Thread by @AuschwitzMuseum

7 April 1944 | Two Slovak Jews Rudolf Vrba (b. 1924, no. 44070) and Alfred Wetzler (b. 1918, no. 29162) escaped from the German Nazi Auschwitz camp. Read their story in this thread ⬇️

In the second half of the 1943 Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler decided to escape. In the BIII sector, so-called Mexico, which was under construction at the time, they spent many days preparing a hiding place (bunker) for themselves.

Their activity was not discovered by the SS men, as the area was surrounded by a multitude of different construction materials, with which they could conceal the works conducted by them.

During further preparations Vrba and Wetzler received civilian clothes from prisoners employed in the warehouse for clothes of the murdered Jews, while one of the Polish prisoners provided them with information about the escape route.

On April 7, 1944 they both hid in the previously prepared bunker. After three days, when the SS men stopped searching for them, they came out of hiding and, encircling the camp from the west, headed south in the direction of Slovakia.

On April 25, after a dozen days of marching, thanks to the assistance of the Poles and Jews encountered on their way, they reached Žilina, where they secretly met the representatives of the Jewish Council, presenting them the account about Auschwitz.

The account, including the information about the camp and the extermination of Jews conducted from April 1942 until April 1944, was written down and then, in the form of an exhaustive report, sent via secret channels to the West.

In mid 1944 the report was disclosed through the Allied media. The information included in it influenced the actions of the governments of the Allied and neutral states, which began to exert pressure on Hungarian authorities to stop further deportations of Jews to Auschwitz.

Regent Miklós Horthy gave in and on July 6, 1944 ordered to stop the deportations.

Alfred Wetzler passed away in 1988
Rudolf Vrba passed away in 2006

More about escapes from Auschwitz: lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_15_ucieczki/

Vrba & Wetzler Memorial: vrbawetzler.eu/lang_en/