Rudi Vrba, a Slovakian Jew, was 17 in 1942 when he left home determined to make it to Great Britain to fight the Nazis. He ended up in Auschwitz. Gerta Sidonová, a friend of Rudi’s from their hometown, was able to escape Slovakia to Hungary, where Jews were still living with few restrictions in the early 1940s. In a riveting account that alternates between their two stories, Rudi embarks on a mission to escape, determined to get word out that the Germans are systemically killing the majority of Jewish people coming into Auschwitz and Birkenau; his quest becomes even more urgent when he realizes the Nazis are increasing their killing capacity. This coincides with growing pressure on the Hungarian government to round up Jews and transport them to the camps, as well as Gerta’s capture by the Gestapo while working for the resistance. The meticulous plan for Rudi’s escape with friend Alfred Wetzler unfolds in fascinating and sometimes brutal detail. They succeeded against remarkable odds, providing the first inside account of the mass murders of the Jews. What became known as the Vrba-Wetzler Report reached Switzerland in June of 1944, after which articles about what was happening inside Auschwitz and Birkenau began appearing in newspapers around the world. Fascinating on its own, this work also provides numerous jumping-off points for further digging into history, such as looking up stories from 1944 based on Rudi and Fred’s testimony. (Age 13 and older)

From three-time National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor author Steve Sheinkin, a true story of two Jewish teenagers racing against time during the Holocaust—one in hiding in Hungary, and the other in Auschwitz, plotting escape.

It is 1944. A teenager named Rudolf (Rudi) Vrba has made up his mind. After barely surviving nearly two years in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, he knows he must escape. Even if death is more likely.

Rudi has learned the terrible secret hidden behind the heavily guarded fences of concentration camps across Nazi-occupied Europe: the methodical mass killing of Jewish prisoners. As trains full of people arrive daily, Rudi knows that the murders won’t stop until he reveals the truth to the world—and that each day that passes means more lives are lost.

Lives like Rudi’s schoolmate Gerta Sidonová. Gerta’s family fled from Slovakia to Hungary, where they live under assumed names to hide their Jewish identity. But Hungary is beginning to cave under pressure from German Nazis. Her chances of survival become slimmer by the day.

The clock is ticking. As Gerta inches closer to capture, Rudi and his friend Alfred Wetzler begin their crucial steps towards an impossible escape.

This is the true story of one of the most famous whistleblowers in the world, and how his death-defying escape helped save over 100,000 lives.