Creation of the secret Jewish (Zionist) mutual aid organization known as the Vaadat Ezra ve’Hatzalah, generally referred to as the Vaada. The key organizers of the Vaada were Otto Komoly, Dr. Rezsö Kasztner and Samuel Springmann. Other members of the Vaada included Dov Weiss, Jeno Frankel, Moshe Rosenberg, Siegfried Roth, Uziel Lichtenberg, Joska Baumer, Joel Brand and Moshe Schweiger. Other associates of the Vaada included Moshe Krausz, executive secretary of the Budapest branch of the Jewish Agency, Hansi Brand (wife of Joel) and Adreas Biss (a cousin of Joel).

Joel Brand became the head of the Vaada because of his important contacts with Jozsef Krem, a member of the Hungarian Counter-espionage Service, and later with Bandi Grosz, an apostate Jew, variously associated with the Hungarian Secret Police and with the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service.