Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- PART I THE MAKING OF THE MULTIPLE TRAP
- PART II THE RESCUE DEBATE, THE MACRO PICTURE, AND THE INTELLIGENCE SERVICES
- PART III THE SELF-DEFEATING MECHANISM OF THE RESCUE EFFORTS
- PART IV THE BRAND–GROSZ MISSIONS WITHIN THE LARGER PICTURE OF THE WAR AND THEIR RAMIFICATIONS
- 25 The Zionist Initiatives
- 26 Rescue, Allied Intelligence, and the SS
- 27 Hungarian Rescue Deals in the Eyes of the Allies
- 28 How the Missions Were Born
- 29 The Demise of a Rescue Mission
- 30 Open and Secret War Schemes and Realities
- 31 The WRB's Own Reports: OWI's Reservations
- PART V THE END OF THE FINAL SOLUTION: BACK TO HOSTAGE-TAKING TACTICS
- Epilogue: Self-Traps: The OSS and Kasztner at Nuremberg
- Notes on Sources
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
28 - How the Missions Were Born
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- PART I THE MAKING OF THE MULTIPLE TRAP
- PART II THE RESCUE DEBATE, THE MACRO PICTURE, AND THE INTELLIGENCE SERVICES
- PART III THE SELF-DEFEATING MECHANISM OF THE RESCUE EFFORTS
- PART IV THE BRAND–GROSZ MISSIONS WITHIN THE LARGER PICTURE OF THE WAR AND THEIR RAMIFICATIONS
- 25 The Zionist Initiatives
- 26 Rescue, Allied Intelligence, and the SS
- 27 Hungarian Rescue Deals in the Eyes of the Allies
- 28 How the Missions Were Born
- 29 The Demise of a Rescue Mission
- 30 Open and Secret War Schemes and Realities
- 31 The WRB's Own Reports: OWI's Reservations
- PART V THE END OF THE FINAL SOLUTION: BACK TO HOSTAGE-TAKING TACTICS
- Epilogue: Self-Traps: The OSS and Kasztner at Nuremberg
- Notes on Sources
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Summary
According to one of Grosz's British interrogation reports, the story behind his and Brand's mission evolved when several meetings were held early in April 1944 between Brand, Kasztner, Abwehr agent Winninger, and Eichmann's aides Hermann Krumey and Dieter Wisliceny, “always allowing themselves to be cheated out of their Zionist money in the hope that one day the Germans would really do something for the Jews … BRAND was acting out of misguided idealism and fright at the same time.”
The next day, Laufer told Grosz that he would arrange for “all funds stolen from the Zionists to be returned … by EICHMANN to BRAND.” Laufer then “expressed the Gestapo's readiness to assist the Jews as much as possible” and instructed Grosz “to draw up a plan of Jewish demands together with BRAND.”
On May 5, 1944, Brand met Eichmann, according to Grosz, in the presence of Clages, and both “treated BRAND very civilly.” Eichmann said that he would return to him the money and the letters delivered by the Swedish military attaché “intact.” Eichmann then:
proposed that BRAND should go to ISTANBUL, and, through the Zionists, arrange for the purchase and delivery of 10,000 lorries, chocolate and cocoa to the Germans via TURKEY, SPAIN, PORTUGAL or SWEDEN. BRAND said that he could easily arrange that. In return, EICHMANN promised the Germans would close the ghettoes, stop the deportation of Jews, and see that a number of Jews were given a safe conduct to PALESTINE or elsewhere in N. AFRICA.
(PRO/FO 371/42811/WR 422/9/6)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Hitler, the Allies, and the Jews , pp. 241 - 247Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004