The Kastner train is the name usually given to a rescue operation which saved the lives of over 1,600 Jews from Hungary during World War II. It consisted of 35 cattle wagons that left Budapest on 30 June 1944, during the German occupation of Hungary, ultimately arriving safely in Switzerland after a large ransom was paid to the Nazis.For 30 June, see Bauer (1994), p. 199; for the date and time (30 June, towards 11 pm), see Löb (2009), pp. 50, 97; for 35 cattle trucks, see p. 97. Porter (2007), p. 234, writes that the train left Budapest at half an hour after midnight on Saturday, 1 July. The number of passengers most often cited is 1,684. This was the number registered when the train arrived at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The number on board when the train left Budapest is not known, because people jumped on and off while the train was in motion. The train was named after Rudolf Kastner, a Hungarian-Jewish lawyer and journalist, who was a founding member of the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee, a group that smuggled Jews out of occupied Europe during the Holocaust. Kastner negotiated with Adolf Eichmann, the German SS officer in charge of deporting Hungary's Jews to Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland, to allow over 1,600 Jews to escape in exchange for gold, diamonds, and cash. The deal was controversial and has been the subject of much debate and criticism, with some accusing Kastner of collaborating with the Nazis, while others argue that he made difficult choices to save lives.
The train was organized during deportations to Auschwitz in May–July 1944 of 437,000 Hungarian Jews, three-quarters of whom were murdered in the gas chambers.For the comparison to Noah's ark, see Kastner (1945), pp. 61–62, cited in Maoz (2000) ; Bauer (1994), p. 198; Porter (2007), p. 234; and Löb (2009), p. 89 For 437,000 Jews, and that three-quarters were killed, see Bauer (1994), p. 156 Its passengers were chosen from a wide range of social classes, and included around 273 children, many of them orphaned.Löb (2009), pp. 117–18 The wealthiest 150 passengers paid $1,500 () each to cover their own and the others' escape.Bauer (1994), p. 198 After a journey of several weeks, including a diversion to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, 1,670 surviving passengers reached Switzerland in August and December 1944.
Kastner emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1947. He was a spokesman for the Minister of Trade and Industry when his negotiations with Eichmann became the subject of controversy. Kastner had been told in April or May 1944 of the mass murder that was taking place inside Auschwitz. Allegations spread after the war that he had done nothing to warn the wider community, but had focused instead on trying to save a smaller number. The inclusion on the train of his family, as well as 388 people from the ghetto in his home town of Kolozsvár, reinforced the view of his critics that his actions had been self-serving.Bauer (1994), pp. 150ff, 197, 199–200
The allegations culminated in Kastner being accused in a newsletter of having been a Nazi collaborator. The Israeli government sued for libel on his behalf, and the defendant's lawyer turned the trial into an indictment of the Mapai (Labour) leadership and its alleged failure to help Europe's Jews. The judge found against the government, ruling that Kastner had "sold his soul to the devil" by negotiating with Eichmann and selecting some Jews to be saved, while failing to alert others. Kastner was assassinated in Tel Aviv in March 1957.New York Times (16 March 1957 and 8 January 1958). Nine months later, the Supreme Court of Israel overturned most of the lower court's ruling, stating in a 4–1 decision that the judge had "erred seriously".New York Times (16 January 1958, 17 January 1958), and 18 January 1958; Time magazine (27 January 1958)
Organizer
Rudolf Kastner (1906–1957), also known as Israel Rezső Kasztner, was born in Kolozsvár, Austria-Hungary.Kolozsvár became Cluj, Romania in 1918, before being returned to Hungary in 1940, then restored to Romania in 1947. Kastner attended law school, then worked as a journalist for Új Kelet as a sports reporter and political commentator.Porter (2007), pp. 9–10, 15–18. He also became an assistant to Dr. József Fischer, a member of the Romanian parliament and leading member of the National Jewish Party, and in 1934, he married Fischer's daughter, Erzsébet.Löb (2009), p. 72.
Kastner gained a reputation as a political fixer, and joined the Ihud party, later known as Mapai, a left-wing Zionist party. He also helped to set up the Aid and Rescue Committee, along with Joel and Hansi Brand, Samuel Springmann, Ottó Komoly, a Budapest engineer, Ernő Szilágyi from the Hashomer Hatzair, and several others.Bauer (1994), pp. 152–153.
According to Joel Brand, the group helped 22,000–25,000 Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe reach the relative safety of Hungary between 1941 and March 1944, before the German invasion of that country on 19 March that year."Joel Brand's testimony" , Trial of Adolf Eichmann, Session 56, Part 1/4, 29 May 1961.
Passengers
The passengers were chosen by a committee that included Kastner, Ottó Komoly, and Hansi Brand from the Aid and Rescue Committee, as well as Zsigmond Leb, a former president of the Orthodox community in Cluj. Israeli legal scholar Asher Maoz writes that Kastner told the Zionist Congress after the war, in a report he wrote about the actions of the Aid and Rescue Committee, that he saw the train as a "Noah's ark", because it contained a cross-section of the Jewish community, and in particular people who had worked in public service.
According to Jeno Kölb, a passenger who kept a diary, there were 972 female and 712 male passengers in all; the oldest was 82, the youngest was but a few days old.For Kölb and the numbers, see Löb (2009), p. 115; for the ages, see Porter (2007), pp. 1, 235 Ladislaus Löb, another passenger (see right), writes that the exact number on board when the train left Budapest remains uncertain, because in the early stages of the journey, several passengers disembarked, fearing that the train would end up in Auschwitz, while others took their places. Several women threw their young children on board at the last minute.Löb (2009), p. 114 For a two-year-old Polish boy being thrown on the train by his mother at the last minute, see Porter (2007), p. 234. Also see Reisz (28 February 2008) What is known is that 1,684 passengers were registered when the train (unexpectedly) reached the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Hannover on 9 July.Bauer (1994), pp. 197-199
According to Löb, the passengers included 199 Zionists from Transylvania and 230 from Budapest, and 126 Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews, among them 40 rabbis; one of the rabbis was Joel Teitelbaum, the Satmar rebbe, along with his wife, Rebbetzin Faige Teitelbaum. Joel Teitelbaum, who was prominent in strictly Orthodox circles, was strongly opposed to modernization and to Zionism; nevertheless, his followers paid to have him included on the passenger list. Also among the passengers were scholars, artists, housewives, peasants, farmers, industrialists, bankers, journalists, teachers, and nurses. The writer Béla Zsolt was on board, as was the psychiatrist Léopold Szondi, the opera singer Dezső Ernster, the artist István Irsai, and Peter Munk, who became a businessman in Canada.Braham (2004); for Munk, see Porter (2007), p. 3 There were also 388 people from Kastner's home town of Cluj, including family members.Bauer (1994), p. 197 His mother, Helen Kastner, was given a place, as was his brother Ernő, his pregnant wife Bogyó (she gave birth to a daughter, Zsuzsi, in Switzerland in December 1944), along with her father József Fischer, and Bogyó's other relatives. Ernő Szilágyi of the Aid and Rescue Committee was on board, as were Joel Brand's mother, sister, and niece Margit, and the daughters of Ottó Komoly and Samu Stern, leading members of the Central Jewish Council (Judenrat).
Porter writes that each passenger was allowed to bring two changes of clothing, six sets of underwear, and food for 10 days.Porter (2007), p. 233ff Three suitcases of cash, jewels, gold, and shares of stock, amounting to about $1,000 per person (), were paid to SS officer Kurt Becher in ransom.
Journey
Linz, Austria
According to Bauer, the train was stopped at the Hungarian-Austrian border, where it could head west, or east to Auschwitz. The passengers started panicking; he alleges that Joel Teitelbaum and his party sent off messages asking people to save them, and only them.
Hershel Friedman, in his book "Mei'Afeiloo Loir Goodel" () about Teitelbaum, shows documentation that Teitelbaum tried, together with Chiem Roth, to save the whole train. Eichmann decided, for reasons that remain unclear, to divert the train to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northwest Germany, near Hannover, though it has been claimed that this was the result of Eichmann increasing his demands which could not immediately be met, thus keeping his hostages "on ice".
The train passed through Linz, in Austria, where passengers disembarked and were sent to a military delousing station for medical inspections and showers. They were forced to strip and stand naked for hours waiting to see medical personnel or go into the showers; the women were subjected to intimate examinations by the doctors, supposedly in a search for lice. They also had their heads and pubic regions shaved.
Several passengers believed the showers would turn out to be gas chambers, something that Löb writes one of the SS guards confirmed with a grin.Löb (2009), pp. 102–105
Bauer cites this fear as evidence that the Hungarian-Jewish community was well aware of the information about the gas chambers inside Auschwitz.Bauer (1994), p. 199; also see Porter (2007), p. 236 Between August 1943 and May 1944, Rudolf Vrba and three other Auschwitz escapees had passed information about the gas chambers to Jewish and other officials; it was this information that Vrba believed Kastner had access to, but did not distribute widely enough.
Bergen-Belsen, Germany
When the train reached Bergen-Belsen on Sunday, 9 July, the passengers were taken to a special section, what would be known as the Ungarnlager (Hungarian camp), where they were held for weeks, and in some cases months. Löb writes that their daily diet consisted of 330 grams of a grey, dense bread, 15 grams of margarine, 25 grams of jam, 1 litre of vegetable (mostly turnip) soup, 1.5 litres of coffee substitute, and sometimes cheese or sausage, with milk and extra rations for children under 14.Löb (2009), pp. 125–126 The group was allowed to organize itself and its activities. As they settled in, the men elected József Fischer to be president, and ran daily activities.Porter (2007), pp. 238 With so many intellectuals among the passengers, there were regular poetry readings, and lectures in history, philosophy, and religious education.Porter (2007), pp. 237–239 The living arrangements were primitive, with 130–160 people crammed into each room. Ladislaus Löb describes a typical night, based on a diary kept by Szidonia Devecseri, another passenger: