Two Friends Who Escaped from Auschwitz and Warned the World
Thirty years ago, Alfred Wetzler died in his native Slovakia. He and his friend, Rudolf Vrba, risked their lives and escaped Auschwitz so they could warn other Jews and the world in precise detail what was happening behind the fences and gates of the Nazi concentration and extermination camp. Although they were not successful in their attempt to save Hungary’s Jews from marching to their deaths at Auschwitz, Vrba and Wetzler did succeed in saving some Jews as well as compiling and publicizing the first record of the Nazis’ systematic atrocities at the camp.
Rudolf Vrba, formerly Walter Rosenberg, was born on Sept. 11, 1924, in the Slovakian town of Trnava. The son of a sawmill owner, he was expelled from high school in Bratislava due to Slovakia’s version of the Nuremberg Laws. He worked as a laborer in Trnava until March 1942, when he was arrested and, on June 14, 1942, he was deported to the Maidanek concentration camp and later to Auschwitz.
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