Sunday, April 02, 2006

Auschwitz Escapee Rudolf Vrba Dies

Haaretz reports that Vrba died at the age of 82. In 1944, Vrba and another prisoner, Alfred Wetzler escaped from Auschwitz and circulated a report warning of the immiment destruction of Hungarian Jewry. The Allies ignored the escapees' calls to bomb Auschwitz. After the war, Vrba, lived in Czechoslovakia until 1958, when he immigrated to Israel. However, Vrba left Israel for London after only 2 years. He eventually ended up as a professor at the University of British Columbia. Until the end of his life, he was convinced that the Hungarian Jewish elite had not done enough to prevent the community's destruction. I think this is chronicled in his memoir, I Cannot Forgive.

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