Perfidy By Ben Hecht Gefen Publishing House, 1999, 281 pages ISBN 0-964-6886-38

This is a republication of the 1961 very disturbing classic involving one of the most inexplicable, embarrassing, bizarre and despicable episodes in the history of the State of Israel – the apparent collaboration of top Israeli officials with the Nazis resulting in the death of millions of innocent Jews. Ben Hecht states that this is a true story; people should read it.

In 1952, a 72 year old Israeli citizen, born in Hungary, accused Dr. Rudolf Kastner, a high-level Israeli official, of contributing – together with the highest Jewish officials in Palestine - to the death of over half a million Hungarian Jews by the Nazis during the final year of World War II when Kastner served as the leader of the Jewish Agency Rescue Committee in Hungary.

The 72 year old also charged Kastner with saving one of the worst Nazi generals by testifying falsely at the Nuremberg trials that the butcher, the murderer of hundreds of thousands, tried to save Jews.

Hecht, admitting his strong bias, starts his tale by devoting fifty pages to his understanding of the nefarious history of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Hecht’s villains are the British, who controlled Palestine, who kept the persecuted Jews from saving their lives by escaping to Palestine while the Nazis murdered Jews in Europe, and Chaim Weitzman and David Ben Gurion and the Jewish leadership in Palestine who collaborated with the British and even handed over fellow Jews, members of the Jewish underground, the Irgun, to the British because these Jews fought against the British treachery in an attempt to save their people.

Rather than Kastner, the Israeli government filed suit against the 72 year old, in an attempt to hide their own collaborative involvement. The trial was expected to conclude within days, but lasted for several years. The defending lawyer – a modern Maccabee, Samuel Tamir - disclosed the horrors perpetrated by Kastner with the help of the British and the Jewish establishment.

What happened? A lot happened that should never have happened.

For example: In the final year of World War II, the Nazis wanted to murder about a half million Hungarian Jews but only had 150 SS men and 5,000 Hungarian police. How could this small number control so many Jews, many of whom were able bodied and stronger than their persecutors? The answer was simple. They had Kastner, the trusted Hungarian born Jew from Israel’s trusted Jewish Agency.

Kastner was offered a deal. He could save about 600 Jews of his choice, including his family, if he lies to the Hungarian Jews and tells them that the Germans – nice fellows – are only moving them to a more enjoyable and safe area outside of Hungary. Not crematoriums – God forbid!

As the trial court judge later concluded when he ruled against Kastner: "When Kastner received this present from the Nazis, Kastner sold his soul to the German Satan."

When some Israelis sent paratroopers to Hungary to save Jews, including the famous heroine Hanna Senesh, Rudolf Kastner made sure that the Nazis could kill her. She flew into Hungary with two men who were hiding after she was captured. Kastner persuaded the two heroes, who had contacted this Jewish Agency official from Israel, to surrender to the Nazis by telling them lies. They were taken in a cattle car to the death camps, but one of the two heroes was able to escape.

The government filed an appeal of the district court judge’s decision and the five appellate judges rendered a split decision. There was going to be a criminal trial against Kastner, which would have resulted in many more disclosures, but someone assassinated him. The question, still unresolved, is whether the Israeli government had Kastner killed to cover up the Israeli government’s collaboration with the Nazis?

The final story that Ben Hecht tells is about the Jew Joel Brand who was sent by Eichmann to the Jews. Eichmann, with permission from Hitler, wanted to sell one million Jews for trucks, soap, tea and coffee. He even offered to release 100,000 Jews to show a sign of faith. The Jews and the British refused the offer. This, like the Rudolf Kastner story is deplorable, shameful, despicable, perfidy.

• A History of Israel, by Ahron Bregman.
  A concise history of modern Israel, from the First Zionist Congress in 1897 through 2001.
  
  
• A History of Israel from the Rise of Zionism to Our Time, by Howard M. Sachar.
  This is a monumental history of Israel, covering the period from the rise of Jewish nationalism in the early 1800's to the end of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.