I Escaped From Auschwitz [Paperback]

Rudolph Vrba (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2002

This is the first-hand account of Rudolf's Vrba's experience as a registrar in the prison camp as well as the story of his daring escape.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Rudolf Vrba, lives in Vancouver, British Columbia where he is Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology at the University of British Columbia. He has testified as an expert witness at many trials of Nazis and lectures frequently on the Holocaust throughout North America.

Product Details

• Paperback: 447 pages
• Publisher: Barricade Books (July 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569802327
• ISBN-13: 978-1569802328
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #786,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > History > Europe > Slovakia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartfelt, compelling, keeps you on the edge of your seat..., August 8, 2004

By 

Deena Pederson "Deena" (Nevada, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Escaped From Auschwitz (Paperback)

This is by far one of the most heart wrenching stories on the Holocaust that I have ever read. Dr. Rudolph Vrba recalls his memoirs of his frightening life in Auschwitz and his suceeded escape from death! This is a must read book. I was so overwhelmed that an author could transport me back in time. I laughed, I cried, I got angry, my nerves were on edge, I went through all the emotions that Rudolph Vrba encountered, as if I were there. I could not put the book down, in fact, right after reading it I reread the entire book. Rudolph Vrba is not JUST a survivor of the worse death camp ran by monsters, he's a true Hero in my heart. If you are looking for a book on the Holocaust/Auschwitz, this is the book for you. As I stated, this is by far the most profoundly written book I have ever encountered.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book on Every Page, April 21, 2006

By 

McCracken - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Escaped From Auschwitz (Paperback)

When reading this book I was struck by how many human lives are mentioned in passing, summed up in a paragraph and lost. The volume and diversity of tales told in this book reflects the number and diversity of people Mr. Vrba came into contact with during his horrific ordeal. Most of them died.
Do not pay any attention to the sole reviewer who seeks to discredit Mr. Vrba's testimony. It amazes me that people seek to diminish or descredit personal testimony about the Holocaust by calling into question whether 1.5 million or 1.75 million people were brutally murdered. The simple fact is that the Nazi's and their puppet regimes murdered six million Jews for nothing more than being Jewish. There was no American, Jewish or British conspiracy to make these atrocities up, the Germans kept very thorough records. Records that help convict the remnants of the regime at Nuremberg. These records support the facts documented by Mr. Vrba and far from being a fraud, they suggest that he was a reliable eyewitness to the most horrific and unbelievable systematic extermination the world has ever seen. His struggle is an amazing story.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trying to understand why it happened., April 19, 2006

By 

themenz (California, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: I Escaped From Auschwitz (Paperback)

This is an extraordinary book about a teenager's journey through the Nazi extermination camps. Rudolf managed to escape from Auschwitz and warn the Hungarians Jews about the real purpose behind the upcoming transports thus saving hundreds of thousands.

This book is near impossible to put down as Mr. Vrba recounts in a fairly matter of fact way the horrors that he witnessed and experienced first hand. It is difficult to understand how he did not give up. Curiously, even though Vrba is Jewish, I did not detect a strong religious belief as central. Rather he seems driven by a near preternatural will to live underpinned by his desire tell the truth about the Nazi death machine to the outside world.

Over the last few years, I have been trying to understand the Holocaust and the faultlines of our human psyche that were exploited to make it possible. This book helps as it details how the desire to eliminate Jews and other underdesirables was carried out as the grass root level. Rudolf is at his best describing the day to day jobs of the people who actually did the killing.

The book was near impossible to find as it is out of print with its original title "I Cannot Forgive". The demand for it will only increase as Professor Vrba just passed away.

Also German vast trove of holocaust archives are about to be released. For some reason, Germany held up for sixty years archives that detail the deaths of up to 14 million people. Maybe because they were waiting for all the important figures to die?

Perhaps those who doubt will find answers as these records are released.