צומת קושטא

In 1942 the Vaad ha-Hatzalah of the Jewish Agency in Palestine sent a group of people, including Hadari, to Istanbul. Their task was to aid Jewish communities and underground organizations in Nazi-occupied countries, to rescue as many Jews as possible, and to supply information to Jews in other parts of the world. They issued certificates and passports, organized escapes, and attempted to make deals with the Nazis to have Jews released. Describes rescue activities in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece. States that much more could have been accomplished had the group begun to operate in 1940-41, and that the Jewish Agency did not relate to this operation seriously enough due to a general feeling of helplessness. Claims that information on the destruction of European Jewry was already available in the U.S. from March 1942, but divisions within Jewish society there prevented the Jews from having more influence on U.S. policy. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)