Paratroopers
By 1942, the Haganah planned to infiltrate fighters from Eretz Israel to occupied German territory in Europe, specifically in order to organize resistance and promote Aliyah. The kibbutz movement institutions even offered candidates for this mission. Only in 1944, however, were paratroopers sent from Eretz Israel to Europe, after they had undergone training in the British army. One plan was to drop some of these paratroopers into Romania and Yugoslavia, from where they would cross the border into Hungary. The Jewish leaders in Eretz Israel viewed saving Jews as their top priority, while the British planned espionage operations, and to aid their prisoners of war, using paratroopers who spoke the languages of the destination countries
׳The Shimoni Group׳
This group was named after hospital clerk and organizer Dov Shimoni, and operated a hospital at 14 Rakoczi St., outside the ghetto, from 16 November, 1944. The hospital was also a safe house for many Jews, patients, medical staff and auxiliary staff – who had served in the same labor battalion as Shimoni – and recruits who held foreign citizenship.
Communists
The Hungarian Communists and members of trade unions kept in touch with the Zionist underground, mainly with members of Hashomer Hatzair. They communicated with the Demeny group, with Communist party groups loyal to Moscow and with liberal groups (Fabry). Joseph Meir, a member of Hashomer Hatzair, maintained contact with workers’ groups from the beginning of WWII, and after Szálasi’s rise to power, established a special operations group called Megyeri, Shimoni’s underground nickname. The Zionist underground provided the opponents to the Hungarian regime with forged documents, while the Hungarian resistance fighters provided the Zionist underground with accommodations in the workers’ neighborhoods in Budapest. There was also cooperation in obtaining weapons and in the planning of various armed operations.
