HECHT, BEN — Perfidy

New York: Julian Messner, Inc, 1961. Third Printing. Hardcover. "In my own time, governments have taken the place of people. They have also taken the place of God. I have written chiefly of one government in this book - that of the new Jewish state of Israel. I am a Jew. I come of a long, never-broken line of Jews. They did well by the world. What happened to this fine heritage when the Jews finally fashioned a government of their own in Israel? What happened to Jews when they became Jewish politicians? What happened to a piety, a sense of honor, and a brotherly love that 2,500 years of anti-semitism were unable to disturb in the Jewish soul? My answers are in this book." - Preface. "Describes events surrounding the 1954-1955 Kastner trial in Jerusalem. Based on trial transcripts, Hecht concludes that in 1944 Rudolf Kastner [a member of David Ben Gurion's Mapai Party] deliberately withheld from Hungarian Jews knowledge that the trains Nazis were putting them on were taking them to die, not to a fictitious resettlement city as the Nazis claimed, and that Kastner lied about it under oath." - Wikipedia. "A devastating account." - E. Jager, Jerusalem Post 2007. "Ben Hecht (1894-1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and plays in America." - Wikipedia. vi, 281 pp. Extensive footnotes. Unmarked with average wear to original black cloth lettered in red. Moderate lean to spine. Binding intact. Includes new replica dust jacket in glossy new archival-grade protection. A sound early example of this work which remains controversial until today.; 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Good .