Rezsö Kasztner was born in Cluj
(Kolozsvar) in 1906. He was a life long Zionist since his young student
days. Although Kasztner studied law, his interest lay in politics. One of
the most important activities of the Zionist movement in the 1920s in Cluj
was the publication of the daily newspaper, Uj Kelet (New
Middle East
). Early in
his twenties he became the political and parliamentary correspondent of
this newspaper. In that capacity he developed a wide acquaintanceship with
the Romanian political establishment. Fluent in five languages, Rezsö
Kasztner played an important role in aiding the Jewish community in its
often difficult interactions with various political factions in
Transylvania.
After the annexation of
Transylvania by Hungary in 1940, Kasztner left his hometown of Cluj and
moved to Budapest. Together with Joel Brand and Samuel Springmann, he
helped create the Relief and Rescue Committee of Budapest in 1942. This
organization worked in clandestine cooperation with other rescue efforts
in Slovakia and in Istanbul. Through these rescue activities, Kasztner met
Oskar Schindler in December of 1942 when Schindler travelled to Hungary to
inform the members of the Rescue Committee of Nazi attrocities in Poland.
In May of 1944, Joel Brand
was sent by Adolph Eichmann to Istanbul to attempt to negotiate the ransom
of Hungarian Jewry -- "a million Jews for ten thousand trucks." With
Brand's departure, Kasztner was left to continue negotiations with various
Nazi officials. In July of 1944, a representative of Himmler, Colonel Kurt
Becher took over negotiations with Kasztner. Through these negotiations,
Kasztner was able to secure the rescue of a "token" transport of 1,684
Jews, plus an additional nearly twenty thousand Jews who were sent to a
relatively "safe" work camp in Austria for the duration of the
war.
At the end of World War II, Kasztner
was called by the Allies to help identify roles played by various members
of the German high command in preparation of the Nuremberg War Crimes
Trials.