The Holocaust is without doubt one of the horrific chapters in history. Jonathan Freedland’s latest book, The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World, is significant not only for the way it details the inhuman nature of the Nazis and the mass murder of Jews but also for serving as a reminder of how people can turn against their friends and neighbours, lovers and strangers, at the drumbeat of propaganda. The story follows 19-year-old Rudolf Vrba’s (born Walter Rosenberg) escape from Auschwitz along with fellow prisoner Alfréd Wetzler, a Slovak Jew. It gives a glimpse of Walter’s life and the troubles that shadow him from the time he is barred from attending school.
Freedland’s prose is so clean that it does not appear as though he is jumping through fancy hoops to nail an incandescent turn of phrase. He presents the facts in a detailed and chronological manner. As a journalist, he seems to say that his job is not to adorn the language with pom-poms. A work of historical account, such as this one, is marked for exposing the skeletons of the past, whereas a memoir is assessed on the basis of its ability to move the readers.
At Auschwitz
Early on, an adolescent Walter attempts to flee the frenzy of the war, but is caught by a police officer. He is dragged around to do heinous tasks, and he soon finds himself toiling away under the noses of Nazi officers, witnessing thousands of Jews being herded to gas chambers. Walter had to do what he was told if he wanted to live. Even if he followed the instructions, he would be beaten up regularly. The Nazis acted as though they were answerable only to the demons within them.
The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
John Murray
Pages: 400
Price: Rs.799 (paperback)
They humiliated Jews simply for being Jews. In Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Oscar-winning film Schindler’s List, a policeman shoots at a Jew with the intent to kill him, and when the guns (he uses two) fail, the cop clocks the Jew with the butt of his handgun and walks away. In Curb Your Enthusiasm, a sitcom that excels at Jewish humour, a dog named Adolf stops barking and calms down when he hears Larry David (the protagonist) say the magical words, “Heil Hitler!”
Larry thinks the dog may be a Nazi but he is not sure if his doubt is real. However, when he sees Adolf rip apart a Star of David pendant from his car a while later, he does not have to think twice that Adolf and his owner are both Nazis. The movie and the show are set in different eras but what unites these works is the hatred towards the people of another faith.
Inhuman acts
The Jews, Freedland explains in The Escape Artist, were unaware of their impending fate. They were being lied to from the very beginning of the war. Their fears of losing their homes and jewellery were allayed by promises that they would be resettled. They were obviously not resettled, and their captors took their clothes, shoes, and money.
“The Nazis resolved that merely plundering the belongings of those they murdered was not enough: there was wealth to be extracted from their bodies too. The men of the Sonderkommando, already tasked with removing the corpses from the gas chambers minutes after death, were given an extra duty. They were to shear the hair off the dead. It had both a commercial value—bales of cloth made from human hair found their way to German factories—and a military one—hair could be used in delay-action bombs, as part of the detonation mechanism. Ideally, it would be women’s hair, which was thicker and longer than men’s or children’s,” writes Freedland.
Jonathan Freedland. | Photo Credit: YouTube Screengrab
The ordeal does not end there. “Any artificial limbs found on a corpse were also unscrewed and collected, for reuse or resale. Still, the more lucrative asset was an internal one. It fell to some men of the Sonderkommando to prise open the mouths of the dead, often still foaming, and check for gold teeth. If they spotted any, they ripped them out with pliers. It was hard work, interrupted by regular breaks as the ‘dentists’ paused to vomit. But all those gold teeth added up. Between 1942 and 1944, an estimated six tons [tonnes] of dental gold were deposited in the vaults of the Reichsbank.”
The Jews were carefully brought to Auschwitz with the promise of a better future because the Nazis did not want them to send panic signals to their relatives back home. If anyone grew suspicious of the happenings in the death camps, there would be chaos, which could snowball into a rebellion. The Nazis did not want to take any chances as it would derail their plans.
Withholding information is a strategic tool in war. And that is exactly what the Nazis used against the Jews of Slovakia, France, Holland, Belgium, Greece, and Poland. Walter, therefore, wanted to escape from the prison, where he had been held for two years, and shout from the rooftops about the murders in Auschwitz. He also wished to save the remaining Jews (mainly from Hungary) who were about to be lured next.
Vrba–Wetzler report
After many days on the run and reaching a somewhat safe space, the duo revealed the Nazi agenda through the Vrba–Wetzler report, in which they recounted their nightmares. Because of bureaucratic flaws and corruption, the report was never made public, and Jewish deportation to Auschwitz continued unabated. Still, it helped to save around 2,00,000 Jews.
Walter assumed the identity of Rudolf Vrba to avoid detection by the Nazis who left no stone unturned in search of him. Alfréd also got a temporary name, and Walter bid goodbye to his Jewish name once and for all. From then on, he is called Rudolf (or Rudi).
Perhaps the agony he endured in Auschwitz changed his attitude towards others. He stopped trusting his own family members. His first marriage ended badly, with the husband and wife constantly turning their arguments into a blame game. He, however, went on to achieve great things in the field of chemistry. He resumed his education as soon as he noticed that the Nazis could not hold him back any more.
The Escape Artist is not a light read. Freedland’s descriptions of the escape, which make up a large portion of the book, are terrifying. Walter and Alfréd had to forage for food in cold areas while trying to hide from the Nazis. Did they tell themselves that their sufferings were for a greater good? They did not have any other choice.
Many others tried to break out of the prison, but in vain. Jews who stepped out of their camps were hunted down. Walter’s thirst for freedom and his ability to record the memories in all their horrifying order have made him a hero today among the Jews and the wider world. Walter’s thirst for freedom and his ability to record the memories in all their horrifying detail have made him a hero today among the Jews and the larger world.
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