Come on and Ride the Train: The Kastner Story Part VIII

January 31, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Come on and Ride the Train: The Kastner Story Part VIII

In 1954, a libel trial began in Jerusalem that would tear Israeli society apart. The defendant was Malkiel Grunwald, a combative journalist who had accused Rudolf Kastner—a Hungarian Jewish leader and later Israeli civil servant—of collaborating with the Nazis during the Holocaust. The state of Israel chose to sue Grunwald for libel. That decision, made by Attorney General Chaim Cohn, opened a Pandora's box. What followed was not really a trial about Grunwald's article. It became a trial about Kastner himself, about the Jewish leadership during the Holocaust, and about the ruling Mapai party that had led the pre-state Yishuv.

The Five Main Characters

The trial had five central figures, each bringing their own biography, biases, and agendas into the courtroom.

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What you'll learn

1 (01:05) **The Five Main Characters of the Kastner Trial** - The host introduces the five key figures whose personal histories, biases, and agendas shaped the trial's course.
2 (04:57) **Profile: Malkiel Grunwald, the Professional Rabble-Rouser** - The host details Grunwald's long history of sensationalist attacks, which made his accusation against Kastner predictable and part of a pattern.
3 (16:10) **Profile: Shmuel Tamir, the Anti-Establishment Legal Warrior** - The host explains how Tamir's political vendetta against the Mapai party was the driving force behind the trial's direction.
4 (27:24) **Profile: Benjamin Halevi, the Judge Who Coined a Legendary Phrase** - The host describes the judge whose verdict gave Israeli society a simple, devastating answer to the incomprehensible destruction of Hungarian Jewry.
5 (30:48) **Profile: Chaim Cohn, the Prosecution's Architect of Regret** - The host profiles the Attorney General whose decision to sue for libel opened a Pandora's box that the state deeply regretted.
6 (37:24) **The Witnesses: Survivors, Rivals, and Paratroopers** - The host outlines the key testimonies that shaped the trial's narrative, from survivors of Kluj to the tragic story of Hannah Senesh.
7 (43:40) **Tamir's Strategy: Politicizing the Trial and Targeting Mapai** - The host explains how Tamir successfully turned the libel trial into a political attack on the Jewish Agency leadership.

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Guests on this episode

Rudolf Kastner

Show Notes

Who were the primary characters involved in the Kastner trial and how did their personal life stories impact the trial proceedings? What did the witnesses at the trial reveal about the Kastner negotiations? What was discussed and what wasn’t discussed about the Holocaust in Hungary at the trial? What was the verdict of the trial? How did the Supreme Court react to the verdict of the lower court? All this and more as we continue to explore the contentious history of the Kastner train and trial.

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