Summary
The Kasztner trial, as Lahav tells it in Chapter 7: the 1953–1958 libel proceedings arising from Malchiel Gruenvald’s pamphlet against Rudolf Kasztner, which put Jewish activity during the Holocaust on Israel’s front pages and before its Knesset, cabinet and courts; Halevy’s district court judgment held Kasztner “had sold his soul to Satan”, and Simon Agranat’s 194-page appeal opinion reversed it on three of four counts (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 126-155, 1441-1732).
Details
- Agranat’s opinion in the case opened: “This trial takes us back to the days of the Holocaust” (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1448-1455).
- Lahav frames the trial in the Prologue as the culmination of the 1950s theme that exilic Jews had failed to behave like free men and women and had gone “like lambs to the slaughter” (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 148-158).
- Gruenvald’s pamphlet opened “The smell of a corpse scratches my nostrils! … Dr. Rudolf Kasztner should be eliminated!”; Attorney General Haim Cohn insisted Kasztner sue or resign, then prosecuted Gruenvald for criminal libel (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1471-1560).
- Shmuel Tamir’s defense framed the case as Judenrat collaboration versus Warsaw-ghetto resistance, and charged Ben-Gurion and the Jewish Agency with withholding help from Hungary’s Jews; the judgment of 22 June 1955 made “Kasztnerism” the centre of the 1955 elections (MAPAI 44 to 40 seats, Herut doubled to 15) (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1485-1560).
- Kasztner was assassinated in March 1957 with the appeal pending. Agranat’s opinion — majority Olshan, Cheshin and Goitein; Silberg dissenting — designed a “strong and clear” evidence standard, refused deference to Halevy’s findings, and warned against judging with hindsight: a judge must “put himself in the shoes of the participants themselves” (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1550-1610).
- On collaboration, Agranat held the core charge was omission, not action; a leader’s duty runs to the community as a whole, so withholding the Auschwitz news while gambling on negotiations was not unreasonable; Halevy’s watchman metaphor was “completely irrelevant”. The only count held true was that Kasztner tried to rescue Kurt Becher from justice after the war (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1618-1732).
Related pages
Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, Rudolf Kasztner, Simon Agranat, Haim Cohn, Shmuel Tamir, Benjamin Halevy, Adolf Eichmann, Eichmann Trial