Franz Novak, the SS officer who served as head of the late Adolf Eichmann’s transport bureau for sending Jews to their deaths at Auschwitz, was so zealous in doing his job that he even obstructed orders from Eichmann’s highest superior, Heinrich Himmler, the court trying Novak for complicity in many thousands of murders was told here.
Andreas Biss, an underground Zionist leader in Hungary at the time Novak worked there under Eichmann, testified that, in 1944, Himmler had made a deal for sending 500 Hungarian Jews to Switzerland, in exchange for a payment totaling $200,000. But Novak reversed the ruling from Himmler, Mr. Biss said, shipping most of those Jews to their deaths at the Bergen-Belsen camp. Both Eichmann and Novak, Mr. Biss testified, were constantly opposed to any proposals for rescuing Jews.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
