It is 1944.
A teenager named Rudolph (Rudi) Vrba has made up his mind.
After barely surviving nearly two years in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, he knows he must escape. Even if death is more likely.
Rudi has learned the terrible secret hidden behind the heavily guarded fences of concentration camps across Nazi-occupied Europe: the methodical mass killing of Jewish prisoners. As trains full of people arrive daily, Rudi knows that the murders won’t stop until he reveals the truth to the world and that each day that passes means more lives are lost.
Rudi Vrba and his friend Alfred Wetzler devised a dangerous and ingenious escape. They would bring the famous Auschwitz Protocol with them exposing the hideous crimes of the Final Solution.
Lives like Rudi’s schoolmate Gerta Sidonová. Gerta’s family fled from Slovakia to Hungary, where they live under assumed names to hide their Jewish identity. But Hungary is beginning to cave under pressure from German Nazis. Her chances of survival become slimmer by the day.
Rudi Vrba is a normal teenager in Slovakia in the late 1930s. His close friend, Gerta Sidonova, comes from a prosperous family near Rudi’s home. Both are Jewish, but neither is particularly religious. Hitler begins taking over countries bordering Germany in 1938, and this includes Slovakia. Soon Jews begin to face ostracization, the loss of civil rights, and finally, their economic status.
As the Nazi hand of death begins to fall on Jews in Slovakia, both teens try to escape to Hungary. Rudi is quickly arrested and eventually sent to Auschwitz. Gerta will be arrested by the Germans, but makes a daring escape and survives the war. Rudi has a different reality.
Surviving the initial selections, Rudi works in a number of areas in Auschwitz. He makes friends with Filip Muller, who has survived death by becoming a Sonderkommando (he takes people to the incinerators) .This group takes the corpses from the gas chambers to the incinerators. Filip tells Vrba the exact accounts of what happens to those doomed to be gassed.
Rudi adds this to his list of steps taken by the Nazis as they prepare to kill their victims.
He feels helpless in the face of this demonic evil, but is determined to tell the world about the process used at Auschwitz to murder people. But the camp is so closely guarded that escape is nearly impossible. Vrba soon meets Alfred Wexler, and together they plan a daring escape. On the night of April 7, 1944, they elude the Nazis and escape from Auschwitz.
To deceive the guards, the two hid inside the camp for three days. They knew that the fugitives were being searched outside the camp for that period of time. They hid under a pile of wood .
To deceive the dogs , they sprinkled themselves with tobaco.
Once the three days had expired, on the night of April 10, the escape took place. After an escape on foot lasting almost three weeks, during which they risked being captured several times, they arrived safely in their homeland.
This is the true story of one of the most famous whistleblowers in the world, and how his death-defying escape helped save over 100,000 lives.
MAIN CHARACTER
RUDI
On 7 April 1944, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, both young Slovak Jews, managed to escape from Auschwitz. Walter Rosenberg, who later took the nom de guerre of Rudolf Vrba, was arrested in Budapest in 1942 and sent to Auschwitz. Who was assigned the role of collecting personal data on other prisoners.
The Vrba-Wetzler Report: While in the camp, Vrba decided to secretly write a detailed report. This document reported detailed statistics of the dead and their nationalities.
Although he escapes with his friend Fred Wetzler, the book’s focus remains on Rudi.
In just two years, RUDI is transformed from a rebellious and angsty teenager who leaves home in a rush of adrenaline with no real plan to a prison-hardened young man who has to calculate his every move to ensure he is not killed.
GERTA
Gerta Sidonová: Rudi’s schoolmate, her family took refuge in Hungary under false names to hide their Jewish identity. However, Hungary is succumbing to pressure from the Nazi Germans, and its chances of survival are slimming every day.
WRITING
Sheinkin’s writing, while exhilarating, is also very chilling as he describes the Nazis’ final solution in depth.
The writer reminds young readers why contemplating the Holocaust is so important today.
HISTORICAL CONTEX
The Holocaust, or Shoah, was a time of unmitigated hatred and violence in the period of the Third Reich. Beginning soon after Hitler seized power in 1933, the Shoah – the catastrophic destruction of Jews – lasted until early 1945.
All Jewish people under German control were marked for annihilation. Non-Jews such as Roma (Gypsies,) Jehovah Witnesses, homosexuals, trade unionists and others were also placed on the death list. To carry out this lethal and horrifying plan, the Nazis eventually developed the “Final Solution.” This led to the building of death camps like Sobibor, Treblinka and the construction of the infamous concentration and death camp named Auschwitz.
The Holocaust, or Shoah, was a time of unmitigated hatred and violence in the period of the Third Reich. Beginning soon after Hitler seized power in 1933, the Shoah – the catastrophic destruction of Jews – lasted until early 1945.
All Jewish people under German control were marked for annihilation. Non-Jews such as Roma (Gypsies,) Jehovah Witnesses, homosexuals, trade unionists and others were also placed on the death list. To carry out this lethal and horrifying plan, the Nazis eventually developed the “Final Solution.” This led to the building of death camps like Sobibor, Treblinka and the construction of the infamous concentration and death camp named Auschwitz.
Knowing how evil their plan was, the Nazis tried to hide their monstrous crimes. Virtually no one could escape from Auschwitz because of the camp security measures.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Testimony to the World: Once back in Slovakia, Vrba and Wetzler illustrated the statistics collected and showed some drawings, including a detailed map of the concentration camp. The executives were shocked by their story. They asked the two young people to write down their memories. From the two relationships the Vrba-Wetzler Report . This is an account of the crimes of Auschwitz.
It is sometimes called the Auschwitz Protocol. The Protocol is very hard but needs to be remembered in the face of Holocaust deniers and the rise of anti-Semitism.
PERSONAL COMMENT:
I really liked this book because I am a fan of the second world war.
I like the books set in a historical context.
It is a true story, a story of hope and courage.
I think about this boy Rudi who was a few years older than me who challenged the THIRD REICH to save himself and to testify the atrocities committed by Hitler.
I think the most important value is THE COURAGE.
The courage to not be silent.
The courage to rebel even the risk of death.
I also think it is important don’t forget this sad chapter in our history.
We have to not forget what it was the Olocaust.
It is important to remind young people in order that these horrendous crimes are no longer repeated
The rhythm of the writing is pressing, engaging, full of adrenaline.
It is a Thriller to read avidly.