Killing Kastner: "He sold his soul,"

Here is a thoughtful and interesting opinion piece from Gideon Levy, a
well respected Israeli journalist. Kastner negotiated with the Nazis and
paid for the release of 1,600 Jews saving them but giving material
support to the Nazis. Kastner is a controversial figure in the Jewish
community. Kastner was put on trial in Israel and then murdered. Lenni
Brenner in /51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis/, and
Edwin Black in /The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact
between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine/, among others, have
documented Zionist collaboration with the Nazis.

Ed CorriganHe sold his soul*
* By Gideon Levy*

Who is behind me, who is in front of me, who is on either side of me?
When the lights went up in the auditorium, it became clear: In the front
row sat the family of the murdered man, the bearded man in the row
behind me was the murderer, and the two elderly women on either side of
me, for whom the English-language film had to be translated, were among
the survivors. I was watching "Killing Kastner," the exciting film by
Gaylen Ross, at the Haifa International Film Festival. This movie, a
fascinating 129- minute documentary about the most inflammatory
political murder of the 1950s, the murder of Dr. Israel Kastner,
included a first, hair-raising interview with the murderer, Zeev
Eckstein. When the American director asked the survivors of the "Kastner
train" to rise, they popped up like mushrooms all over the auditorium,
sorrowful figures who owe their lives to the slandered and detested
murdered man; even now, like his family, they know no peace. I was
choked by tears.

We don't have any more such stories today. Fifty years after Kastner's
collaboration trial and his subsequent assassination, there was still a
great and heavy sense of unease in the auditorium. Yona Yahav, the mayor
of Haifa, introduced me to a man whose two younger brothers did not
manage to board the 1944 rescue train Kastner arranged from Hungary to
Switzerland, and he bears the guilt to this day. But 50 years later, the
time has come to bow our heads in forgiveness before the man who chose
negotiations over the futile and hopeless path of fighting. Fifty years
after we chose paratrooper Hannah Senesh (Szenes), who did not rescue a
single Jew, as our childhood heroine - Did we choose her? They chose for
us - the time has come to ask Kastner's forgiveness. Perhaps this
important film will carry out the historical task, in a place where
Kastner has no monument and no memorial, except for his grave.

Kastner really did sell his soul, as Judge Benjamin Halevy said. He sold
his soul to the Devil of negotiations, lobbying, and rescue at any
price. He saved 1,600 Jews, more than any other Jew. Neither the
partisans nor the Warsaw Ghetto rebels, neither the fighters nor the
heroes matched this. His path did not suit young and belligerent Israel.
Author Mati Megged wrote the day after the trial in the literary
magazine Masa: "Thanks to the rebels and not thanks to those who
surrendered." The rescuer Kastner was one of "those who surrendered."

Now, as then, we are in favor of struggle, no matter what. No peacemaker
is considered a hero here the way a warmonger is. One doesn't talk to
Devils, whether old or new ones, not during the Holocaust and not now.
We wanted so badly then to see the new Jew, grenade in hand, like the
statue of Warsaw Ghetto leader Mordechai Anilevitz at Kibbutz Yad
Mordechai, and to get rid of the old Jew, the elegant man in the top
hat, who negotiated with the Devil - and to hell with the result, the
main thing is the struggle.

And so the people who rose in the auditorium in Haifa are the result of
Kastner's "betrayal." They lived a complete life thanks to him, raised
families and continued to feel guilty about having been rescued.

The right's claims against Kastner have remained vague. We didn't want
him as a hero, and that's that. Raoul Wallenberg did the same thing, and
he has a street and a statue in Tel Aviv, because he's not one of ours.
But by being murdered, Kastner left an important legacy behind him that,
to this very day, we are trying to shake off: Yes to negotiations, with
anyone. Do you want to know why? Ask the survivors of Kastner's train.