Nazis Invade Hungary

THE story that I had been going to tell the students in Vienna -- had I not been arrested -- was an extraordinary one. In April 1944, a few weeks after the Nazis had marched into Hungary, SS-Sturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann had established contact with the Jewish leaders and proposed a bargain:

 

Himmler Wanted To Deal

We still cannot determine from the archives how sincerely the offer was meant
 

Joel Brand A Jewish Hero

Leaving his wife and children behind in Budapest as hostages, the Hungarian Jewish community leader Joel Brand, left, flew to Istanbul in a German courier plane, carrying details of the offer and taking a Jew who was a Gestapo agent with him. They were soon intercepted by British Intelligence agents in Syria, and Brandt spent the next months in British captivity in Cairo; he was released but only into Palestine in August 1944, by which time it was too late to save the Hungarian Jews.
 

David Irving Finds Evidence

What made the story I had to tell -- which is quite well known to historians -- unique was that while researching for both my Winston Churchill and Himmler biographies I had discovered in the British archives the evidence that the British codebreakers, who were experts in decoding Hebrew and German SS messages, had quietly watched the whole episode from bases in England and Palestine: the archives in London contained scores of British Intelligence intercepts of the actual code messages exchanged between Brand and his lieutenants, and the Jewish Agency representatives in Switzerland and Istanbul and Palestine.
 

Irving Has Transcripts

I had transcripts of the intercepts with me when I was arrested. One for example was a Hebrew message, containing many Hebrew codewords, sent by Nathan Schwalb in Switzerland to the "Committee" in Istanbul, reporting the latest message brought by courier from Hungary:

I received the letter from Joel [Brand] on the 25th April [1944] through a messenger. Willi [the codename for Eichmann] is with him with his plan. . . They succeeded in postponing the deportation and got an answer that in principle there is no objection to the emigration [to Palestine] of 600 persons and to an emigration to Arye [the U.S.].

Trucks For Jews

In view of the fact that Wilhelm [Eichmann] is in favour of an emigration [of the Hungarian Jews] to Arye, it is indispensable that Tartskower [the American Government] should confirm that he is prepared to receive them. The messenger left today. . . I transferred about half a million Swiss Francs as Uncle's present [Uncle was the Treasurer of the Jewish Agency] to Joel [in Hungary] and Gizi [Frau Gizi Fleischmann in Slovakia]. Also Heini and Rolf sent them presents [Note by British Intelligence: presumably Heini Bornstein, representative of Hashomer Hatzair in Basle, and Rolf Schloss, Baden, formerly of Holland].
 

The Brits Hesitate

The British were well aware of this offer, and so shortly were the Americans in Istanbul; the British, at the suggestion of foreign minister Anthony Eden, right, deliberately dragged their feet, while the Americans wanted to investigate how genuine the offer was.
 

Irving's Vienna Lecture

Questioned a few days after my arrest by Dr Seda, the custodial judge, about the subject of my proposed lecture, I sketched for him the Eichmann-Brand story. He was completely ignorant of it.

"Wiederbetätigung!" the Austrian judge shrilled, holding up a shocked hand as a signal for me to stop; that was the name of the crime I was said, absurdly, to have committed -- reactivating the Nazi Party. It left me baffled -- and still remanded in custody.

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