A shocking account of Nazi genocide and the inhuman
conditions in Auschwitz, but equally shocking is the initial disbelief
with which the revelations were met.
“Alfred Wetzler was
a true hero. His escape from Auschwitz, and the report he helped
compile, telling for the first time the truth about the camp as a place
of mass murder, led directly to saving the lives of 120,000 Jews…. No
other single act in the Second World War saved so many Jews from the
fate that Hitler and the SS had determined for them.”—Sir Martin Gilbert
Together
with another young Slovak Jew Rudolf Vrba, both deported in 1942, the
author succeeded in escaping from the notorious death camp in the spring
of 1944. There were some very few successful escapes from Auschwitz
during the war, but it was these two who smuggled out the damning
evidence – a ground plan of the camp, constructional details of the gas
chambers and crematoriums and, most convincingly, a label from a
canister of Cyclone gas.
The book is cast in the form of a novel
to allow information not personally collected by the two fugitives but
provided for them by a handful of reliable friends, to be included.
Nothing, however, has been invented.
From the Introduction by Dr. Robert Rozett
Wetzler is a master at evoking the universe of Auschwitz, and
especially, his and Vrba's harrowing flight to Slovakia. The day-by-day
account of the tremendous difficulties the pair faced after the Nazis
had called off their search of the camp and its surroundings is both
riveting and heart wrenching. [...] Shining vibrantly through the pages
of the memoir are the tenacity and valor of two young men, who sought to
inform the world about the greatest outrage ever committed by humans
against their fellow humans.
Table of Contents:
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1. Just for Work
Chapter 2. Work – German Style
Chapter 3. An Exalted Visit
Chapter 4. An Even More Exalted Visit
Chapter 5. The Ceremonial
Chapter 6. A More or Less Normal Evening
Chapter 7. Two Thousand Metres of Track
Chapter 8. To Die – or to Perish?
Chapter 9. ‘In the Name of Reichsführer SS’
Chapter 10. Danger: Live Ammunition!
Chapter 11. Two against a Regiment
Chapter 12. Death Lives on the Other Side
Chapter 13. ‘Did You See It with Your Own Eyes?’
Chapter 14. ‘But What about the Postcards?’
Chapter 15. There are Limits to Human Imagination
Appendix I: Photographs and Documents
Appendix II: Auschwitz Protocol (Vrba-Wetzler Report)
About the Author :
Alfréd Wetzler (1918–1988) was one of the two
inmates of Auschwitz who managed to escape from the death camp using an
ingenious scheme to provide the first documentary evidence of the
operations at Auschwitz. Once he returned to Slovakia, he joined the
national partisan movement under the name of Jozef Lanik. The original
book (written in Slovakian) was published under this pseudonym.
Review :
“…a compelling read; a real thriller. It provides very vivid
descriptions of daily life in the camp and recounts in details the
miraculous escape and the escapees’ subsequent struggle to convince the
unbelieving world of the happenings in Auschwitz-Birkenau.” • British Czech and Slovak Review
“The
writing style is direct, with vivid descriptions of harrowing
experiences and soul-searching conversations. In these manners, it is
akin to Elie Wiesel’s Night”. • Jewish Culture and History
