Opinion: Closing the book

An open letter to Edith Polak

By Joe Bobker

Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

Edith Polak’s “Open Letter to Rudolph Kasztner’s daughter” (In my view; November 26, 2009) wraps Torah commandments (“Honor your parents”), surface similiarities (“We are both daughters of survivors”), and poignant memories of her parent’s World War II sufferings around her literary bat in order to (unfairly) bludgeon a totally innocent woman for who her father was.

The result? A muddled mishmash; a jumble of facts and fiction held together by a vicious thread of haughtiness as Ms. Polak tries to extend the hierarchy of suffering down one generation to publicly shame other members of the Second Generation.

Comparing the “goodness” of one child of survivors to that of another reeks of phony empathy; or as Rabbi Salanter would say: “Promote yourself, but do not demote another!”

The fact is that there were saints and sinners during this dark and blurred chapter of Jewish history, a time when unprecedented ethical dilemmas confronted each Jew in Europe daily. One man’s champion became another’s villain; a betrayer to some Jews was a rescuer to others.

Rudolf Kasztner was such a person.

He is a villain to Ms. Polak and Orthodox Hungarian-Jewish survivors, but at the same time he is a hero to the 2,904 Jews he saved from certain death at Theresienstadt and Bergen-Belsen. And let’s not forget that his use of negotiations as a stalling tactic delayed the death transports of 16,000-20,000 elderly Jews and women with children from Derecen, Szeged, Baja, and Szolnok, at a time when 12,000 Jews were being deported daily to Auschwitz.

Incidentally, Ms. Polak’s figure of “$40,000” paid for each Jew is no more than a flight of her imagination. Himmler himself set the ransom price of $1,000 per head. Since the Germans had confiscated every Jewish bank account in Hungary, the majority of the Jewish community were reduced to paupers and couldn’t pay. The Va'adat ha’Ezrah Vehatzalah stepped in and paid off Eichmann's sleazy aid, Becher, with suitcases of cash, jewels, gold, stock certificates. To raise more money, Kasztner auctioned off 150 seats on the train, including the one given to Rav Teitelbaum which saved him from certain death

Whether he did this for cash or from compassion is irrelevant. In Judaism, good deeds (gemilus chassidus) are rewarded; intent is ignored. What is important is the fact that he saved some lives, obviously not as many as Ms. Polak would have liked (don’t we all wish he had saved millions!) — especially in a religion where the saving of just one life is the equivalent to saving a world.

Yes, the Kasztner transport included members of his family, friends, and landsman from Clui, but this is human nature to look after one’s “own” first.

Consider: Orthodox Jews tried to save Orthodox Jews, Zionists tried to save Zionists, Socialist and Bundist Jews rescued Socialist and Bundist Jews, and so on. In fact, the train was nicknamed “Noah’s Ark” because it contained the rich and poor; the old (85 years) and the young (a one month baby); Zionists and non-Zionists, a member from every Jewish organization from Poalei Zion to Hechalutz to Agudas Yisrael, together with atheists and such major Torah giants as Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum from Satmar; Rabbi Abraham Jungreis, the chief rabbi of Szeged; Rabbi Moshe Stern, the Debreziner Rov; Rabbi Adolph Deutsch, head of Agudas Yisrael in Budapest; Rabbi Akiva Glasner, Chief Rabbi of Klausenberg; and Rabbi Yonason Steif, the Av Bes Din of Budapest.

And yes, Kasztner knew about Auschwitz before the Nazis helped themselves to Hungarian Jewry. But so what? To suggest that their mass murder could have been mitigated but for the acts (or omissions) of one marginal player (Kasztner) is to paddle in the deep end of Jewish history’s fantasy pool. Even if Kasztner had hired an aerial sign writer above downtown Budapest, the Hungarian Orthodox rabbinate would have ignored him because he was a secular Zionist.

And more: the entire Hungarian leadership and rabbinic hierarchy knew about Auschwitz. So did Rumanian Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rav, and Slovakian Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman from the famous “Working Group”; neither wanted to make Adolf Hitler’s murderous agenda (the “Auschwitz Protocols”) immediately public in order to prevent mass panic.

Ms. Polak needs to be more careful and sensitive, especially in her public position as President of Second Generation from where her point of view might be considered official policy.

To blame Jews who, in times of unprecedented mayhem and murder, “failed” Ms. Polak’s standards of morality is very problematic when our sages warn us “not to judge another until you too stand in their place.”

I can only think of one thing that is worse: writing an “open letter” in a Jewish paper to vilify and humiliate their innocent children.

Joe Bobker is a Lawrence resident, a member of the 2nd Generation,  and author of the Torah with a Twist of Humor series.