Rudolf Vrba

"I escaped from Auschwitz"

Rudolf Vrba was born as Walter Rosenberg in Topolcany, Czechoslovakia in on September 11, 1924 as the son of Elias Rosenberg (owner of a steam saw-mill in Jaklovce near Margecany in Slovakia), and Helena neé Grunfeldova of Zbehy, Slovakia. At the age of fifteen he was excluded from the High School (Gymnasium) of Bratislava under the so-called "Slovak State's" version of the Nuremberg anti-Jewish laws and forced to study at home.

Early in March 1942, in rebellion against the deportation laws, Vrba ripped the yellow Star of David off his clothes and left his Czechoslovakian home in a  taxi, heading for Britain via Hungary. Later, having been intercepted by frontier guards, he was first sent to the Novaky transition camp in Slovakia, where  he tried to escape, but was recaptured by a policeman on a bicycle who had become suspicious of the young man who was wearing two pairs of socks.

On June 14th, 1942, he was deported first to Majdanek where he met with his brother "Sammy" who would later be murdered there. After being "duped" into volunteering for what was represented as a "Work Farm" assignment he was was  transferred to Auschwitz on June 30, 1942. After six months in Auschwitz, he was transferred to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) and had the number 44070 tattooed on his arm.

Read the full story here:
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/revolt/vrba.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org