Jump to content

Hansi Brand: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→References: add sort tag
 
(42 intermediate revisions by 33 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|Hungarian-born Zionist activist and rescue worker}}
'''Hansi Brand''' (née '''Hajnalka Hartmann''')<ref name = "yadvashem">{{cite news
[[File:Hansi Brand and Oskar Schindler.jpg|thumb|Hansi Brand with [[Oskar Schindler]]]]
| last = Baruch
'''Hajnalka "Hansi" Brand'''<ref name = "yadvashem">{{cite news| last = Baruch| first = Hava| title = Profile of Hansi Brand| newspaper = Yad Vashem [[Magazine]] (Volume #20)| location = [[Jerusalem]]| pages = 15| publisher = [[Yad Vashem]]| date = Fall 2000| url = http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/pressroom/magazine/pdf/yv_magazine20.pdf| access-date = 2013-06-08| archive-date = 2013-09-05| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130905210831/http://yadvashem.org/yv/en/pressroom/magazine/pdf/yv_magazine20.pdf| url-status = dead}}</ref> (née '''Hartmann'''; 26 August 1912<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.geni.com/people/Hinolka-Hansi-Brand-nee-Hartman/6000000007897325285|title=Hinolka (Hansi) Brand (nee Hartman)|website=geni_family_tree|date=26 August 1912 }}</ref> – 9 April 2000<ref name="sun-sentinel2000">{{cite news| newspaper = Los Angeles Times |url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2000-04-20/news/0004191042_1_rescue-israel-adolf-eichmann |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304002503/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2000-04-20/news/0004191042_1_rescue-israel-adolf-eichmann |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |title=Hansi Brand, 89, Holocaust Heroine - Sun Sentinel |date=2000-04-20}}</ref>) was a [[Hungary|Hungarian]]-born [[Zionist]] activist who was involved, as a member of the Budapest [[Aid and Rescue Committee]], in efforts to rescue Jews during the [[Holocaust]].
| first = Hava
| coauthors =
| title = Profile of Hansi Brand
| newspaper = Yad Vashem [[Magazine]] (Volume #20)
| location = [[Jerusalem]]
| pages = 15
| language = English
| publisher = [[Yad Vashem]]
| date = Fall 2000
| url = http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/pressroom/magazine/pdf/yv_magazine20.pdf
| accessdate = June 1, 2013}}</ref> (1912&ndash;April 9, 2000),<ref name="sun-sentinel2000">{{cite news|author=April 20, 2000| newspaper = Los Angeles Times |url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2000-04-20/news/0004191042_1_rescue-israel-adolf-eichmann |title=Hansi Brand, 89, Holocaust Heroine - Sun Sentinel |publisher=Articles.sun-sentinel.com |date=2000-04-20 |accessdate=2013-06-04}}</ref> was a [[Hungary|Hungarian]]-born [[Zionist]] activist who was involved in rescue efforts during the [[Holocaust]].


==Early Life==
==Early life==
⚫
Brand was born in [[Budapest]] (then [[Austria-Hungary]]) in 1912.<ref name = "yadvashem"/><ref name = "hbrand">{{cite web|url=http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/brand-hansi |title=Hansi Brand (Hartmann) &#124; Jewish Women's Archive |publisher=Jwa.org |access-date=2013-06-03}}</ref> She was educated there and joined a [[Zionist youth movement]] when she was in high school.<ref name = "hbrand"/> Later on, she joined a pioneering village which taught young Jews "agricultural training prior to their [[aliyah|immigration to Palestine]]."<ref name = "hbrand"/> In 1935 she married [[Joel Brand]] ("a prominent member of the World Union of Mapai") in Budapest in a fictitious marriage to allow them to immigrate to [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]].<ref name = "hbrand"/> Later on the marriage became a "real" one.<ref name = "hbrand"/> They established a small glove factory and had two sons, one of whom died young.<ref name = "hbrand"/>
[[File:Budapest Keleti Palyaudvar 1912 Kepeslap .jpg|thumb|right|200px|Budapest in 1912.]]
⚫
Hansi was born in [[Budapest]] (in what was then [[Austria-Hungary]] and in what is now Hungary) in 1912.<ref name = "yadvashem"/><ref name = "hbrand">{{cite web|url=http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/brand-hansi |title=Hansi Brand (Hartmann) &#124; Jewish Women's Archive |publisher=Jwa.org |date= |accessdate=2013-06-03}}</ref> She was educated there and joined a [[Zionist youth movement]] when she was in high school.<ref name = "hbrand"/> Later on, she joined "a pioneering village" which taught young Jews "agricultural training prior to their [[aliyah|immigration to Palestine]]."<ref name = "hbrand"/> Hansi married [[Joel Brand]] ("a prominent member of the World Union of Mapai") in Budapest in 1935 in a fictitious marriage in order to be allowed to immigrate to [[Palestine]].<ref name = "hbrand"/> Later on Hansi's and Joel's marriage became a "real", sincere one.<ref name = "hbrand"/> They created a small glove factory and had two sons, one of whom died at a young age.<ref name = "hbrand"/>


==Rescue operations==
==World War II and the Holocaust==
[[File:Yoel Brandt 1961 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|200px|Hansi's husband, Joel Brand.]]
[[File:Yoel Brandt 1961 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|left|Hansi's husband, [[Joel Brand]]]]
Between 1938 and 1945, Hansi and Joel were deeply involved in efforts to help Jewish refugees who had escaped to Hungary (which did not deport Jews to concentration camps before the [[Operation Margarethe|Nazi invasion]] of it in 1944).<ref name = "hbrand"/> Hansi and Joel tried to save Hansi's sister and her family from being sent to [[concentration camps]] in [[Poland]] by bribing Hungarian intelligence officer Jozef Krem.<ref name = "hbrand"/> Together with some other Hungarian Zionist activists, Hansi and Joel Brand founded the [[Aid and Rescue Committee]] in 1942.<ref name = "hbrand"/> Hansi and the other committee members tried negotiating with [[Adolf Eichmann]] to save (at least some) Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.<ref name = "hbrand"/> Hansi and [[Rudolf Kastner]] were able to get 1,685 Jews to leave Hungary and go to neutral [[Switzerland]] on the [[Kastner train]].<ref name = "hbrand"/> In addition, Hansi and The Relief and Rescue Committee were able to save the lives of some (additional) Jews by getting 15,000 of them deported to [[Strasshof]] [[concentration camp]] (where they had a much greater chance of surviving) than to [[Auschwitz]].<ref name = "hbrand"/> Finally, Hansi also tried saving the lives of some Hungarian Jewish children whom the Nazis forced on a "Death March" in November 1944.<ref name = "hbrand"/>
Between 1938 and 1945, Brand and her husband were deeply involved in efforts to help Jewish refugees who had escaped to Hungary, which did not deport Jews to concentration camps before the [[Operation Margarethe|Nazi invasion]] in 1944.<ref name = "hbrand"/> They saved her sister and family from being sent to [[Nazi concentration camps]] after they had been deported to [[Poland]] in 1941.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News?id=389403|title=Israel News - The Jerusalem post|website=www.jpost.com}}</ref> They accomplished this by bribing Hungarian intelligence officer Jozef Krem.<ref name = "hbrand"/> Together with some other Hungarian Zionist activists, the couple founded the [[Aid and Rescue Committee]] in 1942.<ref name = "hbrand"/>


Hansi and Joel Brand were key associates in the Kasztner negotiations with the Nazis. The central part of the deal with Eichmann was the so-called "Goods for Blood" arrangement in which the Nazis tried to barter Jewish lives for money, arms and supplies in the dying months of the war.
==Post-World War II and Later Life==

Hansi moved from Budapest to Switzerland in 1946, and then from there to Palestine in 1947.<ref name = "hbrand"/> In December 1946, in [[Basel, Switzerland]], Hansi Brand testified in front of a special committee dealing with Rudolf Kastner’s activity during the Holocaust in Hungary.<ref name = "hbrand"/> Hansi also testified in the [[Kastner trial]] in 1954 and in the [[Eichmann trial]] in 1961.<ref name = "hbrand"/> After the Eichmann trial, Hansi and Joel wrote a book called ''The Devil and the Soul'' about their activities during the Holocaust and the Kastner trial.<ref name = "hbrand"/> In her final years, Brand worked at the Michlelet Tel Aviv college and on behalf of orphans and [[Aliyah from Ethiopia|Ethiopian immigrants]].<ref name="sun-sentinel2000"/> Hansi's husband Joel died at the age of 58 in 1964, while Hansi herself died at the age of 87 or 88 in [[Tel Aviv, Israel]] in 2000.<ref name = "yadvashem"/><ref name = "hbrand"/> Brand was survived by her (and Joel's) son Daniel (who was born in 1940 or 1941).<ref name="sun-sentinel2000"/>
Joel Brand was dispatched to Istanbul to persuade the Jewish Agency leadership to accept this plan, which came to nothing. The Zionist leaders told him that [[Moshe Sharett]]—then head of the Agency's political department, and later, Israel's second prime minister—could not obtain a visa for Istanbul and that a meeting could only take place in Aleppo. Within moments of leaving the train to Aleppo, Joel Brand was arrested by the British. Back in Budapest, Kasztner had begun an affair with Hansi Brand.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/on-quest-to-clear-kasztner-historian-shocked-to-prove-nazi-collaboration/|title=On quest to clear Kasztner, historian 'shocked' to prove Nazi collaboration|first=Jenni|last=Frazer|website=www.timesofisrael.com}}</ref>

Hansi Brand and the other committee members tried negotiating with [[Adolf Eichmann]] to save (at least some) Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.<ref name = "hbrand"/> Brand and [[Rudolf Kastner]] were able to get 1,685 Jews to leave Hungary and go to neutral [[Switzerland]] on the [[Kastner train]].<ref name = "hbrand"/> In addition, working with the Aid and Rescue Committee, she saved the lives of additional Jews by getting 15,000 of them deported to [[Strasshof concentration camp]] (where they had a much greater chance of surviving) than to [[Auschwitz]].<ref name = "hbrand"/> Finally, she also tried to save the lives of some Hungarian Jewish children whom the Nazis forced on a "Death March" in November 1944.<ref name = "hbrand"/>

==Later life ==
{{blood for goods}}
Brand moved from Budapest to Switzerland in 1946, and from there to Palestine in 1947.<ref name = "hbrand"/> In December 1946, in [[Basel, Switzerland]], she testified in front of a special committee dealing with Rudolf Kastner's activity during the Holocaust in Hungary.<ref name = "hbrand"/> She also testified in the [[Kastner trial]] in 1954 and in the [[Eichmann trial]] in 1961.<ref name = "hbrand"/>

In her final years, Brand worked at the Michlelet Tel Aviv college and on behalf of orphans and [[Aliyah from Ethiopia|Ethiopian immigrants]].<ref name="sun-sentinel2000"/> Her husband, Joel, died at the age of 58 in 1964. Hansi Brand died in [[Tel Aviv, Israel]] in 2000.<ref name = "yadvashem"/><ref name = "hbrand"/> She was survived by her son, Daniel.<ref name="sun-sentinel2000"/>

==Published works==
* In 1960, Brand wrote ''Satan and the Soul'' about the couple's activities during the Holocaust and the Kastner trial.<ref name = "hbrand"/>


==References==
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Sharon Geva, "Wife, Lover, Woman: The Image of Hansi Brand in Israeli Public Discourse", [https://web.archive.org/web/20071003234436/http://www.schechter.edu/women/journal.htm ''Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues''], No. 27, Fall 2014, pp.&nbsp;97–119.

{{authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Brand, Hansi}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brand, Hansi}}
[[Category:1912 births]]
[[Category:1912 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:Austro-Hungarian Jews]]
[[Category:Jews from Austria-Hungary]]
[[Category:Hungarian Jews]]
[[Category:Hungarian Jews]]
[[Category:Hungarian Zionists]]
[[Category:Austrian Jews]]
[[Category:Austrian Jews]]
[[Category:Israeli Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century Israeli Jews]]
[[Category:Israeli people of Hungarian descent]]
[[Category:Israeli people of Hungarian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Holocaust survivors]]
[[Category:Holocaust survivors]]
[[Category:The Holocaust]]
[[Category:People who rescued Jews during the Holocaust]]
[[Category:Kastner train]]
[[Category:Burials at Nahalat Yitzhak Cemetery]]
[[Category:Hungarian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine]]
[[Category:Zionists from Austria-Hungary]]

Latest revision as of 02:54, 22 October 2024

Hansi Brand with Oskar Schindler

Hajnalka "Hansi" Brand[1] (née Hartmann; 26 August 1912[2] – 9 April 2000[3]) was a Hungarian-born Zionist activist who was involved, as a member of the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee, in efforts to rescue Jews during the Holocaust.

Early life

[edit]

Brand was born in Budapest (then Austria-Hungary) in 1912.[1][4] She was educated there and joined a Zionist youth movement when she was in high school.[4] Later on, she joined a pioneering village which taught young Jews "agricultural training prior to their immigration to Palestine."[4] In 1935 she married Joel Brand ("a prominent member of the World Union of Mapai") in Budapest in a fictitious marriage to allow them to immigrate to Palestine.[4] Later on the marriage became a "real" one.[4] They established a small glove factory and had two sons, one of whom died young.[4]

Rescue operations

[edit]
Hansi's husband, Joel Brand

Between 1938 and 1945, Brand and her husband were deeply involved in efforts to help Jewish refugees who had escaped to Hungary, which did not deport Jews to concentration camps before the Nazi invasion in 1944.[4] They saved her sister and family from being sent to Nazi concentration camps after they had been deported to Poland in 1941.[5] They accomplished this by bribing Hungarian intelligence officer Jozef Krem.[4] Together with some other Hungarian Zionist activists, the couple founded the Aid and Rescue Committee in 1942.[4]

Hansi and Joel Brand were key associates in the Kasztner negotiations with the Nazis. The central part of the deal with Eichmann was the so-called "Goods for Blood" arrangement in which the Nazis tried to barter Jewish lives for money, arms and supplies in the dying months of the war.

Joel Brand was dispatched to Istanbul to persuade the Jewish Agency leadership to accept this plan, which came to nothing. The Zionist leaders told him that Moshe Sharett—then head of the Agency's political department, and later, Israel's second prime minister—could not obtain a visa for Istanbul and that a meeting could only take place in Aleppo. Within moments of leaving the train to Aleppo, Joel Brand was arrested by the British. Back in Budapest, Kasztner had begun an affair with Hansi Brand.[6]

Hansi Brand and the other committee members tried negotiating with Adolf Eichmann to save (at least some) Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.[4] Brand and Rudolf Kastner were able to get 1,685 Jews to leave Hungary and go to neutral Switzerland on the Kastner train.[4] In addition, working with the Aid and Rescue Committee, she saved the lives of additional Jews by getting 15,000 of them deported to Strasshof concentration camp (where they had a much greater chance of surviving) than to Auschwitz.[4] Finally, she also tried to save the lives of some Hungarian Jewish children whom the Nazis forced on a "Death March" in November 1944.[4]

Later life

[edit]
Part of a series of articles on
the Holocaust
Blood for goods
Key figures
Issues
Writers
Kastner train passengers
Related

Brand moved from Budapest to Switzerland in 1946, and from there to Palestine in 1947.[4] In December 1946, in Basel, Switzerland, she testified in front of a special committee dealing with Rudolf Kastner's activity during the Holocaust in Hungary.[4] She also testified in the Kastner trial in 1954 and in the Eichmann trial in 1961.[4]

In her final years, Brand worked at the Michlelet Tel Aviv college and on behalf of orphans and Ethiopian immigrants.[3] Her husband, Joel, died at the age of 58 in 1964. Hansi Brand died in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2000.[1][4] She was survived by her son, Daniel.[3]

Published works

[edit]
  • In 1960, Brand wrote Satan and the Soul about the couple's activities during the Holocaust and the Kastner trial.[4]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Baruch, Hava (Fall 2000). "Profile of Hansi Brand" (PDF). Yad Vashem Magazine (Volume #20). Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. p. 15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-05. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  2. ^ "Hinolka (Hansi) Brand (nee Hartman)". geni_family_tree. 26 August 1912.
  3. ^ a b c "Hansi Brand, 89, Holocaust Heroine - Sun Sentinel". Los Angeles Times. 2000-04-20. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Hansi Brand (Hartmann) | Jewish Women's Archive". Jwa.org. Retrieved 2013-06-03.
  5. ^ "Israel News - The Jerusalem post". www.jpost.com.
  6. ^ Frazer, Jenni. "On quest to clear Kasztner, historian 'shocked' to prove Nazi collaboration". www.timesofisrael.com.

Further reading

[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Hansi_Brand&oldid=1252602682"