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

Award-winning journalist and bestselling novelist Jonathan Freedland tells the astonishing true story of Rudolf Vrba—the first Jew to break out of Auschwitz, a man determined to warn the world of a truth too few were willing to hear. “A brilliant and heart-wrenching book, with universal and timely lessons about the power of information—and misinformation. Is it possible to stop mass murder by telling the truth?”—Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

A complex hero.A forgotten story.The first witness to reveal the full truth of the Holocaust . . .In April 1944, Rudolf Vrba became the first Jew to break out of Auschwitz—one of only four who ever pulled off that near-impossible feat. He did it to reveal the truth of the death camp to the world—and to warn the last Jews of Europe what fate awaited them. 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 seen—a forensically detailed report that eventually reached Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and the pope.And yet too few heeded the warning that Vrba had risked everything to deliver. Though Vrba helped save two hundred thousand Jewish lives, he never stopped believing it could have been so many more.This is the story of a brilliant yet troubled man—a gifted “escape artist” who even as a teenager understood 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.

About the Author

Jonathan Freedland is a British journalist who writes a weekly column for the Guardian. He presents BBC Radio 4’s contemporary history series The Long View. Freedland also writes thrillers, mainly under the pseudonym Sam Bourne.