In April 1944, Rudolf Vrba became the first Jew to break out of Auschwitz anfd make his way to freedom - one of only four who pulled off that near-impossible feat. Together with his fellow escapee, Fred Wetzler, he did it to expose the truth of the death camp - and to warn the last Jews of Europe what fate awaited them at the end of the railway line. Against all odds, the pair climbed mountains, crossed rivers, and narrowly missed German bullets until they had smuggled out the first full account of Auschwitz the worl d had ever seen - a forensically detailed report that would eventually reach Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and the pope. And yet too few heeded the warning that Vrba - then just nineteen years old - had risked everything to deliver. Some could not believe it. Others thought it easier to keep quiet. Vrba helped save two hundred thousand Jewish lives - but 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.
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