The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of genocide; starvation; systematic, state-sponsored violence and persecution; and antisemitism perpetrated by Germany and its collaborators during the Holocaust.

Jonathan Freedland’s book offers a distinctive style for telling the story of Walter Rosenberg’s escape from Auschwitz; Freedland deviates from the more conventional historical biography genre and uses his experience as an author of thriller novels to introduce elements of this genre to this nonfiction text (his thriller novels are published under the pseudonym Sam Bourne). Thrillers as a form withhold information and simultaneously seek to induce heightened emotion (e.g., feeling unsettled, nervous, or anxious) to give the text a mysterious, suspenseful tone. There are several common elements found in thrillers that Freedland deploys in The Escape Artist. Freedland begins the Prologue with Walter and Fred Wetzler’s daring attempt at escape from Auschwitz. While the text reveals that Walter and Fred at least successfully evaded the SS officers for 72 hours, Freedland does not reveal at the Prologue’s conclusion whether they made it out of Auschwitz and to the Slovak border. The structure of the text leaves unknown how Walter and Fred got to this point and whether their escape attempt was truly successful. Freedland begins to reveal these details in subsequent chapters.

Thrillers also include a plot with high stakes, and the same goes for The Escape Artist. In January 1944, Walter discovered that the SS officers ordered the construction of a new railway line at Auschwitz. This line ran straight to the camp’s gas chambers and crematoria. It was being constructed in preparation for the arrival of one million Jewish people from Hungary. Walter knew he needed to escape Auschwitz to warn the Hungarian Jewish people of their impending death should they board the train to Auschwitz. Their lives depended on his ability to shatter the deception and lies constructed by the Nazis.

One important question also drives the plot of thrillers. Here, Freedland’s big question is whether Walter can escape Auschwitz and sound the alarm about what awaits the Hungarian Jewish people at the camp. This question drives the suspense throughout Walter’s story.

Finally, thrillers also reveal important information slowly. For this to be done effectively, the text should give a clear sense of the character’s world and perspective before this information is revealed. An example of this is when Walter first arrived at Auschwitz. The camp’s brick buildings and paved streets (which starkly contrasted Majdanek’s wooden shacks and dirt roads) gave him hope. He even rejoiced that “he rejected the advice that would have kept him in Majdanek and away from here. Because fortune really did seem to have smiled upon him” (47). At the time of his arrival, Walter had no idea what Auschwitz represented. While the text elucidates the horrors that took place at Auschwitz, in this scene, Freedland writes from Walter’s perspective. By framing this part of the text in terms of Walter's firsthand experience, the tone of the text is ominous and suspenseful.

Besides Freedland’s experience writing thrillers, his background as a journalist helps him piece together Rudolf Vrba’s (the name Walter Rosenberg takes on after his escape from Auschwitz) story. Freedland does not use fictional dialogue. Instead, he draws on Rudi’s own writings, letters, and photos; official documents; family memoirs; court proceedings and testimonies; and historical accounts from other Holocaust survivors. Two key sources of information include Robin Vrba and Gerta Vrbová. Robin was Rudi’s second wife. Freedland notes that she let him “into the life she had shared with Rudi, digging out yellowing papers and faded photographs [see Chapter 20 for some of these photographs], answering an endless stream of questions and mining a rich store of memories” (315). Gerta, Rudi’s first wife, was also an important resource for the book. Gerta knew Rudi before Auschwitz. Thus, she was able to remember his childhood. Gerta also gave Freedland a suitcase filled with 42 letters written by Rudi, which include details about his life, thoughts, and memories. Rudi was also interviewed numerous times. Transcripts from these interviews were another important source of information for Freedland. While these transcripts amounted to hundreds of pages, only fragments had been used prior to the publication of The Escape Artist.