THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

The Grunwald trial had become the Kastner trial, in effect the Mapai—the laborparty—establishment trial, and became a precedent for the Eichmann trial. Betweenthe two legal events, Mapai, Ben-Gurion’s party, the major force in founding thestate, began a decline from which it did not recover. That is when the process ofdistrust between the Israeli constituency and its leaders began. The feeling thatleaders take care of their own interests more than ours began to germinate. With thissentiment came rage, cynicism, and distrust.The trial became an extensive examination of the Hungarian Jewry’s holocaust andwas the model of clarifying the issue of issues: Could the pre-state Israel do more forthe victims and the communities that had perished forever? Shmuel Tamir, a formermember of the militant Zionist group Irgun, represented Grunwald. In overturning thelibel charges against his client, he created a political trial against his accusers. Talentedand articulate, Tamir used the opportunity to express his right-wing Revisionistopinions. He sharply accused the socialist establishment, the Jewish Agency, andMapai of backing Kastner and deliberately silencing the news from the Shoah inaccordance with British directives, thus evading their duty to rescue Jews, especiallythose who did not share their political views. The longer the trial dragged on, themore attention it received. The public was impressed with Tamir’s brilliance, and UriAvnery’s encouraging articles in Ha’Olam Ha’Zeh, the sensationalist, antiestablishmentweekly magazine, added fuel to the fire. Avnery’s opinion was that thetrial proved that the government was run by corrupt Mapai cronies, rather than bythose who deserved to lead it, namely, the 1948 generation, who shed their blood inthe War of Independence. The now-defunct magazine became Tamir’s platform. Heand Avnery were New Israelis who held views different from Ben-Gurion, Israel’ssole leader at that time, and they opposed him vehemently.On June 22, 1955, Judge Binyamin Halevi read his verdict and sent shock wavesthroughout Israel. “Kastner sold his soul to Satan,” he decided, acquitting Grunwald.He ruled that Kastner collaborated with the Nazis in the annihilation of Hungary’sJews and spared war criminal Becher’s neck from the noose. In his 270-pagedecision the judge determined that Kastner had divided the masses from the selectfew, his relatives, friends, and other favored people.The legal proceedings continued for years. On January 20, 1957, an appealsession took place at the Supreme Court before five justices, headed by ChiefJustice Yitzhak Olshan. While the appeal was in process, Kastner was murdered.