Trading in Lives?: Operations of the Jewish Relief and Rescue Committee in Budapest, 1944-1945
Set in the tumultuous moments of 1944-45 Budapest, this work
discusses the operations of the Budapest Relief and Rescue
Committee. Drawing out the contradictions and complexities of the
mass deportations of Hungarian Jews during the final phase of World
War II, Szita suggests that in the Hungarian context, a commerce in
lives ensued, where prominent Zionists like Dr. Rezso Kasztner
negotiated with the higher echelons of the SS, trying to garner the
freedom of Hungarian Jews. Szita's portrait of the
controversial Kasztner is a more sympathetic rendition of powerful
Zionist leader who was later assassinated in Israel for his
dealings with Nazi leaders. Szita reveals a story of interweaving
personalities and conflicts during arguably the most tragic moment
in European history. The author's extensive research is a
tremendous contribution to a field of study that has been much
ignored by scholarship--the Hungarian holocaust and the trade in
human lives.
Szabolcs Szita has published extensively on the persecution of the European Jewry during the Second World War. He is cofounder of the Holocaust Documentation Center in Budapest Hungary, and has been its Research Director since 1990. He is the recipient of the Sandor Scheiber Prize, and the Csatkai Prize.
Inhaltsangabe
Contents Chapter 1 The Operations of the Budapest Relief and Rescue Committee Chapter 2 The German Occupation of Hungary, May 19 1944 Chapter 3 The Sonderkommando and the Ungarnaktion Chapter 4 The Deportation of Hungarian Jews in the Eyes of the World Chapter 5 The SS Trading in Human Lives Chapter 6 The "Sample Train" Chapter 7 Another Chapter in Human Trade Forced Labor for the SS Chapter 8 More Looting--Daylight Robbery on a Different Plain Chapter 9 In the Lion's Maw Chapter 10 Spring 1945 Chapter 11 The Links Endure Epilogue
