By a four to one vote the Supreme Court of Israel this week-end exonerated the late Dr. Israel Kastner of charges of having collaborated with the Nazis in war-time Hungary and found 75-year-old pamphleteer Malkiel Gruenwald guilty of having libelled the former leader of the Hungarian Jewish community. The court gave Mr. Gruenwald a sentence of one year and suspended it on account of his age, placed him on probation for three years during which he was forbidden to write further on the Kastner case, and ordered him to pay 500 pounds in court costs.
The majority found that although Dr. Kastner had dealt with the Nazis his motive was an ill-starred attempt to save thousands of Hungarian Jews. The only charge by Mr. Gruenwald which the court upheld was that Dr. Kastner’s testimony during the Nuremberg International War Crimes trials had saved the life of storm trooper Kurt Becher. Dr. Kastner had denied giving testimony.
The majority decision overruled a district courts vindication of Mr. Gruenwald and his castigation of Dr. Kastner as a man who had “sold his soul to the devil” in order to save 600 Hungarian Jewish leaders and members of his own family. Last March, three men assassinated Dr. Kastner near his home.
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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.
