The Man Who Was Murdered Twice: The Life, Trial and Death of Israel Kasztner

The “Kasztner Trial” was a major event that shook up Israeli society and the government, creating a sharp ideological and political confrontation, and the accusations against him for collaboration with the Germans had political ramifications. At stake was the role of the Holocaust in Israeli society and society’s character as a whole, arousing intense public debate on whether the Jewish people in Israel and the Zionist movements had made sufficient effort to rescue European Jewry from the Nazis. Was Kasztner a collaborator and opportunist who had “sold his soul to the devil”, as Judge Benjamin Halevi stated, who failed to warn the Transylvanian and Hungarian Jews of their impending fate in order to save himself and those close to him, or a brave leader who helped as many Jews as he could escape on the “rescue train” in June 1944? The book covers the history of Kasztner’s controversial negotiations with the Nazis and the posthumous results of the trial and provides new insights into the controversy based on new information.