Diff for "EscapeArtist"

Rudolph Vrba escape from Auschwitz

Vrba–Wetzler report

The Escape Artist

Jonathan Freedland . 2022 BeavLib 940.5318 FRE

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Freedland . . b1967, weekly column for the Guardian

• 1944 April 7 to 24, maps from Auschwitz to Zilina Slovakia
• 001 tobacco soaked in petrol dog repellent

• 002 Alfred Vrba & Fred Wetzler . . 6pm escape alarm

• 003 3 day search, woodpile above partly dismantled by guards searching
• 006 Postenkette abziehen "remove post chain"
• 007 barely lift off planks, would have failed sans guard dismantling

• 011 Flashback ... Walter Rosenberg (later A. Vrba) born 11 Sep 1924 Topoľčany Slovakia, moved to Jaklovce in eastern Slovakia

• 013 tzitzit under a cummerbund Emil Votoček

• 015 Jewish teens banned from school and learning alone, Walter R studies organic chemistry by Emil Votoček

• 019 Jews "resettled" in Poland

• 023 March 1942 Galanta, town near Hungarian border

• 024 Budapest "underground" sends him back to Slovakia 026 arrest and Nováky transit camp
• 033 Several deportees received cheerful letters from prior deportees, with obviously wrong details
• 035 Locomotive driver no help, Walter later learns that helping punished with death
• 035 15-50yo men leave train, women/children/old hauled away

• 037 marched through Lublin to Majdanek (about 2 km)

• 041 17yo Walter waves to brother Sammy in nearby section, never again seen
• 044 13K Slovaks at Majdanek .047 transferred to Auschwitz 30 June 1942
• 051 Kapo warns tapwater causes dysentery .052 branded with # 44070 .054 eight survivors of 600 from Slovakia
• 059 dead stacked 10 high for counting
• 061 DAW made military gear, Walter made 110 skis per day
• 064 typhus, selected for death, reprieved by a Kapo, sent to Kanada subcamp
• 067 Clearing command, sorting valuables from suitcases .068 valuables in toothpaste tubes

• 074 SS-WVHA

• 076 Crematorium I, 55' x 15' x 9' 4180 basement size) becomes Zyklon B gas chamber
• 080 July 1943 two farmhouses became Bunker 1 and 2 .081 Crematorium II and III, 1440 burned per day
• 084 Garments distributed to needy Germans Winterhilfeswerke
• 086 money to Reichsbank account of "Max Heiliger"
• 088 prisoners smuggled food out of Kanada, shoes replaced clogs

• 090 Walter memorizes map of Silesia

• 092 Walter protects Bruno the Kapo, beaten, surgery arranged by Bruno

• 094 Alte Judenramp Walter helped unload 300 transports, goods from 300,000 Jews from all over Europe

• 097 prisoners herded off, then luggage removed, then the dead

• 098 prisoners sorted by duty doctor ( sometimes Josef Mengele ) , 20% useful to right, 80% left to death

• 105 cardinal princple: people who came to Auschwitz did not know where they were going or for what purpose.
• 106 1942 Sept, Walter decided to escape and warn the world
• 114 Walter realizes only advance warning would save Jews
• 116 1942 August, Walter gets typhus, put on list for "a day off", taken off by generous Polish prisoner
• 117 Josef Erdelyi disbelieves, then shot while escaping. Walter recovers from typhus hiding on huge pile of clothing.
• 118 Walter recruited into Resistance, healed, becomes messenger, gathers information
• 121 passes burn pits, too much water in children's heads to burn
• 122 moved to Birkenau, messier and crueler
• 125 Underground mostly mutual self-help society, better conditions, but fewer transport arrivals saved
• 127 Walter assists mortuary registrar Alfréd Wetzler (also from Trnava)
• 130 Allowed to observe every aspect of Auschwitz-Birkenau

• 131-7 5000 Czech Jews into Familienlager for six months. a showcase for hypothetical Red Cross visit

• 137 most killed, remainder ignored their doom
• 141 escape attempts .145 55 prisoners 1940-42 .146 1943 - 99 more. Most Poles, some Soviets, no Jews
• 148 Auschwitz scaled up for 1 million Jews from Hungary
• 150 Escape lessons from Dmitri Volkov; no meat, bring knife, matches, salt, watch. Move at night, don't run, hide

• 151 Soviet machorka tobacco soaked in petro

• 151 of 600 Jews from Trnava, only Rosenberg and Wetzler survive to sprint 1944
• 159 Four Russians escape via hiding hole, caught, interrogated "break" but not secret of hiding hole
• 161 Escape planned for 1944 April 3 . . 168 delayed to 7 April 1944 (hidden at in woodpile at 2pm)

• 162 SS-Rottenführer

• 171 head west towards birch woods . . 172 lift lower wire of outer fence with "clothes peg"
• 173 2am 10 April 1944 pass perimeter 15 square mile 'zone of interest' warning sign
• 176 50 miles south to Slovakia
• 178 discovered by children in park, SS father assumes homosexual tryst, disgusted

• 180 lost in Bielsko 30 km south of Birkenau

• 183 Out of woods near Porąbka, Poland . . fired on by German patrol
• 186 19 April Milówka, Poland, encounter woman goat-herder
• 190 cross border into Slovakia, village of Skalité
• 191 taken in by farmer, directed to Jewish Dr. Pollack in Čadca, Slovakia
• 193 Pollack was released from Auschwitz as needed doctor, but learned all of family had been murdered
• 193 Úztredna Zidov organization remained in Bratislava
• 194 Zilina Jewish Council, Erwin and Ibolya Steiner (later typist for Walter's document)
• 200 Men interviewed separately
• 202 Walter considered UZ enablers of Nazis, but secret (sub)council Working Group rescued Jews
• 203 32 page document, including drawings of camps
• 206 "Careful estimate ..." 1.76M between 1942 April and 1944 April
• 207 plans for Hungarian Jews omitted
• 209 New identity papers for Fred (Jozef Lánik, reverted later) and Walter (Rudolf Vrba, kept for life)

• 210 April 28, document to Hungarian journalist Rezső Kasztner

• 211 to Calvinist Dr. Géza Soos, protecting 100K Christians of Jewish origin

• 212 translated to Hungarian by Mária Székely
• 218 Czeslaw Mordowicz and Arnost Rosin escaped 27 May 1944, arrested in Slovakia ... as smugglers, 8 days in jail
• 219 seven page addendum to Vrba-Wetzler text

• 220 Vrba and Mordowicz meet Swiss papal envoy Monsignor Mario Martilotti

The Auschwitz Report 2021 DVD