num_pages: 400
description: In a book that is part thrilling adventure part exploration of some of the darkest secrets of the Holocaust award-winning journalist and best-selling novelist Jonathan Freedland uncovers the extraordinary story of the first Jew to break out of Auschwitz a man who was determined to warn the worldand pass on a truth too few were willing to hear.In April 1944 Rudolf Vrba became the first Jew to break out of Auschwitzone of only four who ever pulled off that near-impossible feat. He did it to reveal the truth of the death camp to the worldand to warn the last Jews of Europe what fate awaited them at the end of the railway line. Against all odds he and his fellow escapee Fred Wetzler climbed mountains crossed rivers and narrowly missed German bullets until they had smuggled out the first full account of Auschwitz the world had ever seena forensically detailed report that would eventually reach Franklin Roosevelt Winston Churchill and the Pope. And yet too few heeded the warning that Vrbathen just nineteen years oldhad risked everything to deliver. Some could not believe it. Others thought it easier to keep quiet. Vrba helped save 200000 Jewish livesbut he never stopped believing it could have been so many more. This is the story of a brilliant yet troubled mana gifted escape artist who even as a teenager understand that the difference between truth and lies can be the difference between life and death a man who deserves to take his place alongside Anne Frank Oskar Schindler and Primo Levi as one of the handful of individuals whose stories define our understanding of the Holocaust.
language: English
title: The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
publisher: Harper