A former Hungarian Jew who dealt with Adolf Eichmann, in 1944, in the effort to exchange 10,000 trucks and medical supplies for the lives of a million Jews, charged here today that Adolf Eichmann tried to block attempts to save the lives of many Jews from the Nazi death camps.
“Had it been up to Eichmann, ” the former negotiator said, “all Hungarian Jews would have been wiped out.”
The man who revealed Eichmann’s role in what he called “that grisly tracks-for-lives affair” was Andre Biss, former industrialist in Hungary. He told his story here today at a news conference at the European headquarters of the American Jewish Committee.
Mr. Biss said he became the chief negotiator with Eichmann in 1944, when two Jews, who had been trying to make the “deal” for saving the lives of Jews by providing trucks to the Nazis, had to leave Budapest. The two who got out were Rudolf Kastner, assassinated in Israel a year ago; and Joel Brand, now an Israeli citizen.
The “trucks for Jews” deal, said Mr. Biss, was the idea of Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi police system. But the actual negotiations had to be conducted with Eichmann, as the Nazi “specialist” for “the final solution” of the Jewish problem.
“In every way possible,” Mr. Biss asserted, “Eichmann sought to sabotage Himmler’s orders to deal with us. Had it been up to him, all Hungarian Jews would have been wiped out. He was obviously, coldly, happy in July, 1944, when he told Kastner and me that the negotiations had fallen through. ‘I can do nothing for you, ‘ Eichmann told us, ‘you have not delivered. ‘ “
According to Mr. Biss, “to us who dealt with the Germans, it was clear that we had to by-pass Eichmann at every opportunity, getting our offers to Himmler through other channels.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
