Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe

The narrator introduces Rudolf “Rudi” Vrba and foreshadows his future role as a major hero of World War II. He had a typical childhood in Czechoslovakia, where he had both Jewish and Christian friends. However, this life is disrupted by the rise of Adolf Hitler, the fascist leader of Germany’s Nazi Party. Hitler’s regime established a system of concentration camps run by the SS (Schutzstaffel) to imprison its perceived enemies and promoted a pseudoscientific ideology of a German “master race” while blaming Jews for the nation’s problems. In 1939, Germany invaded and seized the Czech part of the country. Rudi’s home, Slovakia, became a separate state, but it was led by a pro-Nazi president, Jozef Tiso. The political shift immediately impacts daily life. Rudi’s close friend, Gerta Sidonová, is told by her non-Jewish friend, Marushka, that they can no longer be seen together. Marushka reveals that her father plans to take over Gerta’s family’s butcher shop and home after the Jews are taken away.

After Hitler invades Poland in September 1939, launching World War II, the Slovak government enacts a series of anti-Jewish laws. Jewish citizens are banned from public spaces, subjected to a curfew, and forced to wear a yellow Star of David. Jewish students, including Rudi and Gerta, are expelled from school. In a small act of protest, Gerta sabotages the bicycles of students who taunted her. Rudi continues his education in secret with his friend Erwin Eisler, who saved a forbidden chemistry textbook. Now 15, Rudi builds a small chemistry lab and begins teaching himself Russian. Persecution intensifies as the Hlinka Guard, a Slovak group modeled on the SS, harasses the Jewish community. The government-appointed “adviser” sent to take over Gerta’s family business is Marushka’s father. 

By the summer of 1941, Hitler controls most of Europe’s Jewish population. Auschwitz, built on a former army base in southern Poland and initially used to hold Polish political opponents, is among the largest of the existing concentration camps.

In mid-1941, SS leader Heinrich Himmler meets with Rudolf Höss, the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Himmler informs Höss of Hitler’s secret order for the “Final Solution,” a euphemism for the systematic extermination of Europe’s entire Jewish population. Auschwitz is selected as a primary site for this mass murder due to its isolation, railroad access, and the secrecy required for the operation. By the spring of 1942, Germany is winning the war, even after the United States joined the Allies (Great Britain, China, and the Soviet Union) against the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan). The pro-Nazi Slovak government agrees to help deport its Jewish citizens, telling them they are being “resettled” for work in Poland. Rudi decides to escape. The narrative then returns to Rudi’s journey in Hungary. Early the next morning, he arrives at the home of relatives of his friend Stefan. A maid answers but slams the door in fear; Rudi holds the doorbell until a woman in an elegant dressing gown appears. After he confirms he has crossed the border illegally, she offers him a bath.

In Hungary, the relatives of Rudi’s friend Stefan warn him of the extreme danger he is in. The Hungarian government, an ally of Nazi Germany, considers Slovaks crossing the border illegally to be enemy spies. When Rudi gets up to leave, the husband tells him he would be captured immediately and arranges help instead. The family buys him a train ticket to Budapest, gives him money, and provides an antisemitic newspaper to use as cover. In Budapest, an underground resistance contact warns Rudi he will never make it across Hungary without false identity papers. The contact’s brother lets Rudi lay low, and false papers are promised but will take time; Rudi agrees to return to Slovakia to hide while he waits. He takes a night train back toward the border. 

However, as he retraces his steps to re-enter Slovakia, he is spotted by two Hungarian soldiers. He tries to run, but the soldiers fire their weapons, forcing him to stop and surrender. At the border station, guards accuse Rudi of being a spy and beat him relentlessly, demanding to know his contacts. Mid-interrogation, an officer discovers a Budapest tram ticket in Rudi’s pocket, which contradicts his claim to have just crossed the border. Despite the beating, Rudi refuses to give up the address of the resistance member he met.

The officer orders his men to take Rudi back to the border for execution. Later, Rudi awakens in a field and remembers that the guards had knocked him down and held a bayonet to his throat but lacked the heart to finish the job, letting him run; he sprints roughly a hundred yards before falling and passing out. Slovak border guards find him and take him to a local jail, where an old woman passes him food and cigarettes through the cell window, addressing him as “Mr. Jew.” The narrator provides historical context on the long history of antisemitism in Europe, which was fueled by conspiracy theories like those in the fraudulent text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion which posited that Jews were trying to take over the world. Hitler knew this was a falsehood, but used it to his advantage anyway, noting that the public was likely to believe “big lies.”

The Slovak authorities transfer Rudi to Nováky in central Slovakia, a transit camp used to hold Jews before they are “resettled.” Determined to escape, Rudi volunteers for food delivery duty, which gives him access to a less-secure labor camp section of the prison. He decides to gather supplies before making his attempt at freedom.

In Trnava, Slovaki, Gerta’s family lays low, discussing what to do when few countries will allow immigrants in, especially those who are Jewish. To pass the time, she studies secretarial skills, something that will help her in the future. Meanwhile, at Novaky, over time, Rudi smuggles his belongings to a plumber working there. He befriends another teenager, Josef Knapp, who was also caught trying to escape and promises that his wealthy father can finance their travels. The plumber helps them, and they successfully escape under a barbed-wire fence. The two make their way to Josef’s hometown of Topol’čany, Slovakia, where Rudi contacts Josef’s girlfriend, Zuzka. She goes to find Josef, leaving Rudi with her non-Jewish parents who are fearful and make Rudi hide in their shed. After waiting almost a full day, Rudi suspects Josef has abandoned him. With his shoes falling apart, he is forced to leave, alone and without supplies, and begins the long walk to Trnava.