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

The remarkable story of the first Jew to escape Auschwitz is revealed by award-winning journalist and best-selling novelist Jonathan Freedland in a book that is equal parts gripping adventure and investigation of some of the darkest secrets of the Holocaust. This man was determined to warn the world and convey a truth that too few people were willing to hear.

Rudolf Vrba was one of just four Jews to ever escape Auschwitz, and he did it in April 1944. It was an almost unthinkable achievement. He did it to inform the world about the reality of the death camp and to forewarn the last Jews in Europe of what was ahead of them when they reached the end of the railway line. Against all odds, he and fellow escapee Fred Wetzler crossed rivers, climbed mountains, and narrowly avoided German bullets until they managed to smuggle out the world's first complete account of Auschwitz—a forensically detailed report that would eventually make its way to Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and the Pope.

However, not enough people took attention of the warning that Vrba—who was just nineteen at the time—had risked everything to give. A few found it hard to believe. Some felt it would be simpler to remain silent. Vrba never gave up on the possibility that 200,000 more Jewish lives may have been saved.

This is the tale of a brilliant but troubled man—a talented "escape artist" who realized at an early age that the distinction between truth and lies can mean the difference between life and death. He is deserving of a spot among the select few whose lives define our understanding of the Holocaust, along with those of Anne Frank, Oskar Schindler, and Primo Levi.