The Bargain Over Genocide

By Steve Rodan

Some saw Josef Schmidt as the prince of Budapest. Although based in nearby Vienna, Schmidt could often be seen in the Hungarian capital meeting with his Nazi agents in a country that even before World War II was beholden to Hitler. Formally, he worked for Germany's military intelligence, known as Abwehr, and that brought him in contact with Jews, particularly leaders of the Zionist movement. Abwehr had played a major role in gathering intelligence on Jewish communities in other countries targeted by Hitler before the SS moved in.

One of Schmidt's friends was Joel Brand, a leader of Hungarian Zionists. For more than a year, Brand had dealt with Schmidt and the Abwehr in the establishment of a courier service that consisted of Nazi intelligence agents. This marked a partnership between the Zionists and the Germans that gave the latter complete access to the Jewish community throughout Hungary. Now, Abwehr could supply details and statistics that would guarantee a rapid extermination of the Jews during what would be the last full year of World War II.

Brand and other leaders of the Zionist movement knew at least since November 1943 that Hungary would be the next target of Berlin. They also knew what the Germans would do once in Hungary: They would kill Jews as much and as fast as possible. Brand lobbied Zionist leaders abroad, particularly the Jewish Agency, to establish a resistance movement.

On March 16, 1944, Schmidt was again in Budapest to prepare for the German invasion of Hungary. He met his Abwehr agents and discussed their tasks over the next few days. Schmidt also made sure to invite Brand to what was termed a "social gathering" of the Abwehr. Brand knew Schmidt and his agents, and even spent nights drinking and gambling with them. Brand brought along to the party his trusted aide Peretz Revesz, a rising star in the Zionist movement.

While the schnapps flowed and the jokes turned bawdy, an Abwehr agent tapped Brand on the shoulder. They went into an adjacent room where Schmidt was waiting. The Abwehr station chief told Brand that the Germans were going to occupy Hungary imminently. Indeed, Brand and the Zionist leadership had been told this two days earlier. [1] The new wrinkle was that for $250,000, Schmidt and Abwehr could end the genocide of the Jews.

Then, Schmidt added something that was puzzling to Brand: The Nazi offer to the Zionists would not include Hungary, a country that was still nominally free. In other words, Hitler would impose his Final Solution on that Axis country as brutally as he had done in Poland, Russia and other German-occupied countries.

Whatever would happen

Although sworn to secrecy, Brand told Revesz. He then informed his partner, Rudolf Kastner, also closely connected to Abwehr and SS. On the following day, Brand briefed the Jewish National Fund. Many of the staffers at JNF, the most profitable organization in the Zionist movement, chuckled. Whatever would happen, they were sure the Zionists and their institutions would not be harmed. [2]

The narrative of the Zionist movement and the State of Israel is that Germany suddenly and inexplicably invaded Hungary in March 1944, and, to the complete shock of the Jews, began the fastest organized mass killing of civilians since the Middle Ages. But memoirs and official records show that the Germans were in constant contact with the Zionist leadership. In the end, the Zionist leadership cooperated fully with Hitler in the genocide in exchange for a promise to share the Jewish loot and save senior members of the movement.

The channels between the Zionists and the Hitler regime are probably too numerous to list. The key, however, is that the alliance in 1933, formally called the Transfer Agreement, generated dialogue and cooperation between the two parties in virtually every area, particularly intelligence. This would continue literally until the final weeks of World War II and resume with the pro-Nazi administration of West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

By the time Schmidt made his offer to Brand, the Abwehr was through. In February 1944, the Abwehr, on orders from Hitler, was disbanded and absorbed into the SS and Gestapo. Some Abwehr agents tried to defect or simply escape occupied Europe. Others were transferred to the SS. This was particularly true in Budapest, where soon Schmidt and his men began working directly for Adolf Eichmann.

The Schmidt demand for $250,000 was not a lone attempt to grab Jewish wealth for himself. It was part of the German formula of the Final Solution. First, seize as much as you can from the Jewish community on the promise that some might be saved. Then, loot the rest of the assets as the Jews arrive in the station for the train ride to the death camps.

Both Brand and Kastner had seen this in neighboring Poland and Slovakia. Pay millions to the SS and Heinrich Himmler might give you a break. Some of the Jewish leaders believed that mass ransoms led Himmler to abort plans to kill the Jews in Slovakia for some two years.

As it turned out, the ransom formula was the product of the Zionists at the start of the war. In November 1939, as the Germans were killing tens of thousands of Jews, Leo Schenker was named head of the new Judenrat, formally Council of Elders, in his hometown of Auschwitz, Poland. Schenker drafted a plan based on the Transfer Agreement six years earlier to bring the Jews to his town and then told the SS how to get the Jews to pay for their persecution.

The Zionist formula

Schenker's idea: With the help of the Zionists and the American Joint Distribution Committee, rich American Jews would pay millions of U.S. dollars to ransom their Polish relatives. JDC could even help unlock the blocked accounts of the Jews in banks abroad. Schenker offered to head the scheme in partnership with Samuel Scheps, head of the Jewish Agency's Palestine Office in neutral Switzerland.

"The Polish Jews in the occupied territory represent immense possibilities," Schenker said in his memo. "The Polish government used to collect large amounts in foreign currency here. No organization from the occupied Polish territory other than ours [Zionists] could approach our relatives in America without creating suspicion." [3]

The Schenker plan was adopted by the Germans as the template for the Holocaust. It also marked Zionist policy throughout the war. Brand learned this in early 1944. For at least a year, the Zionist leadership in Hungary had been pressed by the young guard to set up a resistance network in case of a German invasion.

At first, the Zionist leadership abroad did not object. Even Kastner, linked to Jewish Agency chairman David Ben-Gurion, showed support, and in December 1943 convened a meeting with Zionist youth activists at Balaton Lake, 80 kilometers southwest of Budapest, to establish a so-called defense committee. [4]

Obstacle after obstacle

But as the weeks passed, the Zionist leadership placed obstacle after obstacle in the way of any effective organization. First, the leadership objected to the iconoclast Brand being the head of the resistance. Instead, the mantle went to a member of the ruling Mapai movement in Palestine named Mena Klein, a young man without any authority over his colleagues but linked to Mapai. [5]

After promises of financing, the so-called rescue group of the Jewish Agency in Istanbul said the Hungarian Zionists would not receive funds, particularly to buy weapons. The leadership also torpedoed an offer by Yugoslav resistance leader Josip Tito to provide a haven for Jews from Hungary.

Finally, Ben-Gurion sent orders via Istanbul that the Zionists in Hungary were to fully cooperate with the Reich. There would be no revolt; there would be no organized escape. Ben-Gurion's intelligence envoy Shaul Meyerov provided the official reason: The Zionist leadership did not want trouble with Hitler.

"I answered them that our national obligation is to preserve our existence, and only in the worst case to defend ourselves," Meyerov said. [6]

Notes

1. The Nazi Holocaust: Part 9. The End of the Holocaust. Edited by Michael Robert Marrus. Page 71. De Gruyter, 1989. Also, In Jewish Blood: The Zionist Alliance with Germany, 1933-1963. Steve Rodan and Elly Sinclair. Page 300. Amazon, 2021.

2. "Unknown Heroes from the Holocaust Years - Peretz Revesz : Part II." Dr. Robert Rozett. April 20, 2020. Yad Vashem. original blog in Times of Israel. Unknown Heroes from the Holocaust Years - Peretz Revesz : Part II (yadvashem.org)

3. Schenker to "the Secret Police, att. Mr. Lischka, Berlin. Nov. 30, 1939. English translation of Germany received by JDC. Jan. 30, 1940. JDC Archives, Jerusalem.

4. "Unknown Heroes from the Holocaust Years"

5. Klein was not mentioned in Zionist memoirs as head of the resistance. He was captured and killed in Auschwitz in June 1944. "Klein, Menahem "Meno." Brothers for Resistance and Rescue: The Underground Zionist Youth Movement in Hungary during World War II. David Gur. Page 151. The Society for the Research and History of the Zionist Youth Movement in Hungary. 2009.

6. Meyerov report to the Jewish Agency Executive. Feb. 20, 1944. Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem.

Below: German soldiers walk through Budapest in 1944.