HOLOCAUST HERO — THE BOOK

Published in September of 2025, Holocaust Hero, the first book of a two-volume biography, examines the formative years of Rudolf Vrba when he grew up as Walter Rosenberg in eastern Czechoslovakia. It also provides the first examination of his doomed romance inside Auschwitz-Birkenau with Alice Munk as well as his thrice-decorated service with the Slovakian Partisans, fighting ten battles against the Nazis during the winter of 1944-45. At the outset there is chronological list of Vrba’s 25 near-death experiences during a three-year period as a teenager. Information in Vrba’s 1963 (still in-print) memoir, I Escaped From Auschwitz (originally entitled I Cannot Forgive) is not repeated extensively, unlike a copycat that appeared in 2022. Holocaust Hero does, however, provide hitherto unknown details as how Vrba and Wetzler really escaped. Vrba was not an escape artist. He did not design or built his escape hideout. To survive beyond the camp, Vrba carefully followed the advice of a Russian prisoner named Volkov.

This biography also affords an extensive analysis of how the resulting Vrba-Wetzler Report was mishandled in Hungary by Rudolf Kasztner and the Judenrat Council. Although this book has been recommended by the esteemed Holocaust historian Christoper R. Browning, Holocaust Hero is intended for the so-called general reader; replete with many never-seen-before images and private photos, the biography benefits from unprecedented research undertaken within Rudolf Vrba’s personal archives that were donated to the FDR Presidential Library in New York state by his widow Robin Vrba. Extensive and often humorous interviews with her reveal unprecedented insights into Rudolf Vrba’s personality and opinions.

The author, Alan Twigg, knew Rudolf Vrba. [For additional author info, visit alantwigg.com]

Links for purchasing the book are provided below.

A second volume is scheduled for release in 2027. It will cover the years from 1946 t0 2006.

These links provide access to reviews of Holocaust Hero that appeared in 2025.

There is also coverage of a book launch in Vancouver and interviews.

The Jewish Book council

https://www.jewishindependent.ca/new-bio-gives-vrba-his-due/

The Brockville Recorder and Times

The B.C. Review

B.C. Booklook

B.C. Booklook on the Book Launch

BC Booklook Lastest Issue