“The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World” written by Jonathan Freedland is a must read! It is the riveting, fascinating, gripping story of how a teenage boy survived the Holocaust. In April of 1944, at age 19, Rudolf Vrba (his real name: Walter Rosenberg) became the first Jew ever known to break out of Auschwitz and make his way to freedom – one of only four who pulled off the near-impossible feat. His main objective: to expose the truth of the death camp(s), and to warn the remaining Jews of Europe what fate awaited them at the end of the railway line.
In Vrba’s mind, the entire Holocaust was predicated on three things: deception, cutting off the information supply, and an elaborate lexicon of euphemisms.
Melissa Fay Greene writes in her review, “Rudi Vrba, a Slovakian teenager, got away from Auschwitz in order to alert the world to the horrors he witnessed there. Most of his intended recipients declined to read his stomach-churning report, didn’t believe it, or didn’t care…”
The story within the story is the failure of people (governmental authorities, militaries, the Church, the victims themselves) to recognize the signs of the times, to distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, and to act. It is a story of the denial of evil, the refusal to accept what was going on before their very eyes, as well as a story of skepticism, disbelief and prejudice. It causes one to ask (it did for me): “Do I become a collaborator of evil if I turn a blind eye to it when it’s staring me in the face? Do I become a collaborator of evil when I choose to ‘mind my own business’ instead of acting in a way to impede it? Do I become a collaborator of evil when I bite my tongue instead of sounding the alarm?”
In my mind, there are striking parallels between Rudi Vrba’s day and ours – the presence of evil, Church and State, and more. I recommend that you read this book to see for yourself.
I share the sentiment of Simon Montefiore who called “The Escape Artist”: “A thrilling read…a book that I couldn’t put down,” and I think you will too.
~ Pastor Greg Schram
View YouTube interview with author Jonathan Freedland and Antony Beevor
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