They didn’t escape just to save themselves. They did it to warn the world.
At just 17, Rudolf Vrba, born Walter Rosenberg, arrived at Auschwitz on June 30, 1942. Less than two years later, in April 1944, he and fellow prisoner Alfréd Wetzler managed to escape. Both Slovak Jews, the two then traveled 100 miles across Slovakia to share what they had witnessed.
Together, they compiled the Vrba-Wetzler Report, detailing the camp’s layout, gas chambers, transport lists, and the extermination process.
The report reached Allied leaders and was published in July 1944. It helped halt the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.
Though their names are not widely known, they are responsible for saving countless lives.
