Part of a series of articles on the Holocaust
Blood for goods
Key figures Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee Hansi Brand Joel Brand Rezső Kasztner Ottó Komoly SS Kurt Becher Adolf Eichmann Heinrich Himmler
Issues Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz Protocols Vrba–Wetzler report History of the Jews in Hungary The Holocaust Kastner train Kastner trial
Writers Malchiel Gruenwald (Michtavim el haveray be'Mizrahi, weekly pamphlet, 1952) Ben Hecht (Perfidy, 1961) Raul Hilberg (The Destruction of the European Jews, 1961) Rudolf Vrba (I Cannot Forgive, 1963) Randolph L. Braham (The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary, 1981) Motti Lerner (Kastner, 1985; The Kastner Trial, 1994) Jim Allen (Perdition, 1987) Yehuda Bauer (Jews for Sale?: Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945, 1994) Tuvia Friling (Arrows in the Dark, 1998) Ladislaus Löb (Rezső Kasztner, 2008) Anna Porter (Kasztner's Train, 2008) Gaylen Ross (Killing Kasztner, 2008) Jeremy Davidson (Tickling Leo, 2009) Paul Bogdanor (Kasztner’s Crime, 2016)
Kastner train passengers Kastner train Avraham Deutsch Dezső Ernster Esther Jungreis Ladislaus Löb Egon Mayer Peter Munk Reuven Schmeltzer Yonasan Steif Léopold Szondi Joel Teitelbaum Béla Zsolt
Related Bratislava Working Group Gisi Fleischmann Michael Dov Weissmandl Europa Plan [he] History of the Jews in Slovakia Jewish Agency Joint Distribution Committee Saly Mayer [de; he] Dieter Wisliceny
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The Aid and Rescue Committee, or Va'adat Ha-Ezrah ve-ha-Hatzalah be-Budapesht (Vaada for short; name in Hebrew: ועדת העזרה וההצלה בבודפשט) was a small committee of Zionists in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944–1945, who helped Hungarian Jews escape the Holocaust during the German occupation of that country.^[1] The Committee was also known as the Rescue and Relief Committee, and the Budapest Rescue Committee.

The main personalities of the Vaada were Ottó Komoly, president; Rudolf Kasztner, executive vice-president; Samuel Springmann, treasurer; and Joel Brand, who was in charge of tijul or the underground rescue of Jews.^[2] Other members were Hansi Brand (Joel Brand's wife); Erno Szilagyi from the left-wing Hashomer Hatzair;^[3] Peretz Revesz; Andras Biss; and Nison Kahan. After the German occupation in March 1944 responsibilities were split: Otto Komoly became mainly in charge of dealing with Hungarian government, military and police figures (the so-called 'line A'), while Kasztner (after Brand's departure to Istanbul) led the negotiations with the Germans (the so-called 'line B') including Eichmann.