Eichmann and Sassen interview

Rezső Kasztner

Rezso Kasztner in glasses and a dark suit, speaking into a microphone.
Rezso Kasztner in the 1950s. The questioner reads from Kasztner's written account on pages 92 and 93 of the transcript. Photograph from Wikimedia Commons.

Hungarian Jewish rescue activist who negotiated with Eichmann and Becher in 1944.

About

Rezső Kasztner helped lead Budapest’s Relief and Rescue Committee. After Germany occupied Hungary, he negotiated with Eichmann’s staff and later with Kurt Becher.

A train carrying 1,686 Jews left Budapest in June 1944. Its passengers were held at Bergen-Belsen before reaching Switzerland in two groups. Kasztner’s wartime choices and his postwar testimony for Becher later became the center of a bitter court dispute in Israel.

In this interview

The speakers repeatedly read or answer Kasztner’s account of the Hungary talks, marches, transports, and dealings with Eichmann’s staff. Eichmann also recalls speaking directly with him.

The transcript spells the name Kastner.

Selected pages

  • Page 5

    Eichmann says he made the same ideological remark to Kasztner and Richard Löwenherz.

  • Page 47

    Eichmann discusses Kasztner’s view of his role in Hungary.

  • Page 92

    The speakers read a passage in which Kasztner mentions tense talks with Eichmann and his staff.