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PERFIDY by Ben Hecht

PERFIDY

By

Publisher: Messner

The story has been told before- piecemeal on the front pages of Israeli newspapers, and in the back columns of American dailies -but here for the first time in a single volume is the whole monstrous saga of the Kastner trial - complete with verbatim testimony, letters, background data, personal portraits. As a courtroom reporter and tireless worker in the cause of doomed European Jewry, Ben Hecht breathes life and vibrance into a horrendous scandal that will undoubtedly drift to the musty pages of history. Was it possible that Rudolph Kastner, a top official in Ben Gurion's cabinet was a Nazi collaborator indirectly responsible for the destruction of the Hungarian Jewish community? Malchiel Greenwald, an obscure and aged journalist insisted it was true. Through his efforts, Kastner is brought to trial and proven guilty of supporting the ""delusion offensive in Hungary and of sending 20,000 Jews to in exchange for the lives of 380 important personages. The heated controversy which led to the murder of the protagonist still continues in Israel, for if Kastner was guilty, were not all those responsible for their self imposed blindness, deafness and silence also to blame? Ben , Moshe Sharett and American Jewish leadership do not escape the sharp knife of this author's attack. The reader must weigh and ponder - though Ben Hecht has taken his stand - dramatically, cogently and with captivating force.