Dr. Rezsoe (Rudolph) Kastner, being duly sworn deposes and says: '
I was born in 1906 at Kolozsvar, (now Cluj, Rumania), solicitor and journalist, residing at Chemin Krieg, 16, Pension Sergey, Geneva, now temporarily at 109, Clarence Gate Gardens, London.
I was in Budapest until November 28, 1944; as one of the leaders of the Hungarian Zionist organization I not only witnessed closely the Jewish persecution, dealt with officials of the Hungarian puppet government and the Gestapo but also gained insight into the operation of the Gestapo, their organization and witnessed the various phases of Jewish persecution. The following biographical data of mine might be of interest:
Betweeen 1925-1940: Political Editor of "Uj Kelet" Jewish daily newspaper published in Koloszvar; Secretary-General of the Parliamentary Group of the Jewish Party in Rumania.
Between 1929-1931: Worked in Bucharest; member of the Executive of the Palestine Office of the. Jewish Agency.
In Dec. 1940: Being a Jew I was excluded from the Chamber of Lawyers; "Uj Kelet" the daily, was closed down by the Hungarian authorities: I moved to Budapest.
Between 1943-1945: Associate President of the Hungarian Zionist Organization.
July 1942: I have been called up for Labor Service: together with 440 other Jewish intellectuals and citizens we worked in South-Eastern Transylvania on fortifications along the Hungar-ian-Rumanian border.
In Dec. 1942: I was demobilized. Returned to Budapest. Some time before being drafted I have begun to organize relief work for refugee Slovakian Jews. After my demobilization I succeeded in establishing—through diplomatic couriers—contact with the Relief Committee of the Jewish Agency, working in Istanbul. On their instructions I have taken over the leadership of the Relief Committee in Budapest. Our task was—
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1. To help to smuggle Jews from Slovakia and Poland into Hungary to save them from the threat of the gas chamber.
2. To feed and clothe them and to assist in their emigration to Palestine.
3. To forward the minutes based on the declaration of thé refugees on the question of deportation and annihilation of Jews to Istanbul, later to Switzerland, to the hands of the representatives of the Jewish Agency and the Joint Distribution Committee.
4. To cooperate with the Relief Committee of Bratislava in matters concerning saving, hiding of refugee Jews and exchange of information. After German occupation of Hungary, on the 19th March 1944, the Relief Committee concentrated its efforts on the saving of Hungarian Jewry.
5. The Relief Committee of the Jewish agency of which I was a president was engaged in helping Allied prisoners of war. Moreover we sent confidential reports to the Allies through Istanbul and Switzerland about our connections with officials of the German government. We helped to hide and supported leaders of the Hungarian underground and gave a wealth of information to those Hungarian authorities which were working against the Germans. During the siege of Budapest, when I was already out of the country, other members of the Relief Committee participated in street fights against the Germans.
On 15 May 1944: One of my collaborators, Eugen Brand was sent by the Germans to Istanbul to pass on certain business proposals in connection with saving of the Hungarian Jews.
On 21 August 1944: I traveled from Budapest under German escort to the Swiss frontier and acted as intermediary for the first conversation between Kurt Becher and Saly Mayer, Swiss representative of the Joint D. C. to discuss the price of abandoning the gassing. The conversation took place between St. Margareten and Hoechst on the bridge. From there I returned to Budapest.
On 14 October 1944: I traveled for the second time to St. Margarethen.
On 30 October 1944: I traveled to St. Gallen, accompanied by Kurt Becher and Kr. Wilhelm Billitz, director of the Manfred Weiss Works. On this occasion an interview took place between Becher and McClelland, Swiss representative of the War Refugee Board in the Savoy Hotel, at Zurich. I returned to Budapest.
On 28 November 1944: I left on German instructions to the Swiss border.
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On 20 December 1944: I entered Switzerland.
On 27 December 1944: I started out to travel back to Budapest, but could only get to Vienna. The Red Army encircled Budapest.
On 29 December 44-28 March 1945: I remained in Vienna. Afterwards toured Bratislava-Spitz an der Donau—Berlin— Bergen Belsen Hamburg—Berlin—Theresianstadt.
On 19 April 1945 I crossed the Swiss border.
The Germans entered into discussion with leaders of the Jewish community for reasons of administrative efficiency. We conducted the discussion in the hope that we might be able to save some human lives. By holding the ax over our heads they made us responsible for financial contributions and other exactions imposed on the Jewish community. Ultimately the leaders of the "Jewish council" and other intermediaries were also scheduled for extermination. The SS and the Gestapo was particularly intent on liquidating those who had direct knowledge of their operations. I escaped the fate of the other Jewish leaders because the complete liquidation of the Hungarian Jews was a failure and also because SS Standartenfuehrer Becher took me under his wings in order to establish an eventual alibi for himself. He was anxious to demonstrate after the fall of 1944 that he disapproved the deportations and exterminations and endeavored consistently to furnish me with evidence that he tried to save the Jews. SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Wisliczeny repeatedly assured me that according to him Germany cannot win the war. He believed that by keeping me alive and by making some concessions in the campaign against the Jews he might have a defense witness when he and his organization will have to account for their atrocities. Strangely he came to Hungarian Jews with the letter of recommendation from leading Slovak Jews. The latter were not deported in 1942 and were saved over until the end of 1944.
Major phases in the persecution of Hungarian Jewry
Before the German occupation.
1. 17,000 Jews—mainly from Ruthenia—were deported to Poland in August 1941. There they were transferred to the German military authorities. These were executed during the succeeding 3 months. In Kamenetz-Podolsk alone 4,500 Hungarian Jews were shot dead. Responsible: Prime Minister Bordossy.
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2. Between 23 and 25 January 1942 Hungarian military units "cleaned up" the southern region captured from the Yugoslavs. In Novisad they shot dead 1,500 Jews found at home or in the streets, or taken to the Serbian cemetery or to the beach. A further 2,000 Jews were only saved by an order from Admiral Horthy. Commanders of the Military force were General Feketehalmi-Zeisler, General Bajor-Bayer and Captain Zoeldi.
3. The so-called Jewish Labor companies created within the framework of military pioneer services, were in fact concentration camps organized on the German model. Of the 130,000 Hungarian Jews recruited by this means, about 50,000 died from starvation, typhus and shooting, 30,000 were taken prisoners by the Russians, 20,000 were deported to Germany; about 30,000 remained in Hungary.
Organizers of the "Labor Service" were Bartha, Minister for War, Werth, Chief of the Military Staff.
After the German occupation.
19 March 1944: Together with the German military occupation arrived in Budapest "Special Section Commando" of the German Secret Police with the sole object of liquidating the Hungarian Jews. It was headed by Adolf Eichmann, SS Obersturmbann-fuehrer, Chief of Section IV.B of the Reich Security Head Office. His immediate collaborators were: SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Hermann Krumey, Hauptsturmfuehrer Wisliczeny, Hunsche, Novak, Dr. Seidl, later Danegger, Wrtok. They arrested, and later deported to Mauthausen, all the leaders of Jewish political and business life and journalists, together with the Hungarian democratic and anti-Fascist politicians; taking advantage of the "interregnum" following upon the German occupation lasting 4 days they have placed their Quislings into the Ministry of the Interior. These were Ladislas Endre and Ladislas Baky. Utilizing the Hungarian administrative organs they have:
a. Arrested all Jews arriving or leaving Budapest (about 2,500 persons, who were interned at Kistarcsa).
b. Excluded the Jews from using postal and telephone facilities.
c. Took over for SS and German military purposes all Jewish public buildings, schools, and hospitals.
On 23 March 1944 the Quisling Cabinet was formed, the purpose of which was—according to the statement made by Wisliczeny (to use in June 1944 in Budapest)—solely the solution of the Jewish problem. During the deliberations preceding the formation of the Cabinet, Prime Minister Sztojay undertook in the
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presence of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Winckelmann, Hungary's SS Commander, SS Standartenfuehrer Wesenmayer, new German Minister and Aichmann, that the Hungarian Government will do everything possible to help in the liquidation of the Hungarian Jewry. One anti-Jewish decree followed another after the Sztojay Cabinet took over. At the same time Krumey and Wisliczeny appeared in the building of the Budapest Jewish Committee and informed Samuel Stern, President, that the matters concerning the Hungarian Jewish problem would be henceforth "dealt with" within the competence of the SS. They warned the Jews against creating panic and obliged the Jewish leaders to form a "Jewish Council." A gigantic levy was imposed (money and goods worth about 11,000,000 pengoes had to be handed over). When President Stern made an inquiry at the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior he was told: "You must fulfill the German demands........"
On the 26 March 19 UU the whole of Ruthenia, Upper Hungary and Northern Transylvania were declared operational territory at the request of the German General Staff. During the next days that followed Aichmann, Wisliczeny, and Hunsche had daily conferences with Ladislas Endre who received full authority from the Cabinet in matters concerning the Jews.
On 9 April 19the military authorities, with headquarters at Munkacs began the rounding-up of 320,000 Jews into Ghettos within the operational area. In order to prevent any armed resistance by the Jews, they were concentrated in brick factories (as at Kassa, Ungvar, Kolozsvar) or under the open sky (as at Nagybanyam, Marosvasarhely, Des), in a few cases they were allowed to retire into some sections of the cities (as in Nagy-varad, Maramorossiziget), Food allocations: daily l/5th of a pound of bread and two cups of soup. From the Jews sent into the Ghettos even matches were taken away.
While an agreement was arrived at between Wesenmayer, German Minister and a representatve of Sauckel on the one hand, and Prime Minister Sztojay, on the other, that Hungary would place 300,000 Jewish workers at the disposal of the Reich (who were to be selected by a mixed Hungarian-German committee), total deportation of all Jews was decided by Endre, Baky and Aichmann at a meeting in the Ministry of the Interior on the 14 April 1944.
Novak and Lullay left on the next day for Vienna to discuss the question of transport facilities with the management of the German railways. .
693258—46—21
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A levy of 2,000,000 pengoes each was imposed by the Gestapo on the Jews of Novisad and Ungvar. Jewish shops were, looted by Germans. Despite a German protest, the Hungarian Government ordered the closing down of all Jewish shops. The Jews resisted in the Ghetto of Munkacs. The Gestapo shot 27 of them, including the entire executive of the Jewish Community.
On 28 April 194-4- the first deportation takes place; 1,500 persons suitable as laborers were taken from the Kistarcsa internment camp to Oswiecim. There, they were compelled to write encouraging notes to their relatives with datelines from "Waldsee." The notes were brought by an SS Courier to Budapest and were distributed by the Jewish Council.
In the meantime the Budapest Belief Committee received two messages from the Bratislava Committee. One message said that there was feverish work going on in Oswiecim to restore the gas chambers and crematoriums there, which were not working for months and a remark made by a SS-NCO that "soon we will get fine Hungarian sausages" was reported. The other message was to the effect that an agreement was reached, between the Hungarian, Slovakian, and German railway managements that, for the time being, 120 trains would be directed, via Presov, towards Oswiecim. This information was passed on to the Bratislava Relief Committee by an anti-Nazi Slovakian railway official. It was obvious that it concerned deportation trains.
The delegate of the International Red Cross, to whom I have appealed for intervention, stated that in view of the Geneva Convention this was impossible for him. The Swedish and Swiss Legations promised that they would report to their Governments and ask for instructions. After repeated appeals the Primate of the Catholic Church promised an intervention on behalf of the converted Jews. But Sztojay refused to listen.
After consulting with all Jewish leaders we turned to the Germans. At first Grumey, Wisliczeny, and Hunsche negotiated with us; later Aichmann took over the negotiations. Aichmann arrived at Budapest on the first day of the German occupation, 19 March, 1944. Wisliczeny arrived there on March 22. The first time we negotiated was 3 April. At first the Germans demanded a compensation of 2,000,000 dollars and promised that in return for this sum they would not deport anyone. Later Aichmann declared: "I can only sell the Hungarian Jews as from Germany. Brand should leave at once for Istanbul and inform the Jews there and the Allies that I am prepared to sell 1,000,000 Hungarian Jews, for goods, primarily vehicles. I would trans-
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port them to Oswiecim and 'put them on ice.' If my generous offer is accepted I will release all of them. If not, they will all be gassed." '
In the meantime the organization of the Ghettos had been directed by Wisliczeny, who had been traveling from town to town. The Hungarian police and gendarmerie was at his disposal everywhere. Officially he only acted as an "Advisor" to the Hungarian authorities; in reality everything took place on German orders.
15 May 19UU General and total deportation begins. One day before the evacuation all hospital cases, newly born babies, blind and deaf, all mental cases and prison inmates of Jewish origin were transferred to the Ghettos. About 80-100 Jews were placed in each cattle-car with one bucket of water; the car was then sealed down. At Kassa the deportation trains were taken over from the escorting Hungarian gendarmerie by the SS. While searching for "hidden valuables" the gendarmerie squads tortured the inmates with electric current and beat them mercilessly. Hundreds committed suicide. Those who protested or resisted were shot at once (as for instance Dr. Rosenfeld, solicitor of Marosvasarhely).
The Hungarian press and radio kept quiet about the deportations. The Hungarian government denied in the foreign press that Jews were tortured.
Between 5 June and 8 June 19UU Aichmann told me: "We accepted the obligation toward the Hungarians that not a single deported Jew will return alive!"
E7p to 27 June 19kU 475,000 Jews were deported.
The Pope and the King of Sweden intervened with Horthy. Then followed the ultimatumlike appeal of President Roosevelt to stop the brutal anti-Jewish persecutions. Thereupon Horthy has forbidden the deportation of the Jews from the capital which was already fixed to take place on July 5.
Endre, Baky, and the Germans protested against this decision and a further 30,000 Jews were deported from Transdanubia; the outer suburbs of Budapest were also emptied. Horthy dismissed Endre. But Aichmann, Endre, and Baky continued to try to liquidate the Jews of the capital with the collaboration of the gendarmerie. Liberators bombed Budapest and the railway junctions which were to be used by the deportation trains. Horthy has ordered the mobilization of the Army against an attempted coup d' etat (8 July). The gendarmerie thereupon went over to Horthy's side. But Aichmann emptied the camp of -Kistarcsa by secretly collaborating with the Camp Com-
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mander and another 1,700 Jews were transported oft in the direction of Oswiecim. On Horthy's orders the train was stopped at the frontier and the people were brought back. But Aichmann repeated his coup after 3 days and prevented any information reaching Horthy in time.
On 15 July 19kU an ultimatum was handed over by Wesenmayer, German Minister to the Hungarian Minister of Foreign ' Affairs demanding the deportation of the Budapest Jews. The Hungarian Government replied in a note to the effect that it was prepared to transfer the Budapest Jews to satisfy demands of military security, but only within the borders of the country. (27 July).
Allied successes have strengthened the position of the Hungarian Government against the Germans. Lakatos, new Hungarian Prime Minister sent a note to the German Government demanding the recall of Aichmann and his staff from Hungary, the transfer of the German-controlled internment camps to Hungarian authorities and the handing over of Hungarian politicians and high-ranking officers in German captivity to the Hungarians. _
On 25 August 19k-U the following instructions received from Himmler, Wesenmayer informed the Hungarian Government that its demands would be fulfilled by the Germans.
But on 15 October 19UU a German coup ended the Horthy regime and Szalasy took over power. On 17 October Aichmann returns to Budapest by air. On his order the Arrow-Cross Party and the police began the deportation of all Jews locked into the houses marked by yellow stars; 25,000 Jewish people, mostly women were made to walk over 100 miles in rain and snow without food to the Austrian border; hundreds died on the way, more died in Austria through exhaustion and dysentery. On the border the transports were taken over by Wisliczeny; 20,000 Labor Service men shared the same fate.
The German authorities were the same as before; the most active Hungarian collaborators were: Minister Emil Kovarcz, Solymosi, Under-Secretary of State, and Ladislas Ferenczi, Lt. Col. of the gendarmerie.
On 8 December the deportations from Budapest stopped. According to Wisliczeny Aichmann refused to carry out Himmler's order to stop deportations until he received written instructions from Himmler himself. Until 11 February 1945 the Arrow-Cross party-men did not stop to hunt down Jews in hiding, living on false papers; 10-15,000 Jews were shot on the shores of the Danube or in the streets during these 2 months. Thousands
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have died in the Ghettos, as well as in the "protected houses" of the Swedish and Swiss Legations, as a result of enemy action, sickness or starvation. '
The losses of Hungarian Jewry The 1940-41 census found 762,000 persons of Jewish persuasion within what was then Hungarian territory. But the persecution was extended to the Converted Jews, as well as to mixed marriages, of whom there were no official figures. Their numbers were estimated generally at 60,000.
According to figures estimated in August 1945:
There are at present in Budapest .................150,000 Jews
In the provinces ................................ 40,000 Jews
In Transylvania (returned to Rumania), in Ruth-enia (attached to Russia), in Upper Hungary (attached to Slovakia), and in the Backa (returned to Yugoslavia), there are estimated to be 50,000 Jews
Total .................240,000 Jews
In territory occupied by the Allies and in Russia,
Sweden and Switzerland approx. ................. 50,000 Jews
Total ..........-...........290,000 Jews
Of the 10,000 or so Slovakian, Polish, Yugoslav, and German Jews who were in Hungary at the time of the German occupation only about 750 are still alive, according to a reliable estimate.
Therefore, a total of 540,000 Hungarians and 10,000 refugee Jews perished, of them—
The Germans were responsible for the death of....450,000 The Hungarians were responsible for the death of 80,000 Suicides, sickness, enemy (allied) action ............ 20,000
550,000
The figures concerning the deported Jews originate from Wis-liczeny, who directed the deportations and was fully competent to give these figures.
It may be added that the objective of the new wave of deportations which started at the end of October 1944 was no longer Oswiecim. On this occasion older people, children, and the sick were not deported. Those who remained alive after the long journey on foot were—in the majority—employed on fortifications works along the Austro-Hungarian border; a lesser number were sent to Oranienburg, Dachau, and Bergen-Belsen.
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General History of the Annihilation of the Jews Section
IV.B. and the Annihilation of the Jews
Pogroms and the creation of the Ghettos organized in various centers in Poland during 1939-40 represented a period of hesitation. At that time the extinction of all European Jews was planned, but it was not finally decided upon. The Lublin "reservation," the playing of the Nazis with the idea of a Jewish center were expressions of this period of hesitation. The decision to exterminate the Jews was probably reached in 1941. In the occupied Baltic countries and in the Ukraine the SS formation working jointly with the Wehrmacht annihilated nearly all Jews (in the Baltic countries they were helped by the Latvians and Lithuanians). The mass-murder was carried out with the aid of bullets. The victims often dug their own tombs. Frequently they were buried alive. Then began the use of gas. The victims were killed by gas bursting out inside hermetically sealed lorries.
In the fall of 1941—according to a statement of Wisliczeny— made to me in January 1945 in Vienna—Kaltenbrunner commissioned SS Standartenfuehrer Blobl to work out the plan of the gas chambers. In the opinion of Wisliczeny the initiative came from Aichmann. Hitler approved of the plan at once. The execution was entrusted to the Aichmann-Himmler-Kaltenbrun-ner trio.
In December 19^1 the first tests were carried out in Belzecz. According to a statement of Wisliczeny made to me in Vienna in February '45 it was a complete success. Thereupon three more death-camps were set up in Treblinka, Majdanek and Oswiecim. (Later a smaller camp was set up in Kalkini.)
According to statements of Krumey and Wisliczeny in February or March 1945 a conference of the officers of IV.B. was called to Berlin by Aichmann in the spring of 1942. He then informed them that the Government decided in favor of the complete annihilation of the European Jews and that this will be carried out silently in the gas chambers. "Victory is ours" declared Aichmann. "The end of the war is near. We must hurry as this is the last chance to free Europe of the Jews. After the war it will not be possible to utilize such methods."
Wisliczeny claims that he interjected the following remark to Aichmann's statement: "God help us that this method should never be possible against us."
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Krumey confirmed this statement of Wisliczeny. He maintained that until the secret—which had to be kept strictly—was revealed by Aichmann, none of the officers of IV.B. knew anything- about it.
The entire machinery of the German State supported Section IV.B. in this work. In occupied countries the Commanders of the Wehrmacht and the Gauleiters (Seyss-Inquart, Frank, Heydrich, etc), in countries allied to Germany the German diplomats (Killin-ger in Bucharest, Wesenmayer in Zagreb, later in Budapest) supported the work.
The plan of operation was almost identical in all countries; at first Jews were marked, then separated, divested of all property, deported and gassed.
The Officers of IV.B. traveled from country to country. Wisliczeny—according to his own admission—directed the deportation in Slovakia and Greece.
Brunner II. in Poland and Slovakia.
Krumey, Seidl directed the work in Hungary, Austria, and Poland.
Seidl was the first commander of Theresienstadt.
Guenther directed deportations in Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Danegger, Brunner in France.
Almost everywhere the local Quisling authorities and even part of the civilian populations assisted them.
Commanders of the death-camps gassed only on direct or indirect. instructions of Aichmann. The particular Officer of IV.B. who directed the deportations from some particular country had the authority to indicate whether the train should go to a death camp or not, and what should happen to the passengers. The instructions were usually carried by the SS-NCO escorting the train. The letters "A" or "M" on the escorting instruction documents indicated Auschwitz (Oswiecim) or Majdanek; it meant that the passengers were to be gassed.
In case of doubt instructions by wire were asked from Aichmann in Berlin.
Regarding Hungarian Jews the following general ruling was laid down in Oswiecim: children up to the age of 12 or 14, older people above 50, as well as the sick, or people with criminal records (who were transported in specially marked wagons) were taken immediately on their arrival to the gas chambers.
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The others passed before an SS doctor who, on sight, indicated who was fit for work, and who was not. Those unfit were sent to the gas chambers, while the others were distributed in various labor camps.
In September 1944 Slovakian partisans engineered the revolt in Banska-Bystricza. The Jewish youth joined the revolution enthusiastically. Aichmann thereupon sent SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Brunner to Bratislava with instructions to deport all the 17,000-odd Jews still left behind after the deportations of 1942. They were to go to Oswiecim.
SS and Hlinka-Guards arrested the Jews. They were transported from Sered. About 13,500 Jews were caught, the rest were in hiding. Following my appeal the A.D.C. of Becher Capt. Grueson journeyed to Bratislava and tried to intervene with SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Vitezka, Slovakian Gestapo Chief to stop, the deportations. Vitezka's reply was: "As far as I am concerned I will agree readily if I get telegraphic authority from Kalten-brunner to this effect." Becher said on 2 November 1944, in the Hotel Walhalla, St. Gallen, Switzerland, in the presence of the representative of the Joint D.C.: "We have militarily annihilated the Slovakian Jews."
In the first half of November 1944 about 20,000 Jews were taken from Theresienstadt to Oswiecim and were gassed, on instructions from Aichmann. As far as I could, ascertain this was the last gassing process.
According to Becher, Himmler issued instructions—on his advice—on 25 November 1944 to dynamite all the gas-chambers and crematoria of Oswiecim. He also issued a ban on further murdering of Jews.
Wisliczeny confirmed the existence of such an order. But he maintained that Aichmann sabotaged this order and was supported in this by Mueller and Kaltenbrunner.
Following the advance of the Russian Army it was necessary to evacuate the Polish and Silesian camps. Some of the Jewish prisoners were sent to Bergen-Belsen or other camps. Most of the Jews fotind in these camps by the Allies arrived there either at the end of 1944 or at the beginning of 1945. Other Jews in the extermination camps were shot, or were frozen dead on the way.
There were no mass-murders in the months preceding the German surrender but owing to starvation—due partly to the collapse of the German transport system and the general lack of food— the sick and weakened Jews died by the thousands.
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.After the fall of 1944 Himmler granted several concessions. Thus he permitted the departure for Switzerland of 1,700 Hungarian Jews deported to Bergen-Belsen and also agreed to suspend the annihilation of the Jews of the Budapest Ghetto. Himmler permitted the handing over to the Allies the Jews of Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt without a shot being fired, which in his eyes and eyes of his colleagues was such a generous and colossal concession that he certainly hoped some political concession in return. In the hope of establishing contact with the Allies Himmler made some1 concessions even without expecting economic returns. To this desire of Himmler may be ascribed the general prohibition dated 25 November 1944, concerning the further killing of Jews. On 27 November 1944 Becher showed me a copy of Himmler's order on this subject. Aichmann at first did not obey this order.
In accordance with my above described activities I had dealings among others with the following individuals:
Germans: Special Section Commando (for the Liquidation of Jews): .
Adolf Aichmann, SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer, head of section IV.B. in the Reich Security Head Office and the following officers of his staff:
SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Guenther; Danegger; Hermann Krumey.
SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dieter Wisliczeny; Dr. Seidl; Novak; Hunsche; Schmiedsieffen.
Several NCO's, among them:
Hauptsturmfuehrer Richter.
Oberscharfuehrer Nuemann.
Special Staff (Economic Staff):
SS Standartenfuehrer Kurt Becher, and some officers of his staff.
SS Standartenfuehrer Wesenmayer, German Minister in Budapest (after 19 March 1945).
Hungarians:
Nicholas Mester, Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Education.
Ladislas Vitez Ferenczy, Lt. Col. of the Gendarmerie.
Leo Lullay, Captain of the Gendarmerie.
Dr. Stephen Olah, Counselor of the Ministry.
Ladislas Baky, Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Interior.
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Hungarian Resistance Workers: ' '
Henry Lazar, present Hungarian Under-Secretary of State to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Nicholas Kertesz, former Social-democratic member of Parliament.
Bela Zsolt, journalist.
A. Bereczky, Trustee of the Calvinist Church.
Neutrals:
Prof. Waldemar Langlet, Cultural Counselor of the Swedish Legation.
Count Tolstov ) )
Paul Wallenberg ) Consul Lutz ) )
Representatives of the Swedish Red Cross;
Head of the protection of foreign interests Section of the Swiss Legation.
Freidrich Born, delegate of the International Red Cross. The Charge d'Affaires of the Swiss Legation.
The Charge d'Affaires of the Spanish Legation.
Jews:
All members of the Jewish Council, especially Samuel Stern (Court Counselor), Chairman of the Pest Jewish Community.
Dr. Charles Wilhelm; Dr. Ernest Petoe, Dr. Boda (Chief Government Counselor), Vice-chairman.
Philip Freudiger, President of the Orthodox Jewish Community and members of the council of that Community.
Otto Komoly, President of the Zionist Organization.
Nicholas Krausz, head of the Palestine Office of the Jewish Agency.
[signed] DR. KASTNER REZSOE DR. REZSOE (RUDOLF) KASTNER
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 13th day of September 1945 at the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel, 49 Mount Street, London W.l, England.
[signed] WARREN F. FARR
WARREN F. FARR Major, Judge Advocate General's Dept., Office U. S. Chief of Counsel
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Affidavit concerning German actions in Hungary, including the oppression and killing of Hungarian Jews
Authors
Rezsoe (Rudolph) Kastner (Dr., Jewish Rescue Committee, Budapest)
Rezso (Rudolph) Kastner
Jewish-Hungarian lawyer and journalist (1906-1957)
- Born: 1906-01-01 (Cluj-Napoca)
- Died: 1957-03-15 (Tel Aviv)
- Country of citizenship: Hungary; Israel
- Occupation: journalist; lawyer; politician
- Member of political party: Mapai
- Member of: Aid and Rescue Committee
- Participant in: Judges' Trial (date: 1945-09-13; role: affiant)
- VIAF ID: https://viaf.org/viaf/56897837
Date: 13 September 1945
Literal Title: Dr. Rezso (Rudolph) Kastner
Total Pages: 23
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-2605
HLSL Item No.: 451074
Notes:The text in English is followed by one in German. Another copy of PS 2605 was apparently entered as US exhibit 242 (concerning the concentration camps), though that is not in the HLS document book on the subject. This copy was not entered as evidence. Page 8 includes a second-hand account of Eichmann's description of the extermination of the Jews in 1942.
Trial Issues
Persecution of political, religious, and ethnic ("racial") groups (IMT, NM… Extermination of the Jews (IMT, NMT 4, 9)
Document Summary
PS-2605: Sworn statement of Dr. Rezsoe (Rudolph) Kastner Re Jewish Persecution in Hungary and operations of Gestapo
PS-2605: Affidavit of Dr. Rezso (rudolph) Kastner, 13 September 1945: details of the persecution and massacre of Jews in Hungary 1941 to 1944; historical and statistical summary of actions against the Jews in several European countries
PS-2605: Affidavit of Rudolf Kastner.