Ben Levi, the leap of faith is captured in the title Hecht chose. It tells you his conclusion before you even open the book: that Hungarian Jewry was done in neither by the Nazis nor by the community’s own indifference but by our own traitors. This kind of literature is produced after every national disaster, including (lehavdil, of course), Germany’s defeat in WWI. Hecht admits that he’s not a historian, which is to his credit because real historians understand that once the Allies decided on Germany’s total defeat as their only goal, they (especially Britain) wouldn’t allow any unilateral initiative to negotiate with the Nazis over the rescue of Jews. The Nazis knew this and toyed with Kasztner, Brand, Rabbi Weissmandel, etc., currying favor only with the thought that it might help them in their postwar trials. And as for the information that Kasztner “withheld” from the Jews, again, escapees from Poland had been reporting it for years.
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