1955 — 1st edition. Original stiff wrappers with 2 staples. 8vo, 13 leaves. Typescript mimeograph. The Attorney-General of the Government of Israel v. Malchiel Gruenwald, commonly known as the Kastner trial, was a libel case in Jerusalem, Israel. Hearings were held from 1 January to October 1954 in the District Court of Jerusalem before Judge Benjamin Halevi (19101996), who published his decision on 22 June 1955.[1]The defendant, Malchiel Gruenwald (18811958), a hotelier who lost 52 relatives in the Auschwitz concentration camp, had accused Rudolf Kastner (19061957), a Hungarian lawyer and journalist who became a civil servant in Israel in 1947, of collaborating with the Nazis in Hungary during the Holocaust. The allegations were made in a self-published newsletter, Letter to Friends in the Mizrachi, in August 1952. The Israeli government sued on Kastner's behalf, calling him as one of 59 witnesses. Gruenwald was represented by Shmuel Tamir, a former Irgun commander, who turned the case into one that examined the actions of the governing Zionist Mapai party during the Holocaust, and what had been done to help Europe's Jews. One of the key issues was whether Kastner, who in Hungary had helped to found the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee, had in effect collaborated with Adolf Eichmann and Kurt Becher, two SS officers, in his efforts to secure safe passage from Budapest to Switzerland in July 1944 of 1,684 Jews, on what became known as the Kastner train. Gruenwald and Tamir accused Kastner of having failed to warn the Hungarian Jewish community that they were to be loaded onto trains and taken to the gas chambers in Auschwitz, in occupied Poland. They alleged that he had known about the gas chambers since at least the end of April 1944 when he had received a copy of the Vrba-Wetzler report but had neglected to inform the wider community that they were not being deported from Hungary to be resettled, as the Nazis had said. His motive, they said, was to safeguard the release of a smaller number, which included his family and friends. In failing to alert the wider community to the danger, they alleged that he had helped the SS avoid the spread of panic among the Jewish community, which would have slowed down the transports. The judge ruled in Gruenwald's favour, accusing Kastner of having sold his soul to the devil. Kastner was assassinated outside his home in Tel Aviv in March 1957 as a result of the decision and the subsequent publicity. (wikipedia) This booklet is against Kastner and how the Israeli Government handled it. They say, Had the Kastner case taken its natural course, had Kastner been tried on the strength of the prima facie evidence like any other citizen in such circumstances (and in execution of the law specially passed for that purpose) there would, of course be no need for any special public action. But the Government, in defiance of accepted democratic procedure and in disregard of the country, has thrown all its weight on the other side of the scales. This can only mean that there is more behind the Kastner trial than has so far been revealed, and that Kastner is the key to other mysteries that accompanied the greatest catastrophe in our modern history. (page 7-8) OCLC: 2056270, OCLC lists 4 copies worldwide (YU, YIVO, HUC, TAU) none at any non-Jewish institution. Tearing around staples on cover, repaired, cover is slightly creased and has a stain in the lower right corner. Very Good Condition Overall. Scarce.(HOLO2-144-29)
