Secrets of the Dead

Escape From Auschwitz

The truth about the Auschwitz death camp was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Third Reich. Prisoners who tried to escape were executed in public as an example to other inmates, and very few ever made it out alive. "Escape From Auschwitz" tells the story of two young Slovak Jews, Rudolph Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, who managed to escape by hiding in a woodpile for three days, then fleeing across enemy territory, determined to tell the world about the atrocities being committed by the Nazis at the camp. Hoping to stop the deportations and put an end to the constant stream of victims transported to their deaths, Vrba and Wetzler wrote a detailed account of their experiences in the camp. The report was sent to Allies around the world, but to Vrba's horror, some took ages to arrive in the right hands and the most urgent copy was suppressed by the head of the Hungarian Jewish underground, who worried it would destroy a deal he himself was trying to make with Adolph Eichmann. Ultimately, the delays cost thousands of lives and caused a controversy that raged long after the Holocaust was over. Even so, Vrba's and Wetzler's heroic efforts saved many thousands from the gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz.