המשרד הארצישראלי בבודפשט

Examines the rescue activities of the Palestine Office in Budapest, which functioned under the auspices of the Jewish Agency, and the leadership of Moshe Krausz of the religious Zionist organization Mizrahi-Hapoel Hamizrahi. During 1943, Krausz, through his connections with Hungarian authorities, Palestine offices in neighboring countries, and foreign offices in Budapest, helped many Jews to leave Hungary, travelling through Bulgaria and Romania to Eretz Israel. After the Nazi occupation in March 1944, Rudolf Kasztner became more active in rescue efforts because of his connections with representatives of the Yishuv in Istanbul and Geneva. However, Krausz opposed making deals with the Nazis and tried to disseminate information about the Final Solution in Hungary, while Kasztner was in favor of such deals and against publicizing the annihilation of the Jews. States that the Hungarian government agreed to a plan proposed by Krausz to save Jews as "foreign nationals", with the help of Carl Lutz and Raoul Wallenberg, but the Germans rejected it; nevertheless, thousands of Jews did survive in "protected houses" and children's homes in Budapest. Notes that Yishuv leaders, due to political considerations, actually harmed rescue efforts in Hungary. After the war, Krausz was ousted from his position by representatives of the Yishuv. He requested an investigation of Jewish Agency activities, but he was marginalized by Yishuv leaders who feared that he might threaten the Holocaust narrative of the Zionist leftist movement. -- From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism.