I won't go into the details of Kasztner's epic, one that should stand alongside those of Oscar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg for having saved 20,000+ Jews from the death camps. What interested me equally was the story of the Nazi's whom I found to be enormously bloodthirsty. This was and remains unimaginable to me, as it sadly did to so many who stood in their direct path. Indeed, it is this unbridled imagination for killing that set the Nazis apart, and an equal but opposite inability to imagine the horrors they intended that rendered their victims so helpless. And the Jews' would-be saviors so hapless.
As I read, I marked many passages that illustrated both points.
Page 19 describes the attitude of nations who could have helped -- unwilling to put themselves out. Canada would only take "certain classes of agriculturalists" -- a ranking that would save few. "Brazil would only accept those who could show certificates of baptism." And so on.
Page 63 records Schindler's recollection that "Himmler was disappointed with the rate of the killings" at Auschwitz. Page 66, that "corpses are used for chemical raw materials." Page 74 - lifts removed the bodies from the gas chambers and the "kapos" made quick work of removing gold teeth, hair ("used as insulation on torpedo warheads"), and hidden baubles. Page 75 - Himmler is now satisfied. The crematoria at Auschwitz had reached the "initial goal of 4,400 human bodies a day, or more than 120,000 people a month." (Sounds frighteningly similar to the figures of a few years ago for America's abortion holocaust.)
On page 96, Eichmann was worried. Transportation to the gas ovens could handle "only 12,000 people a day" at full capacity. The 100,000+ refugees waiting for deportation would "put undue stress both on the gas chambers and the crematoria."
Sadly, it wasn't just German cruelty highlighted here. Page 118 - Romanians "were the people who had thought it a grand idea to hang Jewish bodies in butcher shops."
Page 131 - "Final Solutions" abounded in the Nazi mind. Why not march Russian Jews into the Pripet Marshes? But those proved too shallow, so "survivors were herded into gassing trucks" and their bodies driven to nearby ditches. "The idea was to spare German soldiers the horror of listening to the children's screams." Euphemisms hid what was going on from the average soldier.
Page 137 details the Nazi commitment to the annihilation of the Jews. Some officers "argued that rail lines should be used for troops and their provisions," but Eichmann's representative overruled them and "established the fact that the Reich considered the elimination of Jews to be its top priority, even as bad news continued to arrive from the frontline." All Hungarian Jews were to be transported to Poland (Auschwitz).
Meanwhile, Jews hoped for the best. Page 158 - "Very few tried to escape. Families stayed together, still imagining they were being resettled in another part of the country. Life would not be easy, but they would survive." They thought Germany needed workers, and that "when this madness was over, everyone would come home."
The book is punctuated by statements like this, from page 162: "By the end of May 217,000 people had been deported from Hungary, a daily average of 12,056, or 3,145 per train." Page 184 - "By the end of June, more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews had been deported to Auschwitz, and most of them were dead."
Lack of imagination prolonged the suffering. Page 182 - "The Red Cross had not been helpful to Europe's Jews until now, reasoning that the organization's function was to help prisoners of war; Jews were prisoners in their own countries, or in countries allied with their own, and therefore they were outside Red Cross jurisdiction." As Bergen-Belsen was being liberated, the storehouse was found to contain "mountains of Red Cross food parcels, medication, and clothing; none of it had been distributed to the inmates." (page 289)
The endless categorization of people into national and ethnic groups at Bergen-Belsen, a work camp, was described by an inmate this way (page 207): "It was as if some crazed people had given vent to a maniacal, pointless collecting passion. And even now that there are few Jews left to categorize, the insane collecting and sorting goes on unabated."
Essentially what Kasztner did was bargain with the Germans -- Eichmann himself -- for the lives of as many Jews as he (backed by Jewish agencies) could buy. Page 219 - "He was convinced that the Germans were negotiating in relatively good faith, that they had been ready to sell what they called 'valueless human material' in exchange for goods of value to them" -- trucks, cash, etc.
The international community continued to worry about what to do with so many Jews (page 218, 229). The U.S. had filled its quota. Some nations were afraid of an influx of Jews, others refused to take any at all. Some accepted a paltry few.
Page 246 - "In mid-October, Captain Alois Brunner began to empty the Sered camp of it's almost twenty thousand Slovak Jews. . . . The rest, including all the children, were murdered in Auschwitz. Brunner had always taken great pleasure in the murder of children." Later in the book he is said to have been "fond of saying 'it is more important to kill Jews than to save German soldiers.'"
Page 274 - "The war in Europe was obviously coming to an end, but Hitler and his generals made a last, desperate move to enlist everybody in to the defense of the tottering Reich. They also continued with their plan for the destruction of the Jews."
Hitler's last will and testament, dictated in the bunker where he killed himself, "laid the blame for the millions of dead on everyone except himself and exhorted all Germans to continue murdering Jews." (page 293)
Dieter Wisliceny was the last person to have seen Eichmann, who told him "he would gladly jump into the grave happy because he had killed six million Jews." "That gives me great satisfaction and gratification," he said before disappearing. (page 309)
Dieter Wisliceny was the last person to have seen Eichmann, who told him "he would gladly jump into the grave happy because he had killed six million Jews." "That gives me great satisfaction and gratification," he said before disappearing. (page 309)
Even more shocking than the cruelty of the Nazis and lethargy of other nations was the attitude of "old settlers" in Palestine toward the new arrivals after the war's end. "The Yishuv wished to maintain its hard-won image of itself as a distinct, proud, uncompromising people belonging to this land through history and love -- unlike the frightened, beaten Holocaust survivors who kept arriving and claiming their share of a common future." They were known by the slang term "sabon," soap, referring to the "Nazi's alleged practice of making soap from the boiled bodies of their victims." (page 314)
Page 315 - "The quasi-governmental Jewish Agency was not interested in immigration for the sake of the survivors; rather, as Ben-Gurion said, it wanted people . . . to help win the war and to build a country."
Israelis were indifferent to what had happened during the Holocaust. "Survivors seemed embarrassed to discuss their experiences. The Yishuv certainly did not want to hear about them." Polite conversation around kibbutz dinner tables revolved around any other topic. (page 317) "Nobody likes to remember that he was saved. Nobody wants to be grateful for his life. It's a terrible feeling to owe someone your life." (page 328) That's why, after he emigrated to Israel, Kasztner felt unappreciated by the people whose lives he had spared from certain death.
About ten years after the war, Kasztner was accused of having hidden information about Auschwitz, collaborated with the Nazi's mainly to save himself and his family, and personally profited from the negotiations. A long, painful trial for libel ensued, which he lost. Hansi Brand, his mistress, theorized the nation needed someone to blame for their shame (page 343, 345). Kasztner wanted to know, "How can someone who never faced the Nazis judge those who did?" (page 347) A ruined man, he was shot and killed by zealots, but later his memory was exonerated on appeal.
At his trial, after his initial defense of the charges against the accuser, and after his own ill-chosen words were thrown up at him, he fell into a stunned silence. It was as if the paralysis of disbelief had finally infected him too. He couldn't imagine why this was happening to him, after all he had risked.
Reflecting on the Holocaust, one survivor said, "We didn't want to know what we knew." "In Israel . . . the political leadership scrambled to dissociate itself from the 'Jewish lambs.'" He went on, "The heroes were the paratroopers and the people who revolted in the Warsaw ghetto. Poor Rezso was an antihero. Who would stake his Israeli leader image on supporting a man who saved lives by negotiating with the Germans?"(page 376-377)
I've brushed over the story to focus on the details that leave one shaking one's head in wonder and bewilderment. How could it happen? How could these things be done? Why couldn't anybody stop it? In a word, the effect of this book is devastating.
Related:
Page 315 - "The quasi-governmental Jewish Agency was not interested in immigration for the sake of the survivors; rather, as Ben-Gurion said, it wanted people . . . to help win the war and to build a country."
Israelis were indifferent to what had happened during the Holocaust. "Survivors seemed embarrassed to discuss their experiences. The Yishuv certainly did not want to hear about them." Polite conversation around kibbutz dinner tables revolved around any other topic. (page 317) "Nobody likes to remember that he was saved. Nobody wants to be grateful for his life. It's a terrible feeling to owe someone your life." (page 328) That's why, after he emigrated to Israel, Kasztner felt unappreciated by the people whose lives he had spared from certain death.
About ten years after the war, Kasztner was accused of having hidden information about Auschwitz, collaborated with the Nazi's mainly to save himself and his family, and personally profited from the negotiations. A long, painful trial for libel ensued, which he lost. Hansi Brand, his mistress, theorized the nation needed someone to blame for their shame (page 343, 345). Kasztner wanted to know, "How can someone who never faced the Nazis judge those who did?" (page 347) A ruined man, he was shot and killed by zealots, but later his memory was exonerated on appeal.
At his trial, after his initial defense of the charges against the accuser, and after his own ill-chosen words were thrown up at him, he fell into a stunned silence. It was as if the paralysis of disbelief had finally infected him too. He couldn't imagine why this was happening to him, after all he had risked.
Reflecting on the Holocaust, one survivor said, "We didn't want to know what we knew." "In Israel . . . the political leadership scrambled to dissociate itself from the 'Jewish lambs.'" He went on, "The heroes were the paratroopers and the people who revolted in the Warsaw ghetto. Poor Rezso was an antihero. Who would stake his Israeli leader image on supporting a man who saved lives by negotiating with the Germans?"(page 376-377)
I've brushed over the story to focus on the details that leave one shaking one's head in wonder and bewilderment. How could it happen? How could these things be done? Why couldn't anybody stop it? In a word, the effect of this book is devastating.
Related:
- Holocaust survivor Wiesel returns Hungarian honour
- Captain Witold Pilecki: The Auschwitz Volunteer - Fascinating story. He got himself rounded up and sent to Auschwitz so he could document what was happening. In fact, I can't recall, but he may have been mentioned in the book about Kasztner. No one believed him.
- A long shadow: Nazi doctors, moral vulnerability and contemporary medical culture - From the abstract: "More than 7% of all German physicians became members of the Nazi SS during World War II, compared with less than 1% of the general population. In so doing, these doctors willingly participated in genocide, something that should have been antithetical to the values of their chosen profession. The participation of physicians in torture and murder both before and after World War II is a disturbing legacy seldom discussed in medical school, and underrecognised in contemporary medicine."
