The Kastner Trial - Original Copy of the Verdict

"Criminal file no. 53/124, the case: Attorney General of Israel (prosecutor) against Malkiel ben Menachem Gruenwald (defendant) sued for libel, a criminal offense according to paragraph 201 of the Criminal Law Order, 1936."
In 1955 the Attorney General of Israel sued Malkiel Gruenwald, 75, for libel. Gruenwald, in a self-published stenciled pamphlet, accused Kastner, spokesman for the Ministry of Trade and Industry, of collaboration with the Nazis during the mass murder of Hungarian Jews. Gruenwald was represented by Adv. Shmuel Tamir, one of the critics and opponents of the Labor (Avodah) party.
A thorough and careful examination of the evidence led the judge to the conclusion that most of Gruenwald's accusations against Kastner were justified. In the verdict, the judge outlined the close collaboration between Kastner, one of the Zionist Organization leaders in Hungary, and the Nazis and Adolf Eichmann who was directly responsible for the extermination of Hungarian Jews. The main arguments raised by the defendant, and accepted by court, were: Kastner collaborated with the Nazis who exterminated Hungarian Jewry in return for a train with 1200 of the Jewish Community leaders who were transferred to Bergen-Belsen and from there to a neutral state. In exchange for securing their rescue, the heads of Hungarian Jewry collaborated with the Nazis by concealing from the general Jewish public the intention of the Nazis to transfer them to Auschwitz in order to murder them there and by doing so prevented them from escaping or uprising.
When three paratroopers from Eretz Israel (Palgi, Goldstein and Hanna Szenes) arrived in Hungary, Kastner was the main liaison of Palgi and Goldstein, and reported them to the Nazis. Kastner did not attempt to save Hanna Szenes who was arrested when she entered Hungary, suspecting that the three would establish an anti-Nazi underground and interfere with his collaboration with Eichmann and his assistants. One of the senior SS officers with whom Kastner collaborated was Kurt Becher, chief of the Economic Department of the SS Waffen, who confiscated the property of Hungarian Jews and used the extermination of Jews to the financial benefit of the Nazis.
When Becher was sued in the Nuremberg trials, Kastner forwarded a declaration under oath that Becher assisted in rescuing Jews. Becher was later acquitted and released. The only accusation paragraph by Guenwald against Kastner, which the defendant was not able to prove, was that Kastner was Becherג€™s partner in the robbery of Jews attempting to enrich the treasury of the Third Reich through blackmailing Hungarian Jews and officials in world Jewry who tried to redeem their lives by paying ransom to the Nazis. The judge found Gruenwald guilty for only one paragraph, which he could not prove, and fined him symbolically - 1 Israeli Pound. 275 leaves, 31.5 cm. Good condition. Stains. Binding somewhat worn.