I Escaped from Auschwitz - Rudolph Vrba

This book is about one of two men who escaped from Auschwitz and tried to warn Hungary about what was about to happen to them. In 1944, Rudolph made his way from the concentration camp to Slovakia with Alfred Wetzler. At first, they spent hours convincing people they were telling the truth. Then politics delayed the information from reaching the place it needed to go to fully prevent Hungarian Jews from being transported.

The book is very thorough. Vrba went through a great deal to survive, and even after he got away, he didn't give up. He nearly died a few times, and you get the sense that he was just meant to actually make it out of there. So many of the others, including friends and family, didn't make it. Vrba has to focus on survival, because that's all he can do.

I found a couple of things really disappointing, but it had nothing to do with the writing. As I was reading through the book, some footnotes would update the reader on what happened to certain people. I was incredibly disappointed to learn about the number of Nazi SS men who basically got a light sentence or never had to pay for their crimes. How can there be a statute of limitations of cruelty of that scale? The other thing that bothered me was the fate of the report. It took so long for it to get into the right hands. I know Vrba and Wetzler were frustrated as well, and you can't blame them. People died, and they didn't necessarily have to.

A few side notes about the book itself. Pictures of the report are in the book, but I wasn't able to read them because the print was too small. If you read the entire book, you'll get a bit of repetition. The escape and report is explained in detail in the main text, and then in the appendixes, it's also summarized as well. I think it's the reprint of an article that appeared somewhere, but it is the same information.

This is the story of a brave man, and one of four who escaped around the same time and tried to tell the world about the horror of Auschwitz. In some ways, it's understandable that the people they came across couldn't believe such cruelty was possible, but we know now it was not only true, it was worse than we could ever imagine. I highly recommend this book if you want an inside view of a survivor story. I believe it's worth reading. Good Book!