Rudolf Kastner

Rudolf Kastner was born in 1906 in Cluj-Napoca

Kastner was born in 1906 in Kolozsvár, then in Austria-Hungary and today Cluj-Napoca in Romania. He grew up with two brothers. His father Yitzhak was a devout merchant, and his mother Helen ran the family store.

He attended a regular high school and later studied law. At 15 he joined a Zionist youth group and soon became its leader. He wrote for the Jewish newspaper Új Kelet, first on sports and then on politics.

He worked as an assistant to József Fischer, a lawyer and member of parliament, and married his daughter Elizabeth. After moving to Budapest, he helped lead the Aid and Rescue Committee. In 1944 he negotiated with Adolf Eichmann to let 1,684 Jews leave for Switzerland on the Kastner train.

In Israel he became a spokesman for the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 1952. Malchiel Gruenwald accused him of collaborating with the Nazis, and the state sued Gruenwald for libel. In 1955 the court ruled largely in Gruenwald's favor, and the verdict led to the fall of the cabinet.

Kastner was shot in Tel Aviv on March 3, 1957, and died on March 15. In January 1958 the Supreme Court overturned two of the charges against him. It upheld the finding about his postwar help to SS officer Kurt Becher.