The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

Product Information

The Vrba-Wetzler report was shocking (even though the British and American government officials were already aware of some of the details). The last ambition was largely frustrated, though up to 200,000 Jews who would otherwise have died were spared. Then it all concludes with an unserious and Hollywood-baity epilogue in which Freedland draws a comparison between Rudolf Vrba and Harry Houdini, supposedly because having had to escape for his life from a transit camp and a concentration camp and the Iron Curtain likens him to Houdini's for-money spectacle escapes. His [Walter’s] faith had been firm that, once people knew that death awaited them, they would not walk quietly towards it. Also, Freedland considers why we don’t know the name Rudolf Vrba like we know Anne Frank or Oskar Schindler.

it could have been as early as late April (per Ryszard Henryk Kordek) or as late as June (per Lederer), who said that he had visited Constance first. Jonathan Freedland talks to Hadley Freeman about the book in a Guardian Live event on Tuesday 21 June 2022, 8pm. He also fills out the story of Vrba’s life after the war, when some of the luck that had sustained him in Auschwitz ran out.Stars — A holocaust survivor, whose bone-jarringly harrowing, frightful and truly epic story and brutally compelling story of survival and ingenuity in the face of absolute evil truly rivals that of not only any human I’ve ever encountered or even heard of. In a market full of WWII testimonials this is unusual since it is written by a Russian from the perspective of a Soviet. Their actions saved the lives of at least 200,000 Jews who were facing immediate deportation from Budapest to the world’s most notorious death camp. Margery Bone’s Bonafide Films has secured the rights to Freedland’s book, which is set to be made into a high-end limited series. Nevertheless, Vrba’s story shows that a few people with relentless will to do the right thing—and the requisite craziness to carry out the mission—can actually change the direction of a world herd.

Rudolf Vrba deserves to take his place alongside Anne Frank, Oskar Schindler, and Primo Levi as one of the handful of individuals whose stories define our understanding of the Holocaust. At 11:30, SS- Sturmbannführer Friedrich Hartjenstein, the commandant of Auschwitz II-Birkenau, sent a telegram to the German police [note 3] notifying them that Lederer had escaped, probably disguised as an SS- Rottenführer. Alfred Cierer, a Czech Jewish industrialist, and his son Jakov Tsur moved in because they knew Lederer. His job was to pull suitcases from a gigantic pile and sort the items inside, looking for valuables.Unbeknownst to him, Lederer was not the first Auschwitz escapee to bring news of mass executions by gassing. Although the title is deceiving since most of the narrative covers the atrocities behind the barbwire fence, the last few chapters recounts the escape and the aftermath and finally in the last chapter we read a very touching witness testimony given by Mr. Even while still in Auschwitz, Vrba had heard rumours that the camp was being expanded to cope with the arrival of about a million Hungarian Jews, the last surviving major European community. On 18 January 1942, he was transferred to the adjacent Jewish ghetto, and was supposed to be deported on the next transport.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press in connection with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. No, I don't believe Freedland was purposefully disrespectful nor that there was ill intentions either. Freedland is no historian, that much is evident, and if this book is any indication, he has no understanding of bomber logistics either. Jonathan Freedland’s gripping book sets out to bring him to prominence as a name to rank with Levi, Anne Frank and Oskar Schindler. Pleased with getting the book, and didn't mind it being second hand, but wasn't made aware that it was written in on the inside cover - this might have put me off and I would have tried to get a different second hand one with no writing in it.The print has some photos of Vrba and some of Auschwitz and some added material about the author, a real bonus over the audio. Realizing he would have to act quickly to save Neumann's life, Pestek began to approach other prisoner functionaries and offer to help them escape. Ending up in three different countries, they tried to keep hope alive through their letters to each other. This is a relatively detailed retelling of his time there, from a journal he kept secretly in the camp.