Language:
German
Year of publication:
1996
Titel der Quelle:
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
Angaben zur Quelle:
44,1 (1996) 1-24
Keywords:
Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
Vrba recalls how in January 1944, as a prisoner in Birkenau, he heard of work on the extension of the railway from the old ramp in Auschwitz to the gas chambers, in preparation for the arrival of a million Jews from Hungary. In April he and his comrade Alfred Wetzler escaped and succeeded in reaching Slovakia, with the express purpose of informing the world about the nature of Auschwitz. In particular, they wanted to warn the Hungarian Jews themselves. Through the Slovak Jewish Council, their report indeed reached the West and also the Jewish Council in Budapest, but the Council did not inform the mass of Jews. Argues that this was part of the misguided policy of both the Bratislava and the Budapest Jewish Councils to appease the Nazis by cooperation and bribes. They did not see that the efficiency of the Nazi extermination machine depended on keeping it secret from the intended victims, who went to their deaths unresisting.
Description / Table of Contents:
Bauer, Yehuda. Anmerkungen zum "Auschwitz-Bericht" von Rudolf Vrba. Ibid. 45,2 (1997) 297-307.
URL:
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