| Rudolf Vrba was
born as Walter Rosenberg in Topolcany, Czechoslovakia in 1924 as the son
of Elias Rosenberg (owner of a steam saw-mill in Jaklovce near Margecany
in Slovakia), and Helena ne� Grunfeldova of Zbehy, Slovakia. At
the age of fifteen he was excluded from the High School (Gymnasium) of
Bratislava under the so-called "Slovak State's" version of the Nuremberg
anti-Jewish laws. He worked as a labourer in Trnava until 1942. In March
1942 he was arrested for being Jewish, and on June 14th, 1942, he was deported
first to Maidanek and from there he was then transferred to Auschwitz on
June 30, 1942. He remained Auschwitz prisoner no.44070 for almost two years.
He escaped from the Auschwitz death camp (together with Alfred Wetzler)
on April 7th, 1944 and under his "nom de guerre" as Rudolf Vrba he co-authored
(with A. Wetzler) the Report on Auschwitz death camps on April 25th, 1944
in Zilina, Slovakia. This report became known in the historiography of
the Holocaust as the "Vrba-Wetzler Report" or "Auschwitz Protocols", and
contains a precise description of: 1-the geography of the Auschwitz annihilation
camp; 2-the methodology of the mass murder in gas chambers practiced in
Auschwitz already for two years; 3-a history of events that took place
in Auschwitz since April 1942.� The Vrba-Wetzler Report reached the
Governments of the Allies in June 1944.
Rudolf
Vrba joined the Czechoslovak Partisan Units in September 1944 and fought
until the end of the war in the distinguished unit commanded by Milan Uher
("Hero of the Slovak National Uprising In Memoriam"). He was decorated
by the Czechoslovak Medal for Bravery, the Order of Slovak National Insurection
and Order of Meritorious Fighter. After Czechoslovakia was liberated from
German occupation, his nom de guerre , (Rudolf Vrba) was legalized. After
WW II, he studied Chemistry in Prague, graduated in 1949 (Ing. Chern.)
and received his doctorate (Dr. Tech. Sc.) in 1951, followed by a post-graduate
degree from the Czechoslovak Academy of Science in 1956 (C.Sc.). Since
then he has become internationally known as the author of more than fifty
original research papers on the chemistry of the brain, as well as for
his research work relevant to diabetes and cancer.
In
1951-52 he pursued biochemical research at the Czechoslovak Academy of
Science, followed by five years of research work (1953-1958) at Charles
University Medical School in Prague in the research team of Professor J.
Teyssinger. He later worked as a biochemist at the Ministry of Agriculture
in Israel for two years (1958-1960) and then became member of the Research
Staff of the British Medical Research Council in London (1960-1967). He
was appointed as Associate of the Medical Research Council of Canada (1967-1973),
and he also worked for two years (1973-1975) in the United States as Lecturer
and Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. Since 1976 he has been Associate
Professor teaching Pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine, University
of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
Rudolf
Vrba participated in a prominent way in the production of four films relevant
to the history of the Holocaust: (1) "Genocide" (in the "World at War"
series; directed by Jeremy lsaacs, BBC, London, 1973); (2) "Auschwitz and
the Allies" (Directed by Rex Bloomstein, in collaboration with Martin Gilbert;
BBC, London, 1982); (3) "Shoah" (directed by Claude Lanzmann, Paris, 1985);
(4) "Witness to Auschwitz" (directed by Robert Taylor, CBC, Toronto, 1990).
Rudolf
Vrba published (in collaboration with A. Bestic) a book of personal recollections
on Auschwitz ("I cannot forgive", London, U.K., 1964 and New York, U.S.A.,
1964) which was published in numerous editions also in German (Munich,
1964), French (Paris, 1988), Dutch (Kempen, 1996), Czech (Prague, 1998)
and Hebrew (Haifa, 1998). He also published in international journals several
studies on various aspects of the Holocaust in relation to German economy,
military strategy and medicine. In 1998 the University of Haifa conferred
to Rudolf Vrba the title of Doctor of Philosophy Honoris Causa. |
