Malchiel Gruenwald ( he, מלכיאל גרינוולד; also written Grünwald, Gruenvald, and Greenwald) (1882–1958) was an Israeli hotelier, amateur journalist, and stamp collector, who came to public attention in 1953, when he accused an Israeli government employee,
Rudolf Kastner, of having collaborated with the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
s during
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
.
Biography
Gruenwald was born in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
,
and lived there and in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
,
[According to Asher Maoz, he was born in Vienna. (] working in a number of trades, including as a part-time journalist. In 1937, while in Vienna with his family, he was caught in a
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
in which his teeth were smashed out, tongue slashed, arms and legs broken, and he was beaten unconscious and left for dead.
[
In 1938, when he had recovered from his injuries, he emigrated to ]Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
along with his wife, son Itzhak, and daughter Rina. There, he settled in Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, where, with his life savings, he bought the "Hotel Austria",[Hecht, p. 4] a ten-room hotel on Zion Square[ that he ran with his wife.
The Gruenwalds as a family were committed ]Zionists
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
. After the White Paper of 1939
The White Paper of 1939Occasionally also known as the MacDonald White Paper (e.g. Caplan, 2015, p.117) after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary, who presided over its creation. was a policy paper issued by the British governmen ...
, Malchiel and his two brothers assisted illegal immigration to Palestine, organizing immigrant runs, particularly of Jews trying to escape the Holocaust. His son joined the Irgun
Irgun • Etzel
, image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px
, caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
, and was killed in the battle for Mount Zion during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, after which Gruenwald renamed the hotel the "Mount Zion Hotel". His daughter meanwhile worked as a nurse in a Hadassah hospital by day, and at night tended to the Irgun's wounded.[Hecht, pp. 4-6.]
Shlomo Aronson Shlomo Aronson may refer to:
* (1864–1935), first Ashkhenazi rabbi of Tel Aviv, grandfather of the historian
* Shlomo Aronson (landscape architect) (1936–2018), Israeli landscape architect
* Shlomo Aronson (historian)
Shlomo Aronson (1936 – ...
, in his book ''Hitler, the Allies, and the Jews'', claims that Gruenwald's personal file, released by Israeli Home Intelligence, provides a very different picture of Gruenwald's early activities. Gruenwald was a criminal in Hungary and Austria, he would inform on Labour Zionists, threaten Orthodox leaders, and swindle refugees. The file also accuses Gruenwald of asking British authorities to stop a ship carrying refugees, the SS ''Patria'', from entering Palestine.
Political pamphlets
In the early 1950s, Gruenwald decided to devote his remaining years to journalism, but as Ben Hecht writes, no one was about to employ a 72-year-old man who wrote no Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
. Gruenwald therefore began self-publishing a more-or-less weekly three-page mimeographed pamphlet, which he would have translated from German into Hebrew before distributing up to 1,000 copies himself,[Segev, p. 256.] by mail or by hand in local cafés, all free of charge. Titled ''Michtavim el haveray be'Mizrahi'' ("Letters to my Friends in Mizrahi
''Mizrachi'' or ''Mizrahi'' ( he, מזרחי) has two meanings.
In the literal Hebrew meaning ''Eastern'', it may refer to:
*Mizrahi Jews, Jews from the Middle East
* Mizrahi (surname), a Sephardic surname, given to Jews who got to the Iberian P ...
"), the pamphlets consisted of attacks "on leaders who were corrupt, on religious officials who, in his opinion, were not worthy of their positions, on greedy public officials, and on people in authority".[ Gruenwald's targets included various leaders of religious groups, including Mizrahi, and ministers and members of the ]Knesset
The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...
and other politicians from all parties, in particular those from the ruling Mapai
Mapai ( he, מַפָּא"י, an acronym for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', lit. "Workers' Party of the Land of Israel") was a democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger in ...
party.[ Occasionally, one of the targets of his pamphlets would threaten to sue him for libel; in response, Gruenwald would make a public apology, often in the "Café Vienna", which occupied the ground floor of his hotel.][
In August 1952, he published the 51st such pamphlet.][Segev, p. 257.] This one accused Rudolf Kastner — the press spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Commerce and Industry, a senior member of Mapai, and the former ''de facto'' head of the Hungarian-Jewish Aid and Rescue Committee during the Holocaust — of being a Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
collaborator. The pamphlet alleged that Kastner's collaboration had resulted in the deaths of 400,000 Jews in Hungary
The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived i ...
, and that after the war, he had testified at the Nuremberg trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded m ...
on behalf of SS ''Standartenführer'' (colonel) Kurt Becher, thereby saving him from punishment for his war crimes. According to Hecht, Gruenwald obtained his information from an anonymous letter and a conversation with a stranger at the "Café Vienna", though a 1955 ''Time Magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...
'' article says he was attempting to discover who had betrayed his relatives in Hungary, and drew his conclusions "after poring through mountains of yellowed records".
The actual text of the pamphlet included the following:
I have waited a long time to expose this careerist whom I consider, because of his collaboration with the Nazis, an indirect murderer of my dear people.
Who is this spokesman for the Ministry of Trade and Industry; who is this big shot leader of the Hungarian Jews; who is this fellow who has been put high on the list of candidates for Israel's parliament by the government party Mapai?
This character is Dr. Rudolf Kastner, political adventurer, driven by sickly megalomania.
For whom, on whose account, Dr. Kastner, did you go like a thief in the night to Nuremberg to become a witness for the defense of S.S. Colonel Kurt Becher, the murderer of Jews, the man who wallowed in the blood of our brothers in Hungary? Kurt Becher - Economic Administrator of the Gestapo!
Why did you save him from the death penalty which he had so richly earned?
You flew to Nuremberg to save a mass murderer of Jews. What induced you to do that?
What kind of gentleman's agreement was there between this murderer Becher and this man who I accuse as a collaborator with the Nazis?
And it is this same Kastner that Mapai has taken to its bosom and place high on its list of officials.
My God! Kastner's deeds in Budapest cost us the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews!
We demand an impartial public committee of investigation.
Kastner must be removed from the politics and from the society of this land.
We shall keep this on our agenda until the evil is ended.
Gruenwald concluded his charges as follows:
He wanted to save himself, so that Becher would not reveal to international court their deals and their joint acts of robbery...
Where now is the money of the Jews of Hungary, millions for which no accounting is given...
He saved no fewer than fifty-two of his relatives, and hundreds of other Jews—most of whom had converted to Christianity—bought their rescue from Kastner by paying millions! That's how Kastner saved the members of Mapai...
He saved people with connections, made a fortune in the process. But thousands of senior Zionists, members of the Mizrahi and ultra-religious parties—these, Kastner left in the valley of the shadow of death.
The only Israeli newspaper to pay attention to Kastner's charges was ''Herut''. In it, political columnist Yoel Marcus stated that for three years, Hungarian Jews had been claiming that "a man with an official position" had testified for Nazi war criminals, been involved in shady deals, and had made profits "at the expense of operations to rescue Jews". Marcus challenged Kastner to exonerate himself. Kastner's superior, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Dov Yoseph, felt that whether Kastner wanted to take action regarding these accusations was purely a personal matter. However, Attorney General Haim Cohen felt that the charges were serious enough that Kastner would either have to resign or attempt to clear his name. In Cohen's words, "in our new, pure, ideal State ... a man cannot officiate in a senior position ... when there is a stain on him, or even only a grave suspicion of collaboration with the Nazis".[ Feeling he had no choice, Kastner allowed the Israeli government to file a lawsuit on his behalf against Gruenwald.
]
Kastner trial
In 1953, Cohen, who also held the position of Minister of Justice, filed criminal defamation charges against Gruenwald; according to Asher Moaz, this was "against the wishes of many public figures, including the person who later re-occupied the post of minister of justice, Pinhas Rosen, and the minister in charge of Kastner, Dov Yoseph".[ Gruenwald engaged as his lawyer ]Shmuel Tamir
Shmuel M. Tamir ( he, שמואל תמיר, born Shmuel Katznelson; 10 March 1923 – 29 June 1987) was a prominent Israeli independence fighter, lawyer, patriot and Knesset member. After a successful career fighting the British he entered the K ...
, a 31-year-old lawyer who had been born in Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
as Shmuel Katzenelson. Tamir was the son of Reuven Katzenelson, a member of the Jewish Legion
The Jewish Legion (1917–1921) is an unofficial name used to refer to five battalions of Jewish volunteers, the 38th to 42nd (Service) Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers in the British Army, raised to fight against the Ottoman Empire during ...
and Joseph Trumpeldor
Joseph Vladimirovich (Volfovich) Trumpeldor (21 November 1880 – 1 March 1920, he, יוֹסֵף טְרוּמְפֶּלְדוֹר , russian: Иосиф Владимирович (Вольфович) Трумпельдор ) was an early Zionist a ...
's sergeant and companion in the Battle of Gallipoli, and the nephew of Joseph Katzenelson, a companion of Zeev Jabotinsky
Ze'ev Jabotinsky ( he, זְאֵב זַ׳בּוֹטִינְסְקִי, ''Ze'ev Zhabotinski'';, ''Wolf Zhabotinski'' 17 October 1880 – 3 August 1940), born Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky, was a Russian Jewish Revisionist Zionist leade ...
, and one of the Irgun
Irgun • Etzel
, image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px
, caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
's two Chiefs of Illegal Immigration. Shmuel Katzenelson joined the Irgun at the age of 15, and was nicknamed ''Tamir'' ("tall and straight" in Hebrew), a name he later adopted legally. Tamir had been the Irgun's Chief of Intelligence in Jerusalem, and Gruenwald's daughter Rina had been under his command as a nurse.[Hecht, pp. 41-44.]
The trial, which government lawyers expected to last four days, lasted for two years, and resulted in 1955 in an acquittal of Gruenwald and a statement from the judge that Kastner had "sold his soul to the devil". The basis of the allegation and the judge's statement was that Kastner had collaborated with SS officer , and later Adolf Eichmann, by betraying the Hungarian Jewish masses in return for the rescue of a few hundred Jewish VIPs. The judge also condemned Kastner because after the war, he had given a positive affidavit on behalf of another SS officer, Kurt Becher, which convinced the Nuremberg authorities not to prosecute Becher for war crimes. The Supreme Court overturned the collaboration finding in 1958, but by then Kastner had already been assassinated.
Notes
References
*
On Trial
,''Time magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...
'', Foreign News, 11 July 1955.
* Bauer, Yehuda. ''Jews for Sale: Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933-1945'', Yale University Press, 1994.
* Hecht, Ben. ''Perfidy'', Milah Press, first published in 1961; this edition 1999.
*Maoz, Asher
Historical Adjudication: Courts of Law, Commissions of Inquiry, and "Historical Truth"
''Law and History Review'', University of Illinois Press, Vol. 18. No. 3, Fall 2000.
* Segev, Tom. ''The Seventh Million: Israelis and the Holocaust'', New York: Henry Holt (Owl Books edition), 2000, .
Further reading
* Bilsky, Leora
Judging Evil in the Trial of Kastner
''Law and History Review'', University of Illinois Press, Vol 19, No. 1, Spring 2001.
* Hilberg, Raul. ''The Destruction of the European Jews'', first published in 1961, this edition Yale University Press, 2003.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gruenwald, Malchiel
Blood for goods
Hungarian Jews
Israeli people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Zionists
20th-century Israeli businesspeople
Israeli journalists
1881 births
Place of birth missing
Place of death missing
1958 deaths
Israeli philatelists
20th-century journalists
Israeli murder victims