Who is Rudi Bastler?

Rudi Bastler is a Hungarian lawyer who is one of the leaders of Vaada. This organization acted as an intermediary between escaping Jews and the Nazis. They secured the release and liberty of many fleeing Jews, but their work had a dark side. After the war, Rudi is exposed as a collaborator who was too close to the Nazis. It is found out that he favored his only family and village in securing the release of a train that escaped with 1,500 Jews. There is a cloud over whether these escapees were at the cost of the half a million Jews who were transported to Auschwitz and mostly killed. Rudi survives the war and joins his family in the newly formed Israel, but his past catches up with him as he falls as a pawn in the political struggle between Mapai and Likud the two post war political parties. He pays the ultimate price in Blood Orange Blossom when his poiltical career sees him exposed and denounced as a man who sold his soul to Eichmann.