The Escape Artist

By Jonathan Freedland,

Book cover of The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

Book description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 WINGATE LITERARY PRIZE

A MAIL ON SUNDAY, THE TIMES, THE ECONOMIST, GUARDIAN, THE SPECTATOR, TIME, AND DAILY EXPRESS/DAILY MIRROR BOOK OF THE YEAR,…

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In April 1944, Rudolf Vrba became the first Jew to escape from Auschwitz—one of only four who ever pulled off that near-impossible feat. His aim was to reveal the truth of the death camp to the world—and to warn the still surviving Jews of his native Czechoslovakia and Hungary and the world of the nature of Nazi policy towards the Jews. 

Sadly, his warnings were not taken sufficiently seriously. The problem was the inability of those to whom he reported to take in the full implications of the ‘final solution.’ Vrba was tormented for the rest of his life (he…

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