Kasztner's Train; The True Story Of Rezso Kasztner, Unknown Hero Of The Holocaust

Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2007. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good. C. Stuart Daniel (Map). xi, [1], 491, [1] pages. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Inscribed on the title page by the author. Inscription reads For Irv, Anna Porter. No dust jacket present. Cover has minor, wear, soiling and 'dings'. Anna Maria Porter OC OOnt is a Canadian publisher and novelist. Born Anna Szigethy in Budapest, Hungary, she emigrated to New Zealand in 1956. She received a bachelor's degree and Master of Arts degree from the University of Canterbury. She started at McClelland & Stewart in 1969 and became president and publisher of Seal Books. In 1979, she founded Key Porter Books and in 1986 she purchased a majority stake in Doubleday Canada. In 2004, she was appointed to the Board of Governors of York University. In 1991, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for being "instrumental in bringing Canadian titles to the attention of the international market place". In 2003, she was awarded the Order of Ontario. She has been awarded honorary degrees from Ryerson University, St. Mary's University, and the Law Society of Upper Canada. In 2004, Porter sold her interest in Key Porter Books to focus on writing. She has published three mystery novels and three books on Middle European history. Hungarian by birth, Anna Porter lived through the Hungarian Revolution as a child, and brings to this book a determination and passion to tell the full story of one of the heroes of the 20th century. Kasztner's Train is based on interviews with survivors who were on the train, and with family members of other survivors, as well as with descendants of those murdered in concentration camps. The true, heart-wrenching tale of Hungary's own Oskar Schindler, a lawyer and journalist named Rezso Kasztner who rescued thousands of Hungarian Jews during the last chaotic days of World War II -- and the ultimate price he paid. In summer 1944, Rezso Kasztner met with Adolf Eichmann, architect of the Holocaust, in Budapest. With the Final Solution at its terrible apex and tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews being sent to Auschwitz every month, the two men agreed to allow 1,684 Jews to leave for Switzerland by train. In other maneuverings, Kasztner may have saved another 40,000 Jews already in the camps. Kasztner was later judged for having "sold his soul to the devil." Prior to being exonerated, he was murdered in Israel in 1957. Part political thriller, part love story and part legal drama, Porter's account explores the nature of Kasztner -- the hero, the cool politician, the proud Zionist, the romantic lover, the man who believed that promises, even to diehard Nazis, had to be kept. The deals he made raise questions about moral choices that continue to haunt the world today. In March, 1944, the German army marched into Hungary, followed soon after by Adolf Eichmann and his SS Sondercommando. His single goal was to eliminate the entire Jewish population of the country. Rezso Kasztner-a lawyer and Zionist activist-stood in his way. In meeting after meeting with Eichmann and other Nazis, he sought common ground, exploiting their twin weaknesses of greed and fear, in the process saving thousands of lives. Kasztner's Train-a reference to the famous train ride to freedom he organized-tells this dramatic story for the first time, including a shocking postscript. After the war, Kasztner emigrated to Israel, where in 1956 he was stunningly convicted of collaborating with the Nazis more than a decade before. As he awaited the appeal that would ultimately exonerate him, he was murdered by right-wing activists in Tel Aviv on March 4, 1957. Hungarian by birth, Anna Porter lived through the Hungarian Revolution as a child, and brings to this book a determination and passion to tell the full story of one of the heroes of the 20th century. Kasztner's Train is based on interviews with survivors who were on the train, and with family members of other survivors, as well as with descendants of those murdered in concentration camps.