Rudi Vrba, a Slovakian Jew, was 17 in 1942 when he left home determined to make it to Great Britain to fight the Nazis. He ended up in Auschwitz. Gerta Sidonová, a friend of Rudi’s from their hometown, was able to escape Slovakia to Hungary, where Jews were still living with few restrictions in the early 1940s. In a riveting account that alternates between their two stories, Rudi embarks on a mission to escape, determined to get word out that the Germans are systemically killing the majority of Jewish people coming into Auschwitz and Birkenau; his quest becomes even more urgent when he realizes the Nazis are increasing their killing capacity. This coincides with growing pressure on the Hungarian government to round up Jews and transport them to the camps, as well as Gerta’s capture by the Gestapo while working for the resistance. The meticulous plan for Rudi’s escape with friend Alfred Wetzler unfolds in fascinating and sometimes brutal detail. They succeeded against remarkable odds, providing the first inside account of the mass murders of the Jews. What became known as the Vrba-Wetzler Report reached Switzerland in June of 1944, after which articles about what was happening inside Auschwitz and Birkenau began appearing in newspapers around the world. Fascinating on its own, this work also provides numerous jumping-off points for further digging into history, such as looking up stories from 1944 based on Rudi and Fred’s testimony. (Age 13 and older)