A reply to the open letter to Rudolph Kasztner's Daughter

By Dr. Ladislaus Löb

In her diatribe “An Open Letter to Rudolph Kasztner’s Daughter” (The Jewish Star, November 20, 2009) Edith Polak slams the documentary Killing Kasztner, arguing that the director, Gaylen Ross, is “someone born in the States” who “does not have all the facts.” As a survivor whose life was saved by Kasztner, but who has tried to compensate for his bias by studying the events as objectively as he could, I would like to consider some of the “facts” reported by Ms Polak.

Speaking of the 1,670 or so Hungarian Jews rescued from Bergen-Belsen, Ms. Polak denies that the ransom set by Himmler was $1,000 per head and claims that “what propelled” Kasztner “to save the few souls” was “a payment of $40,000 per head.” The insinuation is as damaging as it is untrue. She further suggests that the train that took our group to Bergen-Belsen included four empty carriages because there were not enough people who could pay $40,000 per head to fill it. In reality there were no empty carriages, and there were many passengers who were unable to pay even $1000, including my father and myself. Actually some 150 rich people paid the ransom for all. Nor is it true to say that “with the profits left after handling (sic) money over to Eichmann, he [Kasztner] moved to Israel.” Kasztner never received any profit from the ransom he paid to the SS. He arrived in Palestine almost penniless and after his assassination his widow and daughter remained extremely hard-up.

Ms. Polak accuses the film of distorting history by letting the historian Shlomo Aronson credit Kasztner with persuading Eichmann to send 15,000-18,000 Jews to Strasshof in Austria instead of Auschwitz. Her explanation is that this was done because “gassing at Auschwitz was stopped by October or November 1944.” However, those transports took place in June 1944, when Auschwitz was still operating and they could have ended up in the gas chambers if Kasztner had not bribed Eichmann. Perhaps Ms. Polak confuses the trains in question with the deadly foot marches from Budapest to Austria in November and December 1944, which had nothing to do with Kasztner.

With regard to the three parachutists from Palestine, who were dropped into Yugoslavia by the British air force and betrayed on arrival in Hungary, Ms. Polak is right in stating that Kasztner was never available when the mother of Hannah Szenes tried to ask him to help her daughter.  But she fails to mention that his secret arrangements to have Hannah released from prison might well have worked if they had not been upset by the Arrow Cross coup of October 15, 1944. Nor does she mention that if Palgi and Goldstein had not given themselves up, our whole group awaiting departure from Hungary might well have been murdered by the Germans.

Ms. Polak claims that “by mainly choosing some of the rabbinic dynasties,  [Kasztner] passed over the Cluj businessmen, land owners, opera singers, the working man, the thousands of teenagers, children, babies, unborn children.” Apart from the fact that all the categories mentioned by Ms. Polak were indeed represented, it is difficult to see how by omitting some rabbis Kasztner could have created space for all those listed, not forgetting thousands of unborn children.

On the most crucial issue of who knew what about the Holocaust, it is true that thousands boarded the trains to Auschwitz unaware of what awaited them, but there were also thousands who had some idea, but could or would not believe that such a thing was possible. The established leaders of the communities knew more than the rest, but kept silent. The misinformation about being relocated to Kenyérmező (rather than “Kanyermezo”) was spread by the Jewish Councils, not by Kasztner.

Ms. Polak quotes a passage from my own book Dealing with Satan (published in 2008, not 2004) now in paperback Rezső Kasztner: The Daring Rescue of Hungarian Jews (2009). Kasztner was indeed given some information about the exterminations by Schindler, although it is not clear exactly how much Schindler could tell him. Towards the end of April 1944 or a little later he became aware of Vrba and Wetzler’s Auschwitz Protocols – not referred to by Ms. Polak – and it is true that he did not raise the alarm personally. He did send young emissaries to warn several communities, but they were told to stop frightening people and driven away. I do not intend to engage in a debate as to why he did not adopt a higher profile and what might or might not have happened if he had. I will only note that the Supreme Court of Israel in due course recognized that his silence had not been culpable and cleared him of collaboration with the Nazis. Ms. Polak might have quoted my views on this too, instead of just reproducing a few of my words out of context.

Ms. Polak regards Kasztner as unworthy of the comparison the film makes between him and Oskar Schindler. This led me to reflect that while both men saved Jews from the Holocaust, what they had most in common was the millions they did not save. And yet, Schindler, a gentile, is praised for the hundreds who survived thanks to him, while Kasztner, a Jew, is vilified for the masses killed by the Nazis. For reasons I cannot begin to describe, Kasztner has become the scapegoat. Any consideration of the chaotic conditions of Europe under the Nazis or the passions of post-Holocaust Israel has been thrown overboard. Hindsight rules. Facts are ignored, distorted or replaced by prejudices.

I hope this survey of some of the facts and Ms. Polak’s treatment of them has been enough to show what her judgments are worth. The film she pans provides a far more balanced view of the whole story. Rather than relying on rumour and bigotry, the director uses history to get across a message about the futility of anger and blame. To say that she wants “to have her 15 minutes of fame” is obtuse and cheap.

One last question: Ms. Polak explains that she wrote this poorly conceived open letter because “the dead have asked the living to correct the lies.” I don’t know what channels she thinks the dead use to forward their wishes to the living, but if they do anything of the kind our response should be an honest search for the truth rather than prejudice and hatred.

Professor Ladislaus Löb is the author of Rezső Kasztner: The Daring Rescue of Hungarian Jews (2009) and a Kasztner train survivor.

Killing Kasztner is playing at Cinema Village in Manhattan, 22 E. 12^th St., and at Squire Cinemas in Great Neck, 115 Middle Neck Road.