Pair's warning helped save Hungarian Jews

From the book, "The Escape Artist" comes this story.

During World War II, the Nazis killed with gas and then cremated over six million people. Most were Jews, but there were also Catholic priests, gypsies, gay people, some Russians and people who opposed Hitler.

This story tells the tale of two Jewish male prisoners who made a daring escape from Auschwitz in April 1944. They wanted to save their own lives and warn other people what was happening. The Germans were telling the Jewish people that they were going to East to be resettled. Unfortunately, many people believed this story. Adolph Hitler once said, "the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it." (On a side note, this could apply to some of our own politicians today.)

In actuality, the people were going to the gas chambers. Rudolf Verba wanted to warn them of what actually awaited them. When he got back to his country of Slovakia, many simply would not believe him. Even the leader of the Jewish population in Slovakia delayed the release of his report. 

In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of Jews from Hungary were being sent to the gas chambers. However, Verba would not stop his mission of warning others despite all the brick walls he had run into. Finally, he got his message through, it even reached Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Verba and others now begged Churchill and Roosevelt to bomb the railroad tracks in Poland that led to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Sadly, both leaders declined to do so; no reasons are given in the book and hundreds of thousands more were killed. 

In the end, the Jews who had not yet been deported got the message and refused to get on the trains. Verba is credited with saving the lives of 200,000 Hungarian Jews.

Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran and business owner in Priest River.