By 1943, all attempts at creating a unified American Jewish Rescue Committee had collapsed. This compelled the Vaad (Bunim's rescue committee) to re-double its efforts, moving toward a daring, desperate mission: negotiating with the Nazis to ransom their Jewish captives...

As Rabbi Eliezer Silver wrote, "We are ready to pay ransom for Jews and deliver them from concentration camps with the help of forged passports. For this purpose we do not hesitate to deal with counterfeiters and passport thieves. We are ready to smuggle Jewish children over the borders, and to engage expert smugglers, rogues whose profession this is. We are ready to smuggle money illegally into enemy territory to bribe those dregs of humanity, the killers of the Jewish people!"

The Vaad activists trembled when they learned that, in 1944, the Nazis were willing to sell their human cargo.

Jean-Marie Musy seemed like the last person to whom Yitzhak Sternbuch might turn [to for help in rescuing Jews]. He was an avowed fascist who had published La Jeune, a notoriously anti-Semitic newspaper... (Yet) in early November, 1944, Musy met with Himmler and brought him the Sternbuchs' initial offer of one million Swiss francs ($250,000) for 600,000 Jews. Himmler replied that he preferred trucks to money. Later that month, however, he made a counter offer: 300,000 Jews for 20 million francs ($5 million). The Sternbuchs knew that Roswell McClelland, the War Refugee Board representative in Switzerland, would never sanction the ransom of Jews. Still, they asked him for WRB money. McClelland refused.

Simultaneously, the Sternbuchs sent Himmler's terms to the Vaad via their secret Polish diplomatic cable. It was the kind of communique Bunim had never dared dream of. The Vaad's executive committee was convened for an emergency meeting. A hush fell across the room when the cable was read aloud. The plan was electrifying: Every month for twenty months, they would pay $250,000 and the Nazis would release 15,000 Jews. It came roughly to $17 a person.

...Bunim implored Vaad members, business colleagues and friends, raising funds as quickly as he could. Some refused, saying that they could not give money to Nazis, especially when their own sons were fighting in the war. "This money," one man said sadly, "might buy the gun that kills my child." But Bunim was magnetic, persuasive and successful, convincing people to give more than they might have. Rabbi Joseph Rudman, inspired by Bunim's appeal, emptied his bank account.

"That Friday afternoon," Vaad activist Herman Hollander recalled, "I proposed to my wife that we sell our very comfortable three-story home and give the difference between the mortgage and the selling price to the Vaad Hatzala for the release of the ransomed Jews. My suggestion meant we would have to move into my in-laws' house until we found other accommodations. My wife readily agreed. After my in-laws also consented, we sold our house and gave the money to the Vaad."

SIGNS OF HOPE

In January, 1945, Musy met again with Himmler, who wanted assurances that these negotiations were genuine... He represented Jews of means, Musy told Himmler, but their assets had been tied up and $5 million for ransom was unmanageable. Himmler countered with a more reasonable demand: $1.25 million, to be placed in a Swiss bank. In return, he would authorize the release of all Jews at a rate of 1,200 a week.

On February 5, 1945, as a sign of his good faith, Himmler released 1,210 Jews from Theresienstadt.

There was more. Instead of receiving the remaining $3.75 million, Himmler wanted the influential Jews to create positive reports about the Nazis in the worldwide media. After their losses at Normandy and Stalingrad, the German High Command sought to paint itself in as positive a light as possible, with an eye to the postwar period. Himmler and the Nazis had reeled under negative world opinion after the Auschwitz Protocol, the 1944 report exposing their death camps...

On February 7, 1945, after the safe arrival of the Theresienstadt train. Bunim asked major newspapers, including The New York Times, The New York Sun, and The New York Herald Tribune, to carry the story. They complied, highlighting the story with pictures.

MONEY MATTERS

[Yet there was still the issue of raising the ransom money. So the Vaad went to meet the leaders of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, to ask for a million-dollar loan.]

Rabbi Kotler said that the loan would be put to good use, for Himmler had kept his word: An entire trainload of over 1,200 Jews from Theresienstadt had already been saved.

"Jews?" [Joint president Moe] Leavitt asked contemptuously. "Is that who you think you rescued from Theresienstadt? A lot of them were apostates (Jews who converted away from Judaism). You did not save religious Jews."

Rabbi Kotler could no longer control himself. "Who knows why they did it," he shouted, his face turning red, "or under what circumstances they were compelled to [convert away from Judaism]. They are still Jews, even if they have sinned. It is our obligation to save them!"

Later, Bunim grasped the irony of that moment. An acculturated Jew was writing off scores of apostate Jews, while a great Torah sage was defending them.

...Reluctantly, Leavitt agreed to the loan. The sole condition was that the United States government grant the Vaad a license to transfer the funds overseas to Switzerland and then, through their agents, to Himmler. It was a condition which Leavitt felt the Vaad could never meet.

The Vaad quickly accepted Leavitt's terms. "But suppose you cannot get the license," Paul Baerwald, a German-Jewish banker and top Joint official said, wagging his finger. "After all, what you are really asking for is permission to trade with the enemy. The government will ask you what you intend to do with the money. You will tell them and your request will not be granted. Because it is ransom, sending money to Germany in this way!"

"Mr. Baerwald," Bunim answered, "We will get the license. If we have to, we will storm Washington. Rabbi Kotler and all of us will go, and we will use every contact we have. But we will get it..."

THE MORGENTHAU MEETING

The Vaad leaders discussed strategy and used their best Washington contacts. They would go right to the top, to President Roosevelt himself. In February, 1945, with great trepidation, Bunim called the Oval Office for an appointment. He was referred to Henry Morgenthau (Secretary of the Treasury).

...Hundreds of thousands of lives depended on government approval to transfer $937,000 to American agents in Switzerland. Morgenthau was their last chance.

Once in Morgenthau's office, Bunim explained the Musy Negotiations. Crisply and articulately, he told the Treasury Secretary what was needed.

Morgenthau's reaction was predictable. "What?" he asked bewildered. "Ransom!" The Secretary's hands sketched large arcs. "Surely you know that the motto of the United States is 'Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute.'" Morgenthau shook his head. "We can't do it."

Bunim usually translated for Rabbi Kotler and Rabbi Kalmanowitz, but this time the Secretary's tone and facial gestures were self-explanatory. Bunim hid his disappointment while he framed a response, but Rabbi Kotler could not hold back his emotions. As he stood shaking, his blue eyes blazed and then he pointed a finger at Morgenthau. "Bunim," he snapped in his rapid-fire Yiddish, his words coming in agitated bursts, "you tell him. Tell him that if he cannot help to rescue his fellow Jews at this time, then he is worth nothing, and his position is worth nothing, because one Jewish life is worth more than all the positions in Washington!"

Although Morgenthau did not understand the words, there was no mistaking the intensity of Rabbi Kotler's fury. After an awkward moment of silence, he asked Bunim to translate.

Sensitive to the protocol involved in speaking to top-level officials, Bunim decided to take the edge off a difficult situation. He cleared his throat and told Morgenthau that Rabbi Kotler had said "Perhaps because of your high office in government you cannot force the issue. But please understand that in this case there are mitigating circumstances. Perhaps something might be worked out."

When Morgenthau looked relieved, Rabbi Kotler realized that his powerful message had not been conveyed accurately. "No, no!" he shouted in Yiddish. "Bunim, tell him exactly what I said!"

Morgenthau looked quizzically from Rabbi Kotler to Bunim.

Bunim paused and exhaled slowly. He knew their chance to save countless Jewish lives had all come down to this moment. It all depended on what he said. He spoke slowly, deliberately, never taking his eyes from Morgenthau's face. "Rabbi Kotler thinks that you may be unwilling to help us because you are afraid of losing your position in the government. He wants you to know that one Jewish life is worth more than any office."

Morgenthau looked at Rabbi Kotler's fiery stare, Rabbi Kalmanowitz's anguish and Bunim's quiet determination. He put his head down on his desk. Minute after minute went by in the silent room until Bunim began to fear for the Secretary's health.

Finally, Morgenthau looked up and stood before Rabbi Kotler. He looked directly at Rabbi Kotler and asked Bunim to translate. "Tell the Rabbi that I am a Jew," Morgenthau said with great dignity and emotion. "Tell him that I'm willing to give up my life - not just my position - for my people."

Bunim breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed as if the license would be forthcoming. It looked as if thousands of Jews would be spared...

THE END OF THE STORY

The end of this story is sudden and tragic.

Certain Jews, who were opposed to the ransom plan, succeeded in publishing negative press reports about the Musy Negotiations. Then, Kurt Becher, a Nazi officer who faked sympathy and was ostensibly involved in similar negotiations to save Jews, took the press clippings to General Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of Reich Security, who in turn showed them to Hitler. Hitler became so enraged that he ordered the cessation of all further releases.

This effectively ended the Musy Negotiations and sealed the fate of thousands of European Jews.