81 years to Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler's escape from Auschwitz

Exactly today, 7 April, at 14:00, will mark exactly 81 years since the escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp of two brave Slovak Jews – Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler.

These two brave men, who hid for three days inside a pile of wood right outside the gate of the world’s most horrible extermination camp, till the sirens went silent and the searches were called off, before starting their way by foot back to Slovakia, where they gave their report of what was going on in Auschwitz to members of “The Working Group”, a Slovak Jewish Resistance Organization, which were gathered into “The Auschwitz Report”, a document that eventually saved the lives of about 200,000 Hungarian Jews as it got the ball of international pressure rolling which eventually forced the Hungarian Regent Miklós Horthy to stop the deportations from Hungary to Auschwitz.

After the war, Rudolf Vrba married Gertruda Sidon, a 1st cousin of my grandfather. I first had the pleasure of meeting Gerti and their daughter Zuza in 2008, and to hear from them stories which didn’t enter neither Rudolf’s book “I Cannot Forgive” nor Gerti’s books “Trust and Deceit” and “Betrayed Generation”.

After both of Gerti’s parents perished during the war, my great grandparents, her maternal uncle Arnold Frank and his wife Terezia (who’s 2 sons left Slovakia), became Gerti's “substitute parents”. They attended her graduation ceremony in Prague, and her and Rudolf’s wedding in Bratislava on 16 April 1949.

During our meetings, conversations and Email correspondence, and from their books, interviews and documentaries about the escape from Auschwitz, I Learned about Rudolf & Gerti's hard times during WW2 and its aftermath, the ways they dealt with grief, loss, fear and antisemitism, while fighting to carve their own path, getting academic education after being barred from proper education for the religion they were born into, and how the traumas they were living with impacted the lives of their daughters, and the family dramas they too had to endure.

Zuza had told me of her dream of creating an annual march in the footsteps of Vrba and Wetzler’s escape - from Auschwitz to Žilina. However, she passed away in 2013. As a way to both honor her daughter’s dream and her ex-husband’s bravery, Gerti joined forces with Fedor Gál, and succeeded realizing this initiative for educational and commemorative reasons. Starting 2014 - the “Vrba-Wetzler March” has drawn participation from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Austria, USA, Israel and more, and I encourage everyone interested to join and participate in this amazing initiative.

In 2019, I had the honor of meeting Otto Dov Pressburger, who had asked me if I read Vrba’s book. When I said yes, he asked if I remember the part he mentions about meeting two friends from high school in the Majdanek Death Camp. I said yes. He asked if I remember that one of them was pessimistic and suggested Vrba to kill himself by touching the electric fences while the other one told him to maintain his optimism, because that alone would keep him alive in such horrible circumstances. I said yes. To my shock, his next words were “That was me!”. I was dumbfounded and could hardly speak. Otto also shared with me stories about his time in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and how he managed to survive there.

Later, during my Master’s Degree studies, I wrote a paper in Prof. Roni Stauber’s seminar about the Holocaust in Hungary, dealing with the issues raised by Yad Vashem historians regarding Vrba’s reliability. As part of my work then I also contacted Rudolf’s widow Robin Vrba and interviewed her as well.

Today, I want to remind everyone of these strong people, who survived the worst of humanity, and stayed relentlessly brave and optimistic despite critics and bystanders, who dared to question them after their contribution to humanity. These heroes taught me life lessons and I am so proud of their legacy.

By now – most of these people had passed away.

Rudolf Vrba passed away in Montreal, Canada in 2006.

His daughters Helena Vrbova and Zuza Jackson passed away in 1981 and 2013, respectively.

Gerta Vrbova passed away in London in 2020

Otto Dov Pressburger passed away in Israel in 2023

Only Robin Vrba is still around and still honoring her late husband’s heritage.

Members of Jewish Genealogy Groups on Facebook may have seen my previous posts, trying to find anyone who could help me uncover the identities of Rudolf’s half siblings, children of his father from his first marriage. In his book he mentions 2 brothers and a sister but gives vague details if at all. In Gerti’s book there’s even a photo of the sister Fani, but no last name. In my talks with Gerti, Zuza and Robin, I tried getting more information, but got first names only, sometimes of descendants as well, but never enough to find them with. The website dedicated to Vrba’s commemoration also didn’t help in any way. None of the documentaries I’ve watched on Vrba ever mentioned this information, and as far as I know, neither does Jonathan Freedland in his book ‘The Escape Artist’.

Today, I am glad to do my little part in keeping the heritage of Rudolf Vrba alive and to contribute to it, and to share that finally, after not finding anyone who has any thread of information, I succeeded cracking this genealogical brick wall and uncovered the identity of Rudolf Vrba’s half-siblings and their mother, including their exact place and dates of births.As I can get to it – I intend to wrote a post about Verba’s family connections, which will also circle back to families I have already written about in my recent posts about the Jewish community of Palárikovo.