Rezső Kasztner
Kasztner Rezső
1906–1957
✕ Assassinated
Zionist lawyer who negotiated with Eichmann to send 1,684 Jews to Switzerland on what became known as the Kasztner train
Born into the Jewish community of Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), he became a Zionist at fifteen and worked as a journalist for the Jewish paper Új Kelet and as a lawyer. Moving to Budapest in 1941, he became a leader of the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee, which smuggled Jewish refugees into Hungary. In the summer of 1944 he negotiated with Eichmann to let 1,684 Jews leave for Switzerland instead of Auschwitz on what became known as the Kasztner train, in exchange for money, gold and diamonds. Diverted to Bergen-Belsen, the passengers reached Switzerland in two groups in August and December 1944. After the war he moved to Israel and became a government spokesman, but a 1955 ruling in a trial over charges that he had collaborated with the Nazis said he had “sold his soul to the devil”; he was shot in March 1957 and died of his wounds. In 1958 the Supreme Court overturned two of the charges.
Career timeline
- 1921Joined a Zionist youth group
- 1930sJournalist for Új Kelet; lawyer
- 1941Moved to Budapest
- 1944Negotiations with Eichmann; the Kasztner train
- 1952Spokesman, Israeli Ministry of Trade and Industry
- 1955Ruling in the Gruenwald libel trial
- 1957Shot and died of his wounds