Brand, Joel Jeno

(1906–64)

   Hungarian Zionist. Born in Hungary, Brand grew up in Germany, but settled in Budapest in the late 1930s. He was active in Jewish rescue efforts, and had contacts with German agents. In 1944 he was associated with Rudolf KASZTNER in negotiations with Adolf EICHMANN for the release of Hungarian Jews in exchange for military trucks and other material - the so-called Blood for Goods proposal. Brand travelled to Constantinople to discuss the deal with Jewish Agency leaders. He set out for Palestine in order to see Moshe SHARETT, the head of the agency’s political department. In Aleppo, Syria, he was arrested by the British authorities on the allegation that he might be a German spy and was interned in Egypt. He was released in October 1944, when the Hungarian Jews were already being rounded up and transported to concentration camps. Brand settled in Palestine and after 1945 set himself the task of tracking down Nazi criminals who had escaped. He died of a heart attack in Germany, where he had gone to give evidence in the trial of two Nazis.