LOCAL NEWS I
I
Holocaust Honoree Vrba
Says He's No Hero
SUSAN GRANT
Staff Writer
W
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14 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989
Local & Nationwide Delivery
WEST BLOOMFIELD, MICHIGAN
Orchard Lake Road • North of Maple
851-7727
hen Rudolf Vrba
was growing up in
Topolcany,
Czechoslovakia, all he want-
ed was a chance to study
chemistry.
Although he finally real-
ized his dream, he never
imagined he would be forced
to postpone his studies to tell
the world about the the
horrors of Auschwitz. In-
stead, at age 20, Vrba was
trying to save thousands of
lives.
Vrba was 15 when he was
forced out of high school in
1939. Three years later, he
was captured by the Nazis
and sent to Maidanek death
camp. After a month, he was
transferred to Auschwitz,
where he cleaned any traces
of the "the murder and rob-
bery we witnessed every
day."
As the unsuspecting train
loads of Jews and others
entered the gas chambers,
Vrba for two years sorted
through the victims' clothes,
money and other personal
possessions.
Then he escaped, making
Vrba one of only five men
who fled Auschwitz. Joining
him was Fred Wetzler, who
died last year.
After hiding under a wood
pile just outside Auschwitz
for three days, the two men
traveled more than 80 miles
south to Zilina,
Czechoslovakia, in the hopes
of saving the 1 million
Hungarian Jews slated for
destruction. With help from
the western allies, their
report saved all but 400,000
Jews.
For his bravery, Vrba was
one of three men honored
with a righteousness award
during the Holocaust
Memorial Center fifth an-
niversary dinner last Sun-
day.
Also receiving a righ-
teousness award was George
Mandel Mantello, who as a
former El Salvadoran dip-
lomat issued about 15,000
Salvadoran citizenship
papers to Jews. He also
helped to distribute the Vrba
and Wetzler's report on the
Nazi death camps.
Dr. John Mames received
the center's Leadership
Award for his work in
pioneering an oral history of
Holocaust survivors.
Today, Vrba, 65, is a
pharmacology professor at
the University of British
Dr. Rudolf Vrba
Columbia faculty of medi-
cine.
He is tired of talking about
the two years he spent wat-
ching the thousands of
transports of Jews quietly
walk through the camp's
gates to their deaths, his
escape and the report. A
tattoo stamped 44070 on his
left forearm is a constant
reminder that he must tell
the story.
After his escape, Vrba
spent a year with the
Czechoslovak Army Par-
tisan Units. He returned to
school at the end of the war.
His experience at
Auschwitz meant little to
the Czech government. But
because of his partisan expe-
rience, Vrba was given
enough cloth to make one
suit, two trousers and a cap.
"I started a new life," he
said.
After earning an
equivalent high school
diploma, Vrba studied chem-
istry in Prague and
graduated in 1949. By 1956,
he completed his doctorate
and another advanced
degree and was known
throughout European scien-
tific circles for his work on
chemical changes in the
brain.
After leaving Prague in
1956, Vrba spent two years
in Israel as a biochemist
with the Ministry of
Agriculture. He then moved
to London and joined the
British Medical Research
Council. He did research in
Canada and at the Harvard
Medical School, where he
met his wife, Robin.
It was the memories of
those who died in the camp
simply because they had
given up the fight for sur-
vival that led him to study
the effects of exhaustion on
the brain.
He left Prague because of
its Communist ties, which
conflicted with his sense of
justice. In a way, Prague