One of the least known, most desperate and most dramatic resistance movements of World War II was Operation Hazalah - the rescue of thousands of Hungarian Jews by a daring group of young Zionists in 1944. Hazalah ("rescue" in Hebrew) was launched in Budapest against incredible odds: The partisans had no arms, no underground networks, no contact with the outside world, and no national resistance to support them. Even more serious, they were often operating in the face of resistance from their countrymen and even from their fellow Jews. For in March of 1944 the Jews of Hungary - more than 900,000 including refugees from other countries - placed their faith in the imminent defeat of the Nazis. They could not believe the Germans would risk killing them with the end of the war so near. But the Hazalah partisans knew better than to thrust the Nazis, German or Hungarian, and prepared themselves to fight back.
Hazalah's strategy was essentially simple: The Germans relied religiously on order, and the Zionist objective was to sabotage that order wherever they could. On clandestine printing presses they turned out hundreds of false identification papers and legal documents of every kind. Jews transformed themselves into Christians, neutral embassy agents, Nazi police, even SS officers. Against formidable opposition, they succeeded in saving the condemned from prisons, stopping trains headed for the death camps, and helping escapees over the borders. Their heroic efforts culminated in the rescue of hundreds of Jews from Eichmann's death march to Auschwitz. In the end, more than 700,000 Jews were dead. But, thanks to the courageous halutzim, over 100,000 were saved. This gripping account pays tribute to them and to their indomitable rescuers.
Hazalah's strategy was essentially simple: The Germans relied religiously on order, and the Zionist objective was to sabotage that order wherever they could. On clandestine printing presses they turned out hundreds of false identification papers and legal documents of every kind. Jews transformed themselves into Christians, neutral embassy agents, Nazi police, even SS officers. Against formidable opposition, they succeeded in saving the condemned from prisons, stopping trains headed for the death camps, and helping escapees over the borders. Their heroic efforts culminated in the rescue of hundreds of Jews from Eichmann's death march to Auschwitz. In the end, more than 700,000 Jews were dead. But, thanks to the courageous halutzim, over 100,000 were saved. This gripping account pays tribute to them and to their indomitable rescuers.
