Rudolph Vrba escape from Auschwitz
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 cummerbundEmil 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
- 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 Walther 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