71 pages • 2 hours read
The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
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Themes
The Power of (Mis)Information and Deception
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of genocide; starvation; systematic, state-sponsored violence and persecution; and antisemitism perpetrated by Germany and its collaborators during the Holocaust. This section also mentions suicide.
The Nazis used misinformation and deception to hide their genocide plans. Freedland discusses these practices to elucidate how misinformation and deception can become extremely powerful when used in a coordinated manner for the sake of a set of strategic goals; indeed, they can become so powerful as to even make the facts futile to disrupting a false narrative. At every step of the way, the Nazis lied to their victims. When they first started deporting Jewish people, they called it “resettlement.” This word has a much softer connotation compared to “deportation.” They also forced deportees to write letters, which they then sent to family members and friends (the Nazis murdered the letter writers). These letters all had a positive tone. Thus, when families got their deportation letter, they calmly boarded the train, thinking they would be reunited. By highlighting these examples, Freedland shows the power of re-packaging grave truths and how this can go far in advancing a goal by giving people just enough reason to ignore the reality of the situation.
The Nazis and their collaborators also promised that families would be kept together. However, this was not the case. Able-bodied men (and sometimes women) were sent to one camp, and women, children, and the elderly were sent to another. Those in the first category were enslaved, whereas those in the second category faced immediate death. Deception allowed the Nazi murder machine to run smoothly. At many of the concentration camps, new arrivals far outnumbered the SS soldiers. If there was to be a revolt, SS solders would still likely crush it, but it would pause their murder machine. Freedland writes that “the Nazis had devised a method that would operate like a well-run slaughterhouse rather than a shooting party” (106).
Nazis also often treated the new arrivals they were sending to their deaths kindly. They would inquire about their craft, ask about their personal lives, promise their luggage would be returned to them (they even gave them a tag), and so on. The ruse did not let up until the Nazis locked the gas chamber doors behind them. Here again, Freedland underscores the fact that the psychological and emotional difficulty of accepting a disturbing truth can make it possible for small gestures—like the Nazi officers’ feigned kindness—to keep up a false narrative that is more comfortable to believe.
The Nazis knew they only held onto power if people did not know about their web of lies. Thus, they guarded their secrets. Prisoners who tried to warn new arrivals about their doomed destiny were beaten and then shot. The Nazis also reacted so strongly to Walter and Fred’s escape because of the information they carried with them. They put out an international arrest warrant. Yet Rudi's story suggests that knowledge alone does not result in action. People must believe in the knowledge to act. This is partly why Jewish people who knew about Auschwitz still calmly boarded the deportation trains. They did not believe in their imminent death. Freedland raises these questions about fact, knowledge, and belief, and, in so doing, he voices concerns that are equally applicable to modern-day phenomena, such as the rise of neo-Nazism as well as the associated Holocaust denial.
Complicity in the Holocaust: Why Different Groups Failed to Decisively Act to Prevent Genocide
In The Escape Artist, Freedland focuses on four groups who failed to decisively act to prevent genocide. Ordinary people represent the first group. Rudi encountered many civilians who turned their back on the Jewish people. People near Auschwitz and other death camps saw (and likely smelled) the gas chambers and crematoria. Civilians also helped the Nazis construct the subcamps at Auschwitz. Fear is one motivator for ordinary people’s complicity. The Nazis killed anyone who harbored an escaped prisoner, even if that prisoner was actually an undercover German agent. Antisemitism is another factor. Nazis and their collaborators convinced their citizens that Jewish people caused all their issues. Thus, when they began to deport Jewish people, citizens were happy. Many also viewed Jewish people as inferior and did not have sympathy for the horrors they faced in the concentration and death camps.
Christian church leaders represent the second group. Jewish leadership approached some of these individuals with copies of the Auschwitz Report thinking they had a conscience, but most did not. Most failed to act or to at least make the report public. They hid behind claims that they did not want to cause public panic. Yet the true reason likely stems from self-preservation. These Christian church leaders wanted to stay in power, so they supported the status quo. Freedland thereby emphasizes how the indifference or inaction of people in positions of power can have especially grave and far-reaching consequences for the perpetuation of injustice.
The third group is Jewish leadership. In particular, Rudi harbored a life-long loathing for Rezscő Kasztner. He strongly believed that Kasztner failed to warn the Hungarian Jewish people about Auschwitz because he was more concerned about saving the few rather than the many. Evidence reveals that Kasztner negotiated with SS officers. He also deceived his own people, despite working with the Nazis and knowing the truth of the Auschwitz Report. Rudi’s anger toward Jewish leadership is one reason for his lack of global recognition. Hence, the text shows that despite the bald truth about the horrors of the Holocaust, there are still competing narratives even among Jewish people themselves about what happened during this time, what it meant, and who should be declared a hero.
Finally, Allied government and intelligence officials were complicit in the Holocaust. These officials started hearing about the true purpose of Auschwitz in 1942 from escaped Polish underground resistance members. Hitler was also fairly vocal about his desire to evict Jewish people from Germany and other European countries before he started his mass genocide plan. The Allied powers’ inaction came down to two reasons: antisemitism and political and military calculations. Officials refused to act because of their own prejudices against Jewish people. Governments refused to act, such as by bombing Auschwitz or its railway line, because doing so might hurt them politically. Bureaucracy also buried evidence. For example, US spy planes flew over Auschwitz and captured photos, but no one looked at the photos. If they had done so, they would have seen what was happening. The book shows, therefore, that even factors as mundane as bureaucratic procedure or policy standards played a role in preventing an earlier global response to the horrors of the Holocaust.
Carrying the Trauma of Life in a Concentration Camp
The text conveys that the trauma of life in a concentration camp is something that stays with a person forever. Jewish people lived and died at the whim of the Nazi captors. This randomness mixed with luck is one reason why Jewish people who survived Auschwitz had survivor’s guilt. They felt that did not deserve to live any more than those who died. Walter was saved countless times by either luck or the whim of the Nazi captors.
At Auschwitz, Walter saw things that never left him. His assignment on the ramp nearly broke him because he saw the actual people being sent to their deaths. He saw prisoners consume dead bodies because they were so hungry. He also saw the burned skulls of children in pits. None of these things broke him, largely because he found a purpose through them. He was determined to act rather than break. He wanted to tell the world about the horrors taking place at Auschwitz and warn his fellow Jewish people. Mapping Rudi’s own struggles with coming to terms with the truth of the Nazis’ genocidal plans symbolizes the larger struggle for the world as a whole to come to terms with the reality of the Nazis’ atrocity.
Auschwitz shaped the man Walter became, and for this reason, he was a difficult person. Freedland does not shy away from this character trait. He notes how Rudi enjoyed killing German soldiers as part of the Slovak resistance. He also treated Gerta poorly. He over-analyzed and controlled her life and had a string of affairs. Rudi remained deeply suspicious of those around him, including Gerta and his colleagues. He also hoarded food, even when it was meant for his daughters. Paranoia and stealing all kept Rudi alive at Auschwitz. He was not able to let go of these character traits and habits. By mapping the complexities of Rudi’s life after he escaped from Auschwitz, Freedland accomplishes two things. First, he complicates the hero narrative that might be easily mapped on to Rudi: Freedland paints a more complex picture of Rudi as someone who did remarkable things but also harmed loved ones in his life precisely because of the horrors he faced during his time at Auschwitz. Second, Freedland illustrates how the trauma of the Holocaust lived on after it ended and how a true understanding of this trauma cannot be encapsulated by facts and figures alone. Instead, it is only through a story about the nuances of Rudi’s later life that the true extent of his trauma—as well as the trauma of those like him—can be understood.
Finally, the text highlights how trauma does not just impact the first generation. It also impacts subsequent generations. The death of Rudi’s daughter Helena is one example. Walter refused to acknowledge that her death by suicide might have been tied to his own experiences at Auschwitz. Yet research shows that children of Holocaust survivors experience more psychological distress and childhood trauma. Here again, the text demonstrates how the impact of Nazi atrocities extends beyond the historical period of the Nazi regime and stretches through time and place not only for its immediate survivors but also for future generations.
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