conman or collaborator?
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This book blends the author's own recollections of his childhood with careful documentary and interview research on Rezso Kasztner. The book does not portray Kasztner as a saint. Far from it. He comes across as a conman, a liar and a philanderer. But not a Nazi collaborator. Only someone as cunning could have persuaded Eichmann to release 1600 Hungarian Jews. Prof Lob, who I know and greatly respect, writes an account that is as balanced as such a sensitive and personal story can be. I think that, while giving both sides of the story, he succeeds in refuting the charges that Kasztner was profiting form the dreadful situation himself. After all, with the travel documents he was allowed, he could have slipped away at any time, and Prof Lob's own testimony shows it wasn't only the rich who got on that one train to Switzerland.
Well documented, well written and an extraordinary story, I recommend this very highly indeed
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