Rudolf Vrba, actually walter rose mountain (* 11 September 1924 in Topolcany, Czechoslovakia, "† 27. March 2006 in Vancouver, B.C., Canada) was a survivor of the Holocaust and professor for pharmacology at the University OF British Columbia in Vancouver. It became above all admits, because it succeeded to it in April 1944 to flee from the extermination camp Auschwitz Birkenau in order the extremely endangered Jews in the Slowakei and Hungary to warn, to inform and in order the western allied ones about the German destruction machinery precisely.

Life

At the age of 15 years it was excluded due to the anti-Jewish laws (the slowakischen version of the of laws) from the High School in Bratislava. In March 1942 he was arrested, deportiert on 14 June into the KZ Majdanek and transferred from there on 30 June after Auschwitz. There it remained nearly two years long as a prisoner No. 44070. It could escape on 10 April 1944 together with Alfred Wetzler from Auschwitz Birkenau, after they had hidden themselves three days long in a wood impact. In "Žilina in the Slowakei dictated rose mountain under its alias Rudolf Vrba together with Wetzler a detailed report over the death camps in Auschwitz, which admits and under the name "„Vrba Wetzler report arrived in June to the western allied ones "“became. On 35 sides this report already describes the geography of the extermination camp, those since two years practiced method of the mass murder by Gaskammern, and the events in Auschwitz since April 1942. It was the first report of Auschwitz passenger, who due to its accuracy and authenticity in the west was believed.

Although - to Vrbas of large disappointment - nearly none was warned the potential Jewish Deportationsopfer in Hungary before the fate, which was approaching for him, the report had nevertheless the effect that on 7 July 1944, instructed after already 300,000 Hungarian Jews were killed the attitude of the Deportationen to the Hungarian realm Weser, admiral Horthy, (the report had been published in Swiss press, and thereupon Horthy bombarded of allies and neutral side with appeals). Thus probably 100,000 lives were saved.

In September 1944 Vrba went to the partisans and participated in the Slowaki national rebellion, which had a short while before begun. For its bravery it was distinguished several times. After the release of the Slowakei from German occupation it accepted officially the name Rudolf Vrba. After the war it studied chemistry and biochemistry in Prague, finally received the engineer title 1949, the doctorate 1951 and a postgradualen title of the Czechoslovakian academy of the sciences (C.Sc.) 1956.

He worked at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences and on the Karl university in Prague. 1958 it used a stay in Israel as a member of a scientific delegation, in order to leave communist Czechoslovakia, and worked thereupon at the Ministry Of Agriculture in Israel. It became then member of the Medical Research Council in London, later the Medical Research Council in Canada and worked finally to the Harvard Medical School in the USA. 1976 it became Associate professor at the University OF British Columbia in Vancouver and informed there pharmacology. It is internationally well-known as an author of fifty scientific articles over the chemistry of the brain, and also for its research in the areas of diabetes and cancer.

Rudolf Vrba wrote (in co-operation with A. Bestic) a book concerning its personal memories of Auschwitz ("„I CAN emergency forgive "“, London, England, 1963, and New York, 1964), which came out in different editions also on German (Munich 1964 and/or 1999), French (Paris 1988), Netherlands (Kempen, 1996) and Czech (Prague, 1998).

Strange to say the heroische escape Vrbas and Wetzlers and their following information activity was hushed up 35 years long in Israel. With the calibration man process 1961 the Vrba Wetzler report was discussed, but was not loaded Vrba themselves as a witness. Only 1998 succeeded it to Ruth Linn, Dekanin at the University of Haifa to bring a Hebrew translation out of Vrbas book. Subsequently, the University of Haifa lent an honour doctorate in acknowledgment of its heroischen escape and his contribution to it for Holocaust education.

Since 1999 lends the One World international human Rights film festival in the Czech republic, created by Mary Robinson and Havel, annually a "“Rudolf Vrba Award"” in the category "“right ton know"”, for documentary films, which make attentive "“on an unknown or hushed up human right problem"”.

Rudolf Vrba died 2006 at cancer.

Literature

• Rudolf Vrba, I cannot assign, and Loening, Munich, 1964
• Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies, gets, Rinehart and Winston, New York 1981
• Lici Calderon, at Eyewitness RK the Death Factory, AKRON, The of magazines OF the University OF Akron, buzzer 1990
• The Vrba Wetzler report, see to volume I von Encyclopedia OF the Holocaust, Israel Gutman, editor in Chief, C. 1990, Macmillan Publishing CO. (New York), ISBN 0-02-896090-4
• Rudolf Vrba, when Canada lay in Auschwitz, Piper, Munich 1999
• Ruth Linn: Genocide and the politics OF remembering: the nameless, the celebrated, and the would Holocaust of heroes, journal OF Genocide Research 5 (2003) 565
• Ruth Linn: Escaping Auschwitz. A Culture OF Forgetting, Cornell University press, 2004
• Mark of Hume, Auschwitz escapee who told the world this in B.C., The Globe and Mail, Toronto, March 31, 2006
• Henryk Swiebocki (Hg.), London informed"…, 1997, ISBN 83-85047-64-6. There contained is among other things the Vrba Wetzler report with supplementing footnotes of the publisher.

Related links

• Rudolf Vrba: Curriculum Vitae (http://www.pharmacology.ubc.ca/vrba/VrbaCV.pdf)
• Wolf Oschliess: Rudolf Vrba, Auschwitz refugee, a Holocaust witness and prosecutor. http://www.shoa.de/content/view/108/202/. On the basis of an interview with the Deutschlandfunk, Cologne, on 27 January 1996
• Ruth Linn, Obituary Rudolf Vrba, The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/secondworldwar/story/0,,1752845,00.html

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