The Escape Artist

Jonathan Freedland

From Shelf: Wish list

The astonishing, forgotten story of the hero who escaped from Auschwitz to reveal the truth of the Holocaust.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 WINGATE LITERARY PRIZE

A MAIL ON SUNDAY, THE TIMES, THE ECONOMIST, GUARDIAN, THE SPECTATOR, TIME, AND DAILY EXPRESS/DAILY MIRROR BOOK OF THE YEAR, 2022

'Thrilling' Daily Mail

'Gripping' Guardian

'Heartwrenching' Yuval Noah Harari

'Magnificent' Philip Pullman

'Excellent' Sunday Times

'Inspiring' Daily Mail

'An immediate classic' Antony Beevor

'Awe inspiring' Simon Sebag Montefiore

'Shattering' Simon Schama

'Utterly compelling' Philippe Sands

'A must-read' Emily Maitlis

'Indispensable' Howard Jacobson

April 1944. Nineteen-year-old Rudolf Vrba and fellow inmate Fred Wetzler became two of the very first Jews to successfully escape Auschwitz. Evading the thousands of SS men hunting them, Vrba and Wetzler made the perilous journey on foot across Nazi-occupied Poland.

Their mission: to reveal to the world the truth of the Holocaust.

Vrba's unique testimony would save some 200,000 lives.

But he kept on running - from his past, from his home country, his adopted country, even from his own name. Now, at last, Rudolf Vrba's heroism can be known.