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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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Shmuel Tamir's involvement in the Kastner case was an
interesting coincidence to us, for Serge and I had been involved in another
case that was indirectly related – an example of how small and how tight
the circles of the former S.S. are.
Kastner had saved
S.S.-Standartenführer Kurt Becher, Himmler's special representative in
Budapest, from the gallows at Nuremberg through his accommodating testimony. So
Kastner was now even with Becher, who had protected him in the past just in
case of such an eventuality. Becher knew that Kastner would have to cover up
for him or his role in the slaughter of the Hungarian Jews would be disclosed.
It would have come to light then how Kastner had continuously persuaded masses
of Jews to go quietly to the "work" camp at Auschwitz. Kastner was fully aware
of the fate that awaited them there; he also knew that many Hungarian Jews
could have saved themselves by going underground or by fleeing to Rumania if he
had warned them, at the risk of his life and that of his family.
On
February 17, 1958, the Israeli Supreme Court solemnly declared that "Kurt
Becher was a war criminal not only in the technical sense of the term but in a
still more terrifying sense." Becher had also been guilty of enormous
confiscations and extortions of funds from Jews. He had put those sums into a
Swiss
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 204 |
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