THE AUSCHWITZ ESCAPE RELEASES NATIONWIDE TODAY. Reflections on how I discovered the true stories that inspired the novel. By Joel C. Rosenberg (@joelcrosenberg on Twitter) (Washington, D.C., March 18, 2014) -- In November of 2011, I decided to go to visit the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. I’d never been there before. I didn’t really even want to go. But I knew I had to. So I invited several friends -- a pastor from the U.S. and his wife, and a pastor from Germany and his wife. Unfortunately, my wife, Lynn, wasn’t able to join me. But the trip had a profound effect on me. It was a surreal and sobering experience to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. It’s hard to describe the emotions of standing in an actual gas chamber where people were murdered, seeing the ovens where bodies were burned, walking through the cell blocks, seeing the guard towers and barbed wire and train tracks. It was haunting to realize that more than one million people were systematically murdered there, and most of them were Jews. While I was there, I purchased a book that explained that there had been many escape attempts from Auschwitz, but only a handful of successful escapes. I was stunned. We had hired a special guide to take us through the camp. He was a really bright, educated man. He had been an excellent guide, and we had learned so much. But he hadn’t mentioned anything about escapes. I had never heard about any escapes. But this book gave a brief description of several of them. Intrigued, as soon as I got home, I started tracking down any resource I could about these men who had risked everything to get out. How had they succeeded? What was their plan? Who helped them? What did they do when they got out? Did they tell anyone in the Jewish community, or among the Allies, what they had seen, what the Nazis were doing at Auschwitz? The more I learned, the more intrigued I became. It turned out there were several non-fiction books written by several of the men who escaped, and several about them. There were even several novels on the subject. But they were old. Some were out of print. If they once had been discussed -- I’m sure they were -- but they seemed long forgotten. As I continued to do my research, I realized that April 7th, 2014 would be the 70th anniversary of the greatest escape in human history -- the day that..... [To read the rest of this column, or read an excerpt from THE AUSCHWITZ ESCAPE -- and/or order a copy of this novel -- or to find links to the latest news and analysis of events and trends in the U.S., Israel, North Africa, Russia, and the Middle East -- please go to: flashtrafficblog.wordpress/.]
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 14:50:19 +0000