April 10th

On this day – April 10 – 1944 escaped the authors of the Auschwitz notebook from the camp

The Auschwitz notebook, also known as the Vrba–Wetzler report, was 40-page report on the mass killings in Auschwitz. The authors, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler were two Slovak Jews who escaped the camp on the 10th of April in 1943. Their notes from Auschwitz together with notes from prisoners from three other camps helped convince the allies that the mass killing rumours were in fact true. The notes from Auschwitz were the most detailed notes on the mass killings to be published at the time. Vrba and Wetzler escaped the camp together by hiding in a pile of wood between the inner and outer fence in the prison. They scattered tobacco infused with gasoline around their hiding place to fool the dogs and stayed hidden there for the next three days. They left their hiding place on the 10th of April in 1944.

Their whole notebook can be read on: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/auschproto.html

Alfred Wetzler

Rudolf Vrba