Mezonos Maven, you are entitled to an opinion. You are entitled to be doctrinal and ideological. You can even misconstrue facts to make them fit your tunnel visioned understanding of history. But you cannot espouse a point of view that makes no sense at all. The chareidi view on Kasztner is that he was Eichmann’s patsy, pooh pooing all the Jews of greater Hungary, lulling them into a false sense of security, in exchange for a train of mostly zionists. To believe that thesis one has to believe that Kasztner was successful in doing Eichmann’s bidding; else why would Eichmann have allowed the train at all. And there is the internal contradiction. If in fact, as you fallaciously allege, Kasztner and the “Zionists” had in fact convinced the Jews of Hungary that they were not in danger, why did the 1700 or so people even want to get on the train? More specifically, if R. Yoel Teitelbaum believed that his chassidim would, at worst, be resettled in the east as he claimed after the war, why was he unwilling to join them and be their rebbe there? Why did he get on that train? Was Poland not good enough for him?
The fact is that everyone knew what was going to happen. In Budapest, Nagyvarod, even in a tank town like Kisvarda, the Jews knew what was happening. My grandfather wrote my father a letter from the Kisvarda ghetto telling him of impending deportations. The neologue seminary in Budapest was converted into an umschlagplatz. There were refugees from Poland telling of the concentration camps. R. Michoel Weissmandel was “shraying chai vekayam.” For G-d’s sake even Miklos Horthy publicly protested the extermination of the Jews. Even before the German invasion, the Nyilas were rounding up jews and outright killing them on the banks of the Danube, or in the Munkaszalgollat. People knew. But there was no place to run. That’s why people did everything they could to get on the train, or to get get a Wallenberg schutzpasse. That’s why the Satmer Rav accepted a seat on Kasztner’s train; to save his life. And he was absolutely correct in doing so. That’s why the Chorin family quickly took a deal and sold their multi million dollar holdings for a pittance and ran to Spain. That’s why Pinchas Freudiger, the Rosh Hkahal of Budapest’s Orthodox kehilla fled to Romania when a sympathetic csender tipped him off and his brother had been arrested; to save his life and those of his family. (contrast Freudiger with Samu Stern, the president of the Neologue community who also knew what was going to happen and stayed with his people even though he could have fled. Talk about a chilul Hashem) People knew.
Kasztner did nothing wrong. He saved lives, 1700 of them on the train and protected 15,000 more slave laborers in Vienna. To do it, he had to “lie down with dogs” and risk getting fleas. In return he was portrayed as a quisling for political reasons and was ultimately murdered. Shmuel Tamir and Malkiel Grunwald literally had Kasztner blood on their hands. But Kasztner saved the Satmer Rav, who came to America and did all he did to strengthen American yiddishkeit. Rudolph Kasztner has a chelek in every pasuk, in every mishne learned by Tinokot shel beit rabban, as does the Satmer Rav. In return for enabling the ascendancy of American Orthodoxy, a perfidous ungrateful chareidi community vilifies him. Shame on you and all those like you. And I defy you to please answer my question. WHY DID R YOILISH BOARD THAT TRAIN?
Indeed Kasztner testified on behalf of Kurt Bacher. I don’t know why he did it. Maybe he sufered from Helsinki Syndrome or PTSD. Maybe Kaszter, for all he accomplished, was a deeply flawed character. But that testimony does not negate what Kasztner accomplished. He saved the Satmer Rav who went on to build American Orthodoxy in the most profound of ways. Kaszter put the Satmer Rav on his train and kept his pregnant wife in Budapest. Kasztner went back to Budapest, when he could have stayed in Switzerland. He stood by his bretheren when gedolim fled. And you dare impugn him?