Rudolf Vbra was just a teenager when he escaped Auschwitz. It was 1944, and the world did not yet know much about what was happening in Nazi concentration camps. His accounts of the camp’s operations helped save 200,000 Hungarian Jews. Here’s how he broke the silence.
A Plan Was Born
At Auschwitz, Vbra was part of the crew that cleaned up after groups of prisoners arrived. He observed how the Nazis went to great lengths to keep victims ignorant of their fate. This ignorance was key to maintaining order and efficiency in their killing machine. Vbra realized that deception was key to Nazi operations, and started plotting to share information with the world. He knew that breaking victims’ ignorance was crucial to disrupting the extermination.
