Escape from Auschwitz: the most extraordinary Holocaust story you’ve never heard | Holocaust | The Guardian https://t.co/2hahTMhnBI
— Pete Blackman (@peteblackman) June 5, 2022
Walter Rosenberg was only 17 when he arrived at Auschwitz in 1942. Most new arrivals were sent straight to their deaths, but Rosenburg, being young and strong, was assigned to work. Over the next two years, he did almost every job in the camp, and learned the ins and outs of the camp layout and Nazi procedures. He also witnessed thousands of deaths, including the public hanging of two men who attempted to escape. The spectacle was designed to scare other inmates, but it only made Rosenberg more determined to escape. And he did.
In April of 1944, Rosenberg and fellow inmate Fred Wetzler hid under a pile of wood, and stayed there for three days before making their way out of the camp. Once back in their native Slovakia, Rosenberg and Wetzler wrote up a report on everything they'd witnessed at Auschwitz, a document that changed the course of the war. Read about the daring escape in a book excerpt at the Guardian. -via Damn Interesting