KASZTNER S TRAIN

The true, heart-wrenching story of Rezso Kasztner, a Hungarian lawyer andjournalist, who rescued thousands of Jews during the last days of theSecond World War - and the ultimate price he paid. Summer 1944 - RezsoKasztner meets with Adolf Eichmann, architect of the Holocaust, inBudapest. With the Final Solution at its terrible apex and tens ofthousands of Hungarian Jews being sent to Auschwitz every month, the twomen agree to allow 1,684 Jews to leave for Switzerland by train. Thewealthy Jews of Budapest will pay an average of ,500 for each familymember to be included; the poor will pay nothing.In addition to those onthe train, Kasztner negotiates with Eichmann to keep 20,000 Hungarian Jewsalive - Eichmann called them 'Kasztner's Jews' or the 'Jews on ice' - for adeposit of approximately 0 per head. These deals would haunt Kasztner tothe end of his life. After the war, Kasztner was vilified in an infamousIsraeli libel trial for having 'sold his soul to the devil' incollaborating with the Nazis. In 1957, he was murdered while he awaitedthe Supreme Court verdict that eventually vindicated him. Kasztner's Trainexplores the nature of Kasztner: the cool hero, the proud Zionist, the manwho believed that promises, even to the Nazis, had to be kept. The dealshe made raise questions about moral choices that continue to haunt theworld today.