The Yishuv representatives in Istanbul such as Venia Pomeranz and Menachem Bader were not necessarily aware of the differences between the Nazi occupation authorities and intelligence bodies. In the past, they had used every contact possible, including couriers who had served OSS as well, such as Bandi Grosz, in order to reach Nazi-occupied or Nazi-controlled Europe. For Pomeranz, it might have made no difference that could help the cause of rescue. On the contrary, one had to talk to the killers themselves and somehow try to deal with them. This was an extremely sensitive matter, and it involved money, if not goods, to be supplied to Nazi Germany in exchange for Jewish lives.

Seemingly anchored in the assumption that the Germans were ready to deal, Joel Brand wrote to rescue emissary Nathan Schwalb in Geneva upon arrival in Istanbul that in fact this is what was left to the Va'ada to pursue under the new circumstances of Nazi occupation. Indeed, Brand – and Bandi Grosz – were in touch with several Gestapo/SD operatives, discussing with them various deal options before Adolf Eichmann himself seemed to have endorsed them. One option, to try and exchange Jewish lives for Allied-supplied goods such as trucks, had been raised already in 1943 by Fritz Laufer.

The truck option surfaced again after the German occupation, but we do not know whether Laufer suggested it first to Brand, who conducted most of the talks with the Germans alone, promising that the Allies would be willing to pay the price.