Kasztner's Train, Part 2

PBS aired a documentary tonight called Escape From Auschwitz as part of its Secrets of the Dead series.

It presents another view of Rudolph Kasztner, one far more charitable than…

…the Ben Hecht / Perfidy line, but not as charitable as Anna Porter's new book.

Porter's book is much better researched than the PBS documentary and, to me, far more persuasive, even though the PBS documentary includes interviews with historian Sir Martin Gilbert and a living member of the wartime Hungarian Jewish community council.

The documentary focuses on Verba and Wetzner's escape from Auschwitz and their report on the mass killings there that eventually helped stop the killings.

One of the points made by the documentary is that Verba – Wetzner report on Auschwitz was sent by the Pope to the Jewish community of Switzerland, from where it was sent to the Red Cross and to the Allies. (Also, twice during the escape, Poles helped Verba and Wetzner survive and get to freedom.)

The entire PBS documentary is online and can be viewed with a click of your mouse.

Previous post.

Comments

[Noclue]

KASTNER AND THE POPE SAVED SO MANY JEWS THAT PRACTICALLY NO ONE WAS ACTUALLY KILLED IN THE HOLOCAUST. MESSAGE FROM AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE THAT YOU OBVIOUSLY LIVE IN.

[R]

Noclue, no one saved so many people that practically no one was killed, what a ridiculous comment. The documentary is about one of the people who helped save lives during the time and every life is important.

[Isa]

Kastner's crime was that he saved the Satmir rebbe who told his people to stay [and die] while the Rebbe scooted and saved his cowardly hide.

[Noclue]

Kastner saved his relatives and failed to warn the hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews that were killed and could have been saved. Friedlander, in his latest book, states that Kastner had a great influence over who was saved, which, very conveniently, included many of his relatives and friends from his hometown.

R you call my comment ridiculous. Have you never heard of satire?

Please, oh ye defenders of Kastner, why he gave testimony favorable to Nazi war criminals after the war.

As for Shmarya's other two Holocaust heroes, the Pope and FDR, it is striking that their defenders have to scrounge for evidence of their concern, 63 years after the war in Europe ended.

I stand by my comments.

[Shmarya]

What you write is beyond ridiculous.

Kasztner had little influence over who was saved. The list was decided on by the committee – Kaszter did not choose the names.

This is well-documented fact.

I suggest you cite Friedlander by exact page and citation so we can see if you are simply mistaken or are misrepresenting Friedlander.

Funny how it is that dozens of historians clear Kasztner of these horrible flase charges but anonymous fools like you keep spreading them anyway.

On might think (especially taking your history here into account) that your alias is far more descriptive of your abilities than you intended.

[Noclue]

Oh name calling again. TAKE FRIEDLANDER'S BOOK, LOOK AT THE INDEX UNDER KASTNER AND YOU WILL SEE THAT HE FLATLY CONTRADICTS WHAT YOU SAY. I DO NOT MISREPRESENT FRIEDLANDER NOR AM I MISTAKEN.

ONCE AGAIN, WHY DID KASTNER GIVE TESTIMONY EXONERATING NAZI WAR CRIMINALS AFTER THE WAR? $64,000 QUESTION!

[Shmarya]

The $64,000 question is why you are too dishonest to look at the sources that exonerate Kasztner.

As for Friedlander, since you cannot cite the source or what exactly Friedlander said, I'll have to try to find it. Lord knows, you'll never bother.

[Noclue]

I BELIEVE ADOLPH EICHMAN, MAY HIS NAME AND MEMORY BE EXTINGUISHED. HE UNDERSTOOD, AND STATED, THAT HE HAD AN IMPLICIT DEAL WITH KASTNER, A FEW JEWS SAVED AND THE REST MURDERED. EICHMAN, OF EVERYBODY, UNDERSTOOD THE REALITIES AND DYNAMICS OF THE HOLOCAUST. I HAVE READ THE SOURCES AND DO NOT FIND THEM CONVINCING.

READ PERFIDY REVISITED, WHICH STATES THAT THE SO CALLED TREASURE TROVE OF DOCUMENTS EXONERATING KASTNER SIMPLY DOES NOT EXIST.

THE ONLY REASON I DO NOT GIVE YOU THE EXACT CITATION OF FRIEDLANDER IS BECAUSE I DO NOT HAVE THE BOOK.

YOU STILL HAVE NOT ANSWERED WHY KASTNER GAVE FAVORABLE TESTIMONY ABOUT A NAZI WAR CRIMINAL AFTER THE WAR.

THE ANSWER IS THAT HE WAS CO-OPTED INTO BELIEVING HE WAS DEALING WITH HONORABLE MEN, WHEN HE WAS DEALING WITH NAZI MURDERERS. KIND OF LIKE THE STOCKHOLM SYNDROME AND PATTY HEARST. WITH DEVESTATING CONSEQUENCES.

[Shmarya]

1. That Nazi war criminal saved thousands of Jews by all accounts.

2. Perfidy is not exactly a reputable source.

3. Historians agree Kasztner's efforts saved thousands of Jews.

4. Historians also agree that thousands of Hungarian Jews knew of the deportations and mass killings long before the Vrba-Wetzner Report. Like the Jews of Slovakia, they chose to disbelieve what they heard.

5. Again, historians from Sir Martin Gilbert all the way to Yehuda Bauer (with literally dozens with them) agree that Kasztner telling Hungary's Jews would not have saved people.

Conversely, slowing the deportation by negotiating with Eichmann, and getting Eichmann to free some Jews, did save thousands of Jews.

6. The problem with people who have noclue is that they truly do not. You have zero understanding of context, zero understanding of fact, zero, period.

7. Past that, you're far too dishonest to even look at the facts you pretend to refurte.

[Noclue]

WHEN A HISTORIAN MAKES A JUDGMENT ABOUT WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF, HE IS MERELY SPECULATING. HE IS NOT REPORTING HISTORY AND THE HISTORIAN'S JUDGMENT IS AT BEST AN EDUCATED GUESS, AND AT WORST, OFTEN COLORED BY POLITICAL VIEWS.

HOW DOES ANY HISTORIAN KNOW HOW MANY HUNGARIAN JEWS WOULD HAVE FLED TO THE WOODS OR REVOLTED AND THUS SAVED THEIR LIVES?

EVEN IF THOUSANDS OF HUNGARIAN JEWS HEARD REPORTS AND DID NOT BELIEVE OTHER HUNDRED OF THOUSANDS DID NOT KNOW. I SAY THAT THEY COULD HAVE BEEN CONVINCED AND MANY MORE THOUSANDS COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED. THEY DESERVED THE CHANCE. HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED?

WHY DID KASTNER TESTIFY IN FAVOR OF THE NAZI WAR CRIMINAL, BECHER, WHO MURDRED MANY JEWS AND SAVED NOBODY. OR ARE YOU DEFENDING HIM ALSO?

[Noclue]

LETS PUT IT THIS WAY. BECHER WAS A SS MAJOR IN POLAND AND RUSSIA.

PRAY TELL SHMARYA, WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU THINK THE SS WAS DOING IN POLAND AND RUSSIA DURING WWII?

[Shmarya]

I know logical thought (along with typing with your caps lock off) is foreign to you.

Still, I suggest you actually read the sources and learn.

BTW, Friedlander only mentions Kasztner 3 times in the entire book. I can't see his source for claiming Kasztner's influence on who the committee chose to be on the train was "considerable," but I will point out that actual historians who have studied specifically Hungarian and Slovakian Jewry during the Holocaust disagree with Friedlander and his source, whatever it is.

If I can find the book locally, I'll be able to see that souce, which, I suspect, is decades old and discredited.

As for Becher, I suggest you read Anna Porter's book.

[Noclue]

Once again, pray tell, what was the SS doing in Russia and Poland during WWII?

Kaltenbrunner testified at the Nuremberg trial that Becher was responsible for some of the worst war crimes. I believe him. He had no reason to lie about Becher's complicity.

And since when is Friedlander not an "actual historian." Is he only a virtual historian because he does not support your point of view.

[Shmarya]

Kaltenbrunner testified at the Nuremberg trial that Becher was responsible for some of the worst war crimes. I believe him. He had no reason to lie about Becher's complicity.

Again, you display your ignorance of context and of logical thought.

Kaltenbrunner was one of the most vicious Nazis. He murdered tens of thousands of Jews. He opposed Himmler's orders to stop killing Jews issued near the end of the war, and continued to murder Jews in defiance of those orders.

On the other hand, Becher tried to enforce those orders. And, even after Himmler later rescinded them for fear that evidence – live survivors – would fall into Allied hands and be used against him in War Crimes trials, Becher bluffed his way onward, claiming the orders were still in effect. What he did saved thousands of Jews.

Katenbrunner had every reason to lie about Becher.

[Noclue]

Assume you are correct. However, what did Becher do in Poland and Russia as a SS major before he was appointed to a high post overseeing concentration camps?

Do you honestly think that he was promoted because he spent the first few years of the war protecting Jews? And do you think he ever had any other motive other than his own self preservation.?

Menachem Begin, of blessed memory, was right about the Germans. And so was Winston Churchill, who said the "Hun is always at your throat or at your feet."

[Shmarya]

The point is, the man saved thousands of Jews.

You don't really know what he did before that, as your comments make clear. Neither, for that matter, would Kasztner have known.

All anyone can do is testify about what they know. Kasztner knew what Becher did to save Jews in Hungary and Slovakia. That is what he testified about.

You, on the other hand, don't know even that.

[Noclue]

Once again, anything Becher did was to save himself. Do you seriously doubt that. Kastner, on the other hand, testified that Becher had pure motives. That is ludicrous.

Becher was a SS major with a Death Head battalion in Poland and Russia. He was therefore guilty of war crimes and should have been executed. Under common law he would be guilty for anything his unit did, whether he issued the orders, carried them out or participated in the conspiracy.

When it comes to Nazis, kal vachomer the SS, may they all rot in hell, I shift the burden of proof. They have to prove they were innocent, I do not have to prove their guilt.

[Shmarya]

TAKE FRIEDLANDER'S BOOK, LOOK AT THE INDEX UNDER KASTNER AND YOU WILL SEE THAT HE FLATLY CONTRADICTS WHAT YOU SAY. I DO NOT MISREPRESENT FRIEDLANDER NOR AM I MISTAKEN.

I saw the book just before Shabbat and looked up the Kasztner reference.

Friedlander, who gives the whole Brand-Kasztner affair only a few short paragraphs of space in a 900 page book, does say it is hard to believe Kasztner did not have disproportionate influence on who was selected for the so-called Kasztner train.

But, as I presumed, the remark – and most of the small section of the entire affair – is unsourced. The footnote linked to this particular statement of Friedlander leads to a very brief explanation from him of the Kasztner trial, perhaps 50 words in all. But Friedlander brings no sources to support his belief.

Past that, Friedlander doesn't contradict what I wrote. He says what Kasztner was accused of, that he was convicted, and that he was murdered just before the conviction was overturned.

His only remarks that even begin to question what I wrote are that he finds it difficult to believe Kasztner really believed the trucks for Jews deal would work and that it is difficult to believe Kasztner did not have great influence over who was chosen for his train.

But, as Anna Porter and others have clearly shown, Kasztner did not believe the truck for Jews deal would work as stated. He viewed it as a stalling tactic, a way to slow down deportations – which it did – and save whatever lives he could.

And he truly had little influence over who was chosen to be on the train. and that is clearly documented, as well.

No honest person should – or would – make the statements you have made without actually looking at real sources.

Friedlander can be excused because his book is an overview of the entire Holocaust. It does not go into depth and Friedlander is not a scholar of Hungarian and Slovakian Jewry during the War.

But you base your hatred on Ben Hecht's smear and on one line of unsourced material from Friedlander.

This says much about your honesty, about your ability to reason, and about your character.

[Shmarya]

Once again, anything Becher did was to save himself. Do you seriously doubt that. Kastner, on the other hand, testified that Becher had pure motives. That is ludicrous.

Becher was a SS major with a Death Head battalion in Poland and Russia. He was therefore guilty of war crimes and should have been executed. Under common law he would be guilty for anything his unit did, whether he issued the orders, carried them out or participated in the conspiracy.

When it comes to Nazis, kal vachomer the SS, may they all rot in hell, I shift the burden of proof. They have to prove they were innocent, I do not have to prove their guilt.

So even Nazis who saved Jews, who may have even risked their own lives to do so are guilty in your mind.

Would a member of Hamas who secretly scuttles terror attacks and who saves Jewish lives but who also, in order to remain in place, takes Jewish lives be a war criminal in your mind? Should he receive the death penalty automatically?

Or do we say that horrible circumstances sometimes lead to horrible choices, and the choice of having a senior Hamas operative helping Israel is one of them?

I know logic and context are foreign to you. But realize this – during war, spies and secret collaborators often do things that are horrible and wrong. At the same time, the information they provide and/or other actions they take save our lives.

Compared to the other Nazis Kasztner and the Jewish Council had to deal with, Becher was a gentleman and a friend.

Would Becher have been judged that way in other times? Probably not. But those were not other times.

Like with Hamas operatives who spy for Israel, the government (or, in Becher's case, the Jewish Agency) has to think about how the spy is treated after the war effects how other future spies and collaborators will act the next time around.

Treating Becher as a war criminal on par with Eichmann could easily have cost many Jewish and Israeli lives in 1948 and later.

Of course, you don't need to worry about that.

[Noclue]

(1) Katzner himself agreed that any person who gave testimony favorable to Becher would be committing a crime against the Jewish people.

(2) I don't care that Becher was a "gentleman." He was a murderer. The two are not contradictory.

(3) The idea that Becher was a friend is ludicrous. Your hero, Anna porter, on a comment on your post about the Satmar Rebbe, states that states the Katzner train does not exonerate Becher.

(4) Once again, what do you think your friend and gentlemen Becher was doing in Russia and Poland as a SS major before he came to Hungary. Pray, tell. Please answer this without name calling.

[Shmarya]

Again, what i wrote is clear.

You have no understanding of context, no understanding of the choices people were forced to make or the hell they had to live in.

And Anna Porter does not say, "the Katzner train does not exonerate Becher."

Here is her exact quote:

to Noclue: your comment: "The only reason that anybody defends Becher is because by doing so they are indirectly defending Kastner. Even if you think Kastner was correct in his actions, which I do not, that is no reason to exonerate a Nazi war criminal who no doubt murdered thousands of Jews."
Kasztner's Train does not exonerate Becher. It is clear about who Becher was and why he helped Kasztner to save Jews. It is up to the reader to decide for him/herself, once all the accounts - known so far - are presented in the book, whether Kasztner was acting on behalf of the Jewish Agency Executive, as several documents show, or honoring a promise to Becher, made while they were bargaining for lives.

In other words, noclue, you have to view his actions in context, something you are wholly incapable of doing.

You refuse to view all the evidence. You refuse to look at the total context. You refuse to consider anything other than your hatred.

You're sick. But then so are many of your fellow travelers.

[Shmarya]

(1) Katzner himself agreed that any person who gave testimony favorable to Becher would be committing a crime against the Jewish people.

Source and context, please.

[Shmarya]

2) I don't care that Becher was a "gentleman." He was a murderer. The two are not contradictory.

Again, were talking context, here, something you are incapable of doing.

What I wrote, starting with an earlier quote from you:

When it comes to Nazis, kal vachomer the SS, may they all rot in hell, I shift the burden of proof. They have to prove they were innocent, I do not have to prove their guilt.

So even Nazis who saved Jews, who may have even risked their own lives to do so are guilty in your mind.

Would a member of Hamas who secretly scuttles terror attacks and who saves Jewish lives but who also, in order to remain in place, takes Jewish lives be a war criminal in your mind? Should he receive the death penalty automatically?

Or do we say that horrible circumstances sometimes lead to horrible choices, and the choice of having a senior Hamas operative helping Israel is one of them?

I know logic and context are foreign to you. But realize this – during war, spies and secret collaborators often do things that are horrible and wrong. At the same time, the information they provide and/or other actions they take save our lives.

Compared to the other Nazis Kasztner and the Jewish Council had to deal with, Becher was a gentleman and a friend.

Would Becher have been judged that way in other times? Probably not. But those were not other times.

Like with Hamas operatives who spy for Israel, the government (or, in Becher's case, the Jewish Agency) has to think about how the spy is treated after the war effects how other future spies and collaborators will act the next time around.

Treating Becher as a war criminal on par with Eichmann could easily have cost many Jewish and Israeli lives in 1948 and later.

Of course, you don't need to worry about that.

[Shmarya]

i did not rip Friedlander out of context. I cited him accurately, that Katzner influenced the committee.

That is not what Friedlander wrote. It is what you want to believe he wrote.

[Noclue]

During the trial. The context is cross-examination by Shmuel Tamir, the attorney representing Malchiel Greenwald.

The following is a direct quote.

Tamir: On page 291 of this court record you agreed with me that to intercede in behalf of any high S.S. officer including Becher is a crime from our national point of view.

Kastner; Yes.

Cited in Perfidy; Ben-Hecht, Julian Messsner, Inc. (third printing) at page 77.

[Shmarya]

First of all, Hecht is not a reliable source. Secondly, we have the issue of context.

What does Tamir mean by "our national point of view"?

Does he meant the extreme Revisionist national point of view?

Does he mean all Israelis?

And whatever he means, does that mean that interceding for Becher would be wrong if that high SS officer saved many Jewish lives?

Like anything else Hecht wrote on this case, you need to see the entire context.

[Shmarya]

I'd also note that you have Ben Hecht's smear, Perfidy, immediately on hand to cite, but you do not have Anna Porter's book (which you have not bothered to read) or other books supporting Kasztner.

That also says volumes about your lack of intellectual honesty

[Noclue]

You are so right.

Anna Portner did not say "the Katzner train does not exonerate Becher." She says Katzner's Train does not exonerate Becher."

i fail to see any difference between the two,but obviously you do, so, thanks for the correction.

I do understand the context. It is unfortunate that you must call any person who disagrees with you names such as "sick."

Unfortunately, this seems to be the level of discourse that we engage in all too often.

[Shmarya]

The difference is the context, which you completely (and characteristically) miss.

Unlike you, I have read both Perfidy and Anna Porter's book. I also read Fuch's Out of the Whirlwind.

I knew Fuch's family personally. I know leading Revisionists personally and have for 25 years.

I know people on both sides of this issue and I've read on both sides of this issue.

The Satmar Rebbe, Munkatcher Rebbe, Belzer Rebbe, etc., saved no one.

Kasztner saved thousands.

Process that.

[Noclue]

I bought Perfidy at a used book store many years ago.

Therefore, I am intellectually dishonest, because I do not also have every other book on the subject? I have other books,which support Katzner, to some degree (such as The Holocaust, by Yael). I also have read other books that are sympathetic to Kastner.

Unfortunately, I have limited shelf-space for books, including many I would like to have.

Say this for Ben-Hecht. In conjunction with Peter Bergeson Hecht tried to rally American Jewry and the American Public, during the war, when it was still possible to save lives, not like others, who, as some said, were preparing for a gigantic post-war Kadish.

Ben-Hecht and Bergson are true heroes. They realized the enormity of the task and took steps that conceivably could have had a major positive impact, not like others who engaged in retail rescue. In the end they also saved more lives, through the formation of the War Refugee Board. After the war, however, Bergson realized he had failed, and took no credit for the lives he did save. He was bitter over the failure.

[Shmarya]

I criticize you for attacking Kasztner without looking at the evidence to exonerate him.

You could do that. Read the book in a library. If your library doesn't have a copy, buy one, read it and then donate it if you can't find room at home for it.

But do not mouth off about what you do not know and what you will not honestly research.

[Noclue]

I agree with Kastner, who said that anybody who defends Becher is guilty of a national crime.

[Shmarya]

Again, your source for that statement – and its context – are suspect, and you know it.

[Shmarya]

And, again, as I wrote, the point is:

[You attack Kasztner] without looking at the evidence to exonerate him.

You could do that. Read the book in a library. If your library doesn't have a copy, buy one, read it and then donate it if you can't find room at home for it.

But do not mouth off about what you do not know and what you will not honestly research.

[Noclue]

And again; I agree with Kastner, any person who defends the Nazi war criminal Becher is guilty of a national crime.

[Shmarya]

So you prove yourself again to be an intellectual coward.

Noclue, you certainly have no clue – you don't have much in the way of honesty, either.

[Noclue]

This is stupid. I will take a three month hiatus from posting on your sight unless you again engage in ad hominem insults. Have a good day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Eric Grosser]

Given what Becher was doing in Poland and Russia as an SS general before his arrival in Hungary in 1944, even if HE DID save Jews, does that change the fact that he probably killed thousands of fellow Yidden?

Shmarya, are you arguing that Becher did Tshuvah and regretted his earlier actions, and now became a friend of the Jews? We know what was going on in Poland and Russia at the time, and we know what his position would have been.

Do you find any evidence that Becher was like Kurt Gernstein who supposedly tried to end the killing in the camps?

Your statement that the Chasdid rebbes saved no one and Becher saved thousands is ABSURD, even if true, because Becher surely killed thousands!

It's hard to criticize Kastner for his conduct under duress, but AFTER THE WAR, WHY WOULD HE DEFEND THIS MONSTER WHO KILLED THOUSANDS? I haven't read a good answer yet.

[Shmarya]

Perhaps if you would actually READ the evidence it would help you.

Becher was acquitted.

What did he do in Poland and Russia? Do you actually know?

All we do know is that he did save Jews in Hungary and Slovakia, and that he did stop killings in several death camps.

Read Anna Porter's Kasztner's Train.

As for this:

It's hard to criticize Kastner for his conduct under duress, but AFTER THE WAR, WHY WOULD HE DEFEND THIS MONSTER WHO KILLED THOUSANDS? I haven't read a good answer yet.

That you haven't seen an answer you like doesn't surprise me – you haven't even looked at the evidence.

[Eric Grosser]

I confess that I haven't read all of "Kastner's Train". BUT EVEN IF BECHER SAVED JEWISH LIVES BY SLOWING/STOPPING DEPORTATIONS, look at the following wikipedia entry, and tell me in all honesty if you can tell me "Becher was a tzadik EVEN BEFORE his arrival in Hungary". Do you believe that as part of his job, HE DIDN'T use shorn hair and gold extracted from teeth of murdered Jews? The fact that he was aquitted is meaningless to me if he was involved in such activity in any way, why is he worthy of being defended by a Jew after the war? Even if he was a "good Nazi", why would he be worthy of being defended?

Becher was born to a wealthy family. He testified during the Nuremberg Trials that he had joined the SS because from 1932 he had been actively engaged in horseback riding, and in 1934, his instructor had advised him to enter the SS cavalry regiment (the Reiter-S.S.). Hannah Arendt suggests that the only reason Becher stressed this story was that the Nuremberg Tribunal had excluded the Reiter-S.S. from its list of criminal organizations. [1]

Becher served as an SS Major in Poland and Russia, as part of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, which perfected the techniques for killing Jews. He was appointed Commissar of all German concentration camps, and Chief of the Economic Department of the SS Command in Hungary, by Heinrich Himmler. The "Economic Department" was tasked with extracting maximal economic value from Jews, which included confiscating goods and property, and selling or using belongings and body parts, including shorn hair and gold extracted from teeth.[2]

[Shmarya]

He was appointed Commissar of all German concentration camps, and Chief of the Economic Department of the SS Command in Hungary, by Heinrich Himmler.

Again, if you don't read the sources and don't know the context, you will not understand.

Becher was appointed "Commissar of all German concentration camps" by Himmler and he used that position to stop killings.

A large part of his job as "Chief of the Economic Department of the SS Command in Hungary" was negotiating with Kasztner.

[antirudolphkastner]

A book came out in the '60's titled " The man who played god" by Robert St. John. Its available on ebay and Amazon. This is a "Must Read". It is an accurate novel based on the life and death of Kastner. It is a truly amazing book! Please Please Read this book and then decide....

"The Man Who Played God". Author: Robert St. John. Publisher: Doubleday & Company. 1962. 573 pp. This novel is so powerful and vivid that it will stun you. It is so deeply human that it will move you to great emotion. It tells the story of a man driven by desire for supreme power: the power of deciding life and death.
Panoramic novel about how Jews were lulled into a sense of false security, how they were methodically liquidated at Auschwitz, how Horvath (Kastner) arranged for the famous rescue train which eventually brought 1,659 Jews to safety.

Robert St. John
He took his reporting skills overseas to cover the events leading up to World War II. At first he was told that he was too old, at age 37, to be a foreign correspondent; but he sailed for Europe anyway and arrived in Budapest the day the Nazis attacked Poland. He visited other countries like Yugoslavia, England, and Germany and was even wounded in the process by a stray bullet while on a Greek train.
St. John returned to the United States. Famous for his war experiences he also wrote books about his adventures. He would later be asked to report on wars in the Middle East, Indochina, and Africa.
Aside from being a foreign correspondent and news reporter, St. John was also a public speaker and lecturer and an author of many award-winning non-fiction works. Some of his more famous works include: “Ben-Gurion,” “From The Land of Silent People,” and “The Man Who Played God.”
During a 75-year career in which he worked on five continents, St. John chronicled World War II and befriended Israel's founding fathers.
An eloquent non-Jewish spokesman for Jewish causes, he maintained close ties with the Jewish state and was honored by Jewish and Israeli institutions.
St. John made his name as a foreign correspondent covering World War II for the Associated Press and NBC Radio.
The persecution of Jews that St. John witnessed during World War II helped instill in him a deep and enduring interest in Israel, Jewish issues and anti-Semitism.
Covering the January 1941 pogrom in Bucharest, when Romanian fascists tortured and killed about 170 Jews, marked a watershed for him.
"I realized that I had been born into a group that had been doing this sort of thing for 2,000 years and therefore had to bear some of the responsibility," later recalled St. John, who had sheltered a local Jewish family to save them from the massacre. "I promised myself that if I lived out the war, I'd spend the rest of my life trying to atone for these sins, for the atrocities committed in Bucharest by men born Christian and presumably exposed to Christian precepts they had so barbarically violated."
St. John, who was born in Chicago, covered the birth of Israel in 1948 and eventually made more than 40 reporting trips to the Middle East.
He covered the Eichmann trial and five Arab-Israeli wars, including the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. At that time, he was 80, by far the oldest of the hundreds of reporters on hand, and the only one who had covered all four previous Arab-Israeli conflicts.
Many of St. John's 22 books were on Jewish or Israeli topics.
His credentials are quite impressive!
READ THE BOOK!

[Shmarya]

By all means – read the book.

Then, when you're finished, compare St. John's work to the actual facts we now have. Read Anna Porter's Kasztner's Train.

And then you'll realize why it is both foolish and wrong to learn history from forty-year-old fiction.