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The Kastner train consisted of 35 cattle trucks that left Budapest on 30 June 1944, during the German occupation of Hungary, carrying over 1,600 Jews to safety in Switzerland.〔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 Jewish-Hungarian 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.〔(Braham (2004) )〕 Compared by Kastner to a Noah's ark, the train was organized during the deportations to Auschwitz in May–July 1944 of 437,000 Hungarian Jews, three-quarters of whom were sent to 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. 117–118〕 The wealthiest 150 passengers paid $1,000 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 passengers reached Switzerland in August and December 1944. Kastner emigrated to Israel 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 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) )〕 ==Rudolf Kastner== 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 married Fischer's daughter, Erzsébet (Elizabeth, known as Bogyó).〔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.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kastner train」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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