Brand, Joel

Brand, Joel (1906–64),Hungarian Jew who was a leading member of the Jewish Aid and Rescue Committee in Hungary. In May 1944 Eichmann, then inflicting the Final Solution on Hungarian Jews, ordered him to contact Jewish Agency emissaries in Turkey. Through Brand, Eichmann proposed exchanging Hungarian Jews for merchandise—10,000 trucks, to be used only in the German–Soviet war, 80 tons of coffee, 20 tons of cocoa, 20 tons of tea, and 2 million bars of soap. For every truck supplied, or for its equivalent in cash or goods, 100 Jews would be released. The deal was authorized by Himmler and was almost certainly more a peace feeler than a serious offer. The British opposed it, but went along with the Americans who wished to keep open the negotiations in case they might at least delay the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. The Soviets, though they knew nothing about the condition attached to the trucks, refused to consider the matter. Brand, who had been arrested by the British in Aleppo in June, was released in October after the negotiations had failed, and went to Palestine.

Bibliography

Brand, J., and and Weissberg, A. , Desperate Mission (New York, 1958).