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Kastner train

Kastner train
photograph
Kastner train passengers on their way to Switzerland
Key peopleRudolf Kastner (1906–1957)
Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee
Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962)
Kurt Becher (1909–1995)
LocationBudapest, Hungary
DepartureFriday, 30 June 1944 (1944-06-30), c. 23:00 Central European Time.[1]
DiversionBergen-Belsen concentration camp near Hannover, 9 July, with 1,684 passengers on board.
Arrival1,670 passengers arrived in Switzerland, August and December 1944

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.[2] 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.[1] 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.[3] 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.[4] Its passengers were chosen from a wide range of social classes, and included around 273 children, many of them orphaned.[5] The wealthiest 150 passengers paid $1,500 (equivalent to $26,000 in 2023) each to cover their own and the others' escape.[6] 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.[7]

The allegations culminated in Kastner being accused in a newsletter of having been a Nazi collaborator. The 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.[8] Kastner was assassinated in Tel Aviv in March 1957.[9] 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".[10]

  1. ^ a b 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.
  2. ^ "EHRI - Rudolf Kasztner". Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  3. ^ Braham, Randolph L. (22 June 2004). "Rescue Operations in Hungary: Myths and Realities". East European Quarterly. 38 (2): 173. Archived from the original on 28 March 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  4. ^ For the comparison to Noah's ark, see Kastner (1945), pp. 61–62, cited in Maoz (2000) Archived 2012-09-13 at archive.today; 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
  5. ^ Löb (2009), pp. 117–18
  6. ^ Bauer (1994), p. 198
  7. ^ Bauer (1994), pp. 150ff, 197, 199–200
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference verdict was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ New York Times (16 March 1957 and 8 January 1958).
  10. ^ New York Times (16 January 1958, 17 January 1958), and 18 January 1958; Time magazine (27 January 1958)

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