Page 48 of The Righteous

There was a knock on the door, and Theresa said, “My goodness, that was quick. Maybe Sammy heard us talking?”

Martin went to answer the door and said, “Even better. It’s a delivery.”

“It’s our dinner,” Carl said. “I hope you all are hungry.”

While the group was enjoying a dinner of Hungarian meatballs, Gertrud said, “Do any of you know anything about the glass factory at 29 Vadasz Street? It’s a huge building, not far from Saint Stephen’s Basilica.

” After no one responded, Gertrud added, “It looks vacant to me. Terri and I took a walk around it. Terri looked in the windows. We didn’t see any people or materials.

It’s not on the list of vacant properties that I was given, but we decided to investigate and see if it was for rent.

It could house a lot of people. Multiple families. ”

Once again, there was a knock on the door, and this time it was Sammy.

“We have some meatballs left over,” Theresa said.

Sammy shrugged, nodded, and filled his plate.

“Do you know anything about setting a meeting with the Aid and Rescue Committee?” Theresa asked.

“Tomorrow night,” he said, “and Joel’s bringing Rezs? Kasztner.”

“Wow,” said Theresa, “that is very accommodating of him.”

“He’s not doing it to be accommodating. Joel has his own agenda. He has a matter he wants to discuss with both you and Carl.”

“Do you know what it’s about?” asked Carl.

“I have a hunch. I think it’s about money. The WRB has it, Switzerland has it, and Joel has a history of using money to fund rescue operations.”

“What other rescue operations?” asked Gertrud.

“I’m not real sure,” Sammy said.

“Carl can tell you about the Bratislava Working Group,” Theresa said.

“It’s another rescue group located in Slovakia and run by a woman named Gisi Fleischmann.

The man in the black fedora, the man named Bernhard, had a meeting with Carl, my father, the rabbi, Solomon Cushman, Julia, and me recently.

He told us a lot of confidential information, including all about the Slovakian working group.

Then he broke off in the middle of his discussion because Solomon was a bit rude. ”

“Not just a bit,” said Julia.

“True, but Carl just told us that he and Bernhard had a second, private meeting. At that meeting, Bernhard told a story about Joel Brand and the Slovakian working group.”

“That’s right,” Carl said, “but it is still all confidential. It doesn’t go outside this room, at least for the present time. I have a hunch that something is going to happen soon and that the whole thing will become public knowledge. But not now.”

“What does that mean, the ‘present time’?” Gertrud asked.

“It means that soon the public will learn what happens when the Nazis take Jewish prisoners into the concentration camps, but I gave my word to Bernhard not to say anything right now. Bernhard also told me about Eichmann’s assignment a few years ago when he was sent to Slovakia as the grand inquisitor.

He did the same things he is now doing in Hungary—that is, to capture all the Jews and ship them to concentration camps.

From what happened in Slovakia, Bernhard is certain that Eichmann can be manipulated. He is corrupt. He can be bought.”

Eyebrows were raised, and Carl continued, “Gisi Fleischmann and an Orthodox rabbi named Michael Dov Weissmandl formed the Bratislava Working Group. It was a group within the Slovakian Jewish Council. In 1942, Eichmann was sent to Bratislava, Slovakia, to arrest Jews and send them to camps in Poland. Gisi raised money and bribed Eichmann’s deputy, Dieter Wisliceny, to suspend the deportations of Jews from Slovakia to Poland.

She also bribed him to allow Jews to escape to Hungary.

Gisi paid a $50,000 bribe to Wisliceny to have Eichmann stop the mandatory transports out of Slovakia.

It was successful for a time, and only two transports left for Poland after Wisliceny was paid.

Joel Brand was present in Slovakia at that time.

Both the Working Group and Brand believed that their bribes had succeeded.

“In 1943, tens of thousands of refugees made their way into Hungary from Slovakia, so much so that Hungarian authorities decided it was excessive. On Horthy’s orders, the border guards began to deny entrance.

They turned the refugees around and sent them east to Ukraine.

Hansi Brand’s relatives were in the group that was expelled from Hungary, and then they were trapped in Ukraine.

That was a disaster, because Germany was in control of Ukraine.

Joel couldn’t let his wife’s relatives be victimized by the Nazis, and he devised a plan to rescue them.

He paid a hefty bribe to bring those relatives back to Hungary.

After that, Joel became a strong believer in the power of bribes. ”

“We plan to meet with that committee tomorrow night,” Theresa said. “But I don’t know yet where we are meeting. Are you planning on coming with us?”

“I don’t think I can,” said Carl. “So that you are better prepared, let me finish telling you what I know about them. In 1943, Joel and Hansi joined with Rezs? Kasztner to form a rescue organization. Rezs? is a lawyer and journalist from Transylvania, which became a part of Hun gary a few years ago. Anyway, Joel, Rezs?, and Ottó Komoly jointly set up the rescue organization they called the Aid and Rescue Committee.”

“I have heard it called Va’adat Ha-Ezrah ve’Hatzalah , or Va’ada for short,” said Sammy.

“I know that Ottó Komoly was and is its chairman. I don’t know if you are aware of this, Carl, but Gisi was also active in the Aid and Rescue Committee at one time.

I have met her, and she is an amazing woman.

I don’t think I have ever met a woman quite like her.

She is brilliant and powerful and dedicated to social needs. ”

“Absolutely true,” Carl said. “Bernhard told me that after her brother was killed, Gisi took both of her daughters down to Palestine. That was in 1939. She didn’t stay with them.

She returned to Bratislava to run the Working Group.

She couldn’t walk out on her people. Her daughters were safe in Palestine.

She hoped to join them after the war was over. ”

Carl paused for a moment to let a memory play out in his mind.

“She was totally selfless,” he said. “Joel Brand witnessed how Gisi used bribes to save tens of thousands of Slovakians. He knew that Eichmann and all of his underlings were corrupt and susceptible to bribes. In the fall of 1943, a man named Oskar Schindler visited Budapest and met with the Aid and Rescue Committee. Schindler himself has rescued, and continues to rescue, Jews by employing them in his factories in Poland. I’m not sure of the reason why Schindler came to Budapest at that time, but I know that he and Brand and Kasztner discussed rescue operations.

At that meeting, Joel learned that Schindler had been bribing Nazi officers to let him bring Jewish refugees into his factory in Kraków.

This encouraged Joel and the committee on the use of bribes to further their rescue operations.

Brand and the Aid and Rescue Committee negotiated with the Nazis on that basis. ”

Carl took a breath. “That’s really all I have on the Aid and Rescue Committee.

Make sure you let me know whatever I can do to help.

I will ask, but I’m skeptical about whether Swiss authorities will secretly furnish money to fund bribes of German officials.

If that were to become known by the Nazi hierarchy, they would certainly consider that as taking sides and violating our neutrality policy. ”

“Switzerland has helped us in many ways,” said Julia. “Maybe we can get the funds from the WRB. We will keep you informed of what happens at the meeting.”

“I hope it takes place,” said Carl. “I am very anxious to learn what they have to say. In fact, I will be here working late Monday night. If the meeting actually occurs, and if it isn’t too late when it finishes, please stop by and tell me about it.”