Escape From Auschwitz

by Erich Kulka

A former prisoner of the Gestapo, Kulka leads us through the horror of the Nazi death camps, describing such unbearable conditions as the over-crowded ghettos where Jewish minorities were left to starve, separation of families in cases where parents were brought to one concentration camp and children to another, and fear of an unknown fate such as the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Few people escaped from Auschwitz, and fewer survived such escape attempts. From personal experience as well as accounts from other survivors, Kulka details the only successful escape, led by Siegfried Lederer, where all those involved survived.

Genres: Holocaust, Memoir, Poland, Nonfiction, History, Biography

150 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Edward Janes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible account of perhaps the first successful escape from Birkenau; especially interesting to me after studying at some length the Vrba-Wexler escape and report.

Pestek fell in love with a beautiful Jewish inmate and planned her escape so that they could marry after the war; for this plan to succeed he needed a Jewish collaborator from inside Auschwitz and that turned out to be Siegfried Lederer. The plan was for Pestek and Lederer to escape, go to Prague and gather resources, then return to Birkenau to break out Neumann and her mother.
The plan failed and Pestek was executed. Lederer and Neumann did survive..

One particular passage stood out to this reader;

"Pestek (the SS man collaborating with Lederer) was afraid of Lederer's secret connections. He felt that they jeopardized his only desire and aim in life--to be with Rene Neuman (a prisoner in Birkenau) and wait with her for the end of the war. When Lederer reprimanded him for drawing attention to the police and the Gestapo with unnecessary escapades, Pestek lost control.

'And what about you?' Pestek burst out. 'You go out and warn the Jews in the ghetto! What's the use of it? Do you think you can save them? You think they will believe you in Theresienstadt, 500 kilometers away from Auschwitz, when they did not believe it in Birkenau, 500 meters away from the gas chambers? Where they cannot sleep because of the flames rising from the chimneys, and where they drink the ashes of the dead on their water and swallow them with every piece of food?'"

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

A historian associated with the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem and himself a survivor of Auschwitz, Kulka here tells the story of Siegfried Lederer, who escaped from the death camp in Poland. The breakout was initiated by Viktor Pestek, a Romanian of German extraction and a guard at the camp who fell in love with an inmate. To lay the groundwork for the rescue of this Jew and her aged mother, Pestek arranged for himself and Lederer to escape in order to procure forged release documents. They made their way to Lederer's native Czechoslovakia, where the ex-prisoner's contacts made it possible for them to survive. On returning to Auschwitz to accomplish their plan, Pestek was captured and killed; Lederer managed to flee, but the mission was scrapped.

[Asia Lazarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very very interesting.. Very touching and it opens your eyes to what life in a concentration camp really was.

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

did not finish this book