knowledge, meaning absorption of the information, its internalization, knowing it was true and acting on it.”
Yehuda Bauer, "The ‘Protocol of Auschwitz’," Yalkut Moreshet 3 (Winter 2005) pp. 124-136.
This argument by Bauer can also be seen in his other writings. He is effectively saying that the Jews actually did know, they just did not admit it to themselves. This argument by Bauer has been criticised by Randolph Braham. See note 5, page 27 of the Yad Vashem essay that I previously linked to. The problem as Braham sees it with this argument is it ignores numerous testimonies of survivors who say that they simply did not know. Moreover, it ignores the fact that many of the Jews were actively misled. They were told they were going to Kenyermezo - a fictional place in Hungary or were provide postcards about a different fictional place called Waldsee, when in reality they were all sent to Auschwitz,
There is a separate question indeed and that is what the Jews could have done had they known. Would it have made any difference to the end outcome? This is a counterfactual - we do not know. One may talk of the brave resistance of those in the Warsaw Ghetto, but in reality those in the Warsaw Ghetto were mainly all killed. The real blame for the Holocaust must be laid at the door of the Nazis and their helpers and this should never be forgotten.
It is true that some rabbis escaped but "ordinary" Hungarian Jews escaped. After the war many of Jewish leaders claimed that they had believed the Kanyérmező myth themselves. If that was the case Professor Braham (in the essay previously linked to) poses an obvious question and makes an observation: “But then, why did they not remain with the masses to provide ongoing leadership and support in Kanyérmező instead of escaping and abandoning their flock? None of them provided a satisfactory answer to this question after the war.”
I must stress that you should be wary of some of the claims made by the ultra-Orthdox about the Holocaust. If you are reading on this subject, I strongly suggest that you read chapter 18 (pp. 359-387) of the following book:
Dina Porat, Israeli Society, the Holocaust and its Survivors (London: VAllentine Mitchell, 2008)
This is an essay on the ultra-Orthodox and the Holocaust and discusses people include the Satmarer Rebbe, Weissmandel and others.
Finally, you ask about Malchiel Gruenwald. He is an interesting character, a religious Zionist who lost many of his own family members in the Holocaust. He ran a small hotel in Jerusalem and used to write a small newsletter entitled Letters to my friends in the Mizrahi that he would have printed off and he would send out to party members and journalists at his own expense. (These days - an equivalent might be writing a blog!) He used to attack the Mapai leadership. In the summer of 1952 he wrote in his pamphlet an attack on Kasztner. In this pamphlet he accused Kasztner of collaborating with the Nazis in Hungary during the period 1944-1945 and of assisting them in the extermination of some 500,000 Hungarian Jews. He also accused Kasztner of saving a Nazi war criminal (Kurt Becher) from punishment and of sharing plunder with a Nazi war criminal.
By this time, Kasztner had a position in the Israeli government and, for obvious reasons, being a Nazi collaborator was a serious accusation against anyone in the State of Israel. The government gave Kasztner a choice, either they sued Gruenwald for libel or Kasztner quit his post. The decision was made to sue Gruenwald. The case commenced in 1954 and Gruenwald was fortunate to retain the services of Shmuel Tamir, a brilliant young lawyer. This court case that it became very political with Tamir, who ideologically had identified himself with the Irgun and Herut (although at the time of the trial he had left Herut) utilising the trial to attack not just Kasztner but also the Jewish Agency Executive. He argued that Kastzner was collaborating with the Nazis and at the same time the JAE (Ben Gurion et al) were collaborating with the British. He continually attacked Kasztner for being a collaborator and Kasztner was in trouble when Tamir located a document that showed that Kasztner had indeed testified for a Nazi war criminal. Kasztner was shown to be lying in court and it all went down hill for him.
Whilst it was strictly a case of the Government of the State of Israel against Malchiel Gruenwald, in practice roles were reversed and it seemed that Kasztner was on trial.
Obviously I do not have the space to go through the whole court case here but in very brief terms, in the District Court of Jerusalem, for the major claims that Gruenwald made, the judge ruled were not libellous, he argued that Kasztner had indeed collaborated with the Nazis. He used the famous phrase "Kasztner sold his soul to the devil." The government appealed the decision and at the Supreme Court in 1958 with 5 judges, the majority overruled the decision that Kasztner was a collaborator. It was somewhat too late for Kasztner though as in the interim he had been assassinated by some right-wing Zionists. This was the first political assassination of a Jew by other Jews in the State of Israel.
I hope this helps
Regards
Mikey
B"H
ReplyDeleteHello Mikey,
I am very grateful for your help as well as for the help of others. As I am definitely not an authority (who, at all, could be an authority today ?), I decided the following:
Explaining the case and going through all the material. I try to avoid judging but do quote what different sources say. I keep as much away from my own opinion as I can. So, that the reader sees opinions and sources and either makes up his own mind or, at least, is learning a lot about the former Hungarian Jewry.
I am neither pro nor con Kasztner and to be honest, we can only thank G - d that we are not in the same position as him or as the Jews were during the days of the Nazis.
My main concern is to learn about Hungarian Jewry, as this is also a basis for my subject Chassidut. And the history of Chassidut includes also the history of the Belzer Rebbe Aharon Rokeach as well as of the Satmarer Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum, and many others.
And the fact is, that Hungarian Jewry obviously wasn't warned that their might be an upcoming Nazi occupation meaning the extermination of the Jews. And my main question is why people weren't warned.
Of course, I am not expecting a perfect answer or an answer at all. However, I would like to understand the basic history and events leading to those decisions being made. When the Satmarer Rebbe decided not to tell his Chassidim about the ongoing Holocaust in order to prevent a panic.
By the way, Esther Farbstein claims in her book "Hidden in Thunder" that Hungarian Jewry never expected the Nazis invading Hungary. Thus, there was no need for any warnings.
_____________
All these historical events brought me to Kasztner and, as I said, I will go through sources and quote them without judging. The negative and the positive aspects.
But, indeed, I am very grateful for yor help.
Miriam
Dear Miriam,
ReplyDeleteThe questions you pose are indeed important ones. They really require far longer an answer than I can provide in a relatively short response on your blog.
The destruction of Hungarian Jewry was indeed a terrible thing and the questions do need to be asked. You do need to realise that the Nazis did not invade Hungary until March 1944. This was very late in the war and many thought that they would be rescued from the Nazis by the Russian army who were advancing or other Allies. The explanation by Esther Farbstein that you mention is one that others also make.
When the Nazis did invade the Jewish community were completely unprepared. It could also be noted that the Nazis did not really give the Jewish community time to prepare after they invaded. 437,000 Jews had been rounded up and deported to Auschwitz by very early in July 1944.
The Jewish community felt that the Regent of Hungary, Miklos Horthy, would not allow the Jews to be treated too harshly. They felt that the Jews may lose their money and economically suffer (anti-Jewish laws were past in Hungary from May 1938 - even before the war started) but that they would emerge relatively intact. At large, the Jewish community viewed themselves as "Magyars of the Jewish faith" and felt that they would be protected.
Horthy had resisted pressure to deport Jews but after the Nazis invaded, Horthy capitulated and the new Prime Minister Dome Sztojay, a Third Reich supporter who had been approved by the Nazis, now had freedom to act.
Reading through various books on the subject you will find various explanations about the lack of warnings to Jews. Yehuda Bauer (Jews for Sale?) provides many of them. - How can you warn people what they already know? Poles and Slovak Jews who had escaped their own countries and arrived in Hungary would have told the Jewish communities they had settled in what had happened to their own communities. Moreover, as early back as June, July and December 1942, the Hungarian language service of BBC radio, was widely listened to in Hungary and broadcast information about the mass murder of Jews. It is via such examples that professor Bauer comes to his conclusion that the Jews had already known about the dangers. Professor Dina Porat of Tel Aviv university concurs with the view of Bauer but she does accept that it is quite possible that not all Jews knew. She accepts that some of the ultra-Orthodox Jews did not read newspapers or listen to the radio and it is not known what they knew or what they internalized.
(See Dina Porat Historical Document: The Protocol of the Meeting between Representatives of the Yishuv and Joel Brand in Aleppo, Syria, June 1944 Yalkut Moreshet 3 Winter 2005 pp. 148-160)
I appreciate that it is the Orthodox community that you may have most interest in. It is sadly true but there does seem to be evidence to suggest that some of the Orthodox communities simply believed that they would be rescued by Hashem.
I do not know specifically why the Satmarer Rebbe did not tell his community, but I do understand that he never accepted that he had been rescued from the Holocaust by Kasztner's train, he argued that he had been rescued by Hashem.
Your main question is why people were not warned, but when considering that, you may wish to also consider a follow up - what could they have done about if they had been warned?
Good luck with reading about the subject, there is plenty that can be read, but please make sure you read Professor Braham's essay in Yad Vashem studies that I provided a link to and is freely available on line. It really is a very important essay.
Also well worth reading and freely available on line is the essay Judging Evil in the Trial of Kasztner by professor Leora Bilsky and published in 2001 in Law and History Review. This is more about the Kasztner trial than anything else but is quite scholarly.
Regards,
Mikey
B"H
ReplyDeleteHi Mikey,
I agree with Dina Porat that many Jews knew about the Holocaust but Haredim, as today, don't read certain secular newspapers. However, their companions fleeing from Poland and elsewhere must have told them. However, if you know the chassidic mind, then you know that everything comes from G - d. And I am sure that especially Chassidim started analyzing why G - d is doing this or what purpose the whole Holocaust has. Is it to bring about Meshiach or just a punishment ? Or is it rather a Tikun (soul rectification) the Jews have to go through in order to bring about Meshiach ?
These questions play a very important role in chassidic thought and it probably did influence their behaviour towards the upcoming life danger.
When the Belzer Rebbe left Hungary shortly before the Nazis invaded it, he told the Chassidim that he would continue praying for them, and thus, the may be saved.
But every chassidic Rabbi said so, even the Gerrer Rebbe. The Chassidim, on the other hand, thought that an escaping Rebbe could help them getting out as well. By informing the US or other nations which could force the Nazis to let the Jews out.
I am starting with the book from Ben Hecht and, additionally, I am using the source you mentioned: The Critic on Hecht by the Zionist Organization.
Furthermore, I opened a FACEBOOK group on the subject where anyone can provide information or just read. The groups name is:
HUNGARIAN JEWRY AND THE KASTNER TRAIN
Thanks for the sources.
Miriam
Dear Miriam,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that as well as reading Hecht's Perfidy you are also reading the criticism of the books. It was not just the American section of the World Zionist Organisation that criticised that book as others did as well. One essay very well worth reading is the review of Perfidy by the noted Holocaust historian, Lucy Dawidowicz, published in Commentary in 1962.
I have joined your Facebook group but I warn you, discussions about Kasztner can attract some lunatics so be aware. In the event they come, I suggest you delete the group.
Regards,
Mikey
Hi
DeleteMikey and Miriam, I have just read your thread with great interest and have been busy following up on the suggested reading you give to one another. I am a student at University doing my dissertation on the Kastner train, and was wondering a) if you had any more recommended reading to suggest and b) if you had a link to the Lucy Dawidowicz's article that Mikey mentioned from Commentary as I seem unable to find it online. I was also wondering if you had any sources for a more current pro-Kastner Israeli view seen in Motti Lerner's play for example.
With thanks,
Helena
B"H
ReplyDeleteSuch subjects always attract the nuts but I don't want to delete the group. Not yet. I rather turn it into a non - public gorup where someone has to apply for membership.