I, RUDOLF VRBA, of 13 Eaton Court, Sutton, Surrey, England, MAKE OATH and say:

I was born Walter Rosenberg on 11th September 1924, at Topolcany in Central Slovakia, Czechoslovakia. My father, Elias Rosenberg, died four years later; my mother was then called Helene Rosenberg (nee Gruenfeld).

In 1926, our family moved to Yaklovce Pila, a village in Eastern Slovakia, where my father who was a timber exporter owned the saw mill, some adjacent forests and a private railway line. My father’s death occurred in 1928 and thereafter my mother continued to run the business until 1930 when it had to be wound up as the result of the· 1929 economic slump and possibly also because of her lack of business knowledge.

From 1930 until 1933 (i.e. aged six to nine) I lived with my maternal grandfather, Bernat Gruenfeld, in Nitra, Slovakia. Grandfather’s only son Alec had immigrated to the United States of America (where as Alec Greenfield he and his family now live). Grandfather wanted to have me with him as a replacement for his son. During these three years, I attended a normal elementary school but in view of my good progress, grandfather wanted me to become a Rabbi and he therefore sent me to a special boarding school for orphans in Bratislava; this school was run by the Jewish Secular Authorities. My studies consisted mainly of Judaism and religious literature, the remaining subjects being considered of minor importance and only four hours a day were devoted thereto.

After two years at this school, my mother began to disagree with my grandfather’s views as to the educational course I should follow and, accordingly, arranged for me to take the entrance examination to the “Gymnasium” (high school) at Bratislava. I was then aged eleven and the course was to last for eight years, i.e. up to university age. I passed the examination and enrolled at the school. Although this meant losing the support of the Jewish Secular Authorities, my mother enrolled me at this school and I attended there until forced to leave in 1939, by Nazi legislation. During this period of four years, I lived with my mother in Bratislava.

By September 1939, the war had started — Czechoslovakia had been partitioned and Bohemia occupied. Slovakia where I lived became a satellite Nazi state ruled by a quisling government – the well-known Nuremberg laws -were introduced and as I was Jewish I became prohibited from continuing to study and was precluded from working other than as a labourer at reduced wages.

For the next three years, i.e. until 1942, I lived with my mother at Trnava which is about fifty miles from Bratislava. She had, by that time, married Ignac Reichsfeld, a local clerk who was also Jewish and I had been working as a labourer on building sites and in agriculture etc.

In 1942, I was seventeen and a half years old and. the “resettlement orders” for citizens of Jewish extraction came into force. I was opposed to being “resettled in what I considered to be unknown and dangerous circumstances to what, in fact, turned out to be extermination centres. I determined to fight against Nazi Germany and to join the forces of the Czechoslovak Government which was in exile in London.

I considered the only way out of Europe to be through Yugoslavia and on my way there attempted to cross the Slovak- Hungarian border, illegally. I was arrested by the Hungarians, handed over to the quisling Slovak authorities and, in turn, to the Nazi S.S. who, in June l942, deported me to Majdanek concentration camp and thence, on 1st July 1942, to Auschwitz.

4. I remained a prisoner in Auschwitz for twenty-one months and seven days during which time 1,760,000 men, women and children were murdered. The means by which I managed to survive are well-documented in my book “I Cannot Forgive,” Which has been published in England, the United States of America and various other countries.

For a long time, I acted as a registrar in the camp and had made it my business to record as best as I could the crimes which were being committed there. In January 1944, great technical preparations were being made and it was clear in the camp that the one million Hungarian Jews (who had not previously been deported) were to be brought to Auschwitz to be annihilated. Naturally, they would be transported under the pretext of resettlement.

Escape had never been far from my mind since I arrived at the camp and when I realized what was to come about, I resolved to escape and to endeavor to warn the Jewish Authorities in Hungary, who I thought, in turn, would warn the proposed victims. I thought that the consequent resistance would make their mass deportation impossible or very difficult. By this time, I had witnessed the murder of passive masses of people and had on one or two occasions attempted unsuccessfully to instigate some resistance.

On 7th April 1944, I escaped (with a fellow prisoner, Alfred Wetzler) and we reached Slovakia on 21st April in that year.

We immediately wrote a comprehensive report on the camp, transmitted it to the Jewish Authorities in Slovakia and in Hungary and also to representatives of the Holy See in Slovakia. I also circulated other copies of the report and one copy was smuggled to Switzerland by a Rumanian diplomat (Florin Haniolu). This copy of the report came into the hands of Mr. Walter Garrett who was chief correspondent of the Exchange Press Agency, in Zurich. He handed it to Mr. William Dulles who was, at that time, the U.S.A. Representative in Switzerland.

Mr. Dulles publicized the report and the international protest which this brought about caused tremendous pressure to be brought to bear on Admiral Horthy who was Regent of Hungary. As a consequence, the deportations which, by that time, commenced there, stopped. But already, 400,000 people had been gassed or killed in other manners at Auschwitz.

Unfortunately, the Hungarian Jewish. Authorities suppressed the report and therefore the result I had sought was only achieved in part and indirectly for by the time the news broke, the deportations had started and these 400,000 people had been deported.

Many copies of the original report still exist and I have obtained a copy from the library of the Office of the President of the United States of America. This copy contains a forward which is attributed to President Roosevelt himself. This attribution is by the Oxford historian Prof. Gerald Reitlinger.

Amongst-the international figures who were instru­mental in bringing pressure to bear on Admiral Horthy were President Roosevelt, Hr. Anthony Eden, Mr. Winston Churchill, Cardinal Spellman, King Gustav of Sweden and, of course, Mr. Cordell Hull.

The events described in this paragraph are entirely covered in my book referred to above; they have been fully documented by many historical works and any further details or authentication which is required can be submitted immediately.

5. After my escape from Auschwitz, my basic attitude to life was dictated by the conditions under which I had lived. By his time, I was twenty years of age, I had seen people who had been told repeatedly by the Nazi or quisling propaganda machine that they were going to resettlement areas where they would be happy and well looked after. I had seen them arrive sometimes hopeful and always passive. I had watched them undress themselves and their children, before being disposed of or as the S.S. would say “processed.”

I had seen people disposed of at the rate of between 5,000 and 20,000 per day, all their effects and possessions had been classified and sorted and sent to Germany. I was then a confirmed enemy of Nazism and determined to do whatever I could and join whoever was fighting this evil.

The Resistance Movement in Czechoslovakia was supported mainly by the Russians. I joined a Czechoslovak insurrection unit which was, at that time, responsible to the Czechoslovakian
Government in exile, in London. This was shortly after the 29.th August 1944, on which date a proclamation had been issued by the hitherto quisling Slovak Army which changed
its allegiance. It proclaimed allegiance to the Czechoslovak Government and I joined up as a volunteer·, immediately. It was commanded by Sgt. Milan Uher and I duly swore the oath of allegiance to the London Government and to fight until victory over the Germans or until death. I joined
under the name of Rudolf Vrba which had been given to me together with forged papers by the Jewish Authorities four months previously, i.e. immediately after my escape. This name had been chosen because it was a common name of non­ Jewish origin.

These were the only documents I had to present to the Army Authorities, but, of course, it was well-known that they were forged.

The headquarters o1 the Army were soon in difficulties and were surrounded by German motorised divisions. We were ordered to stay behind the German lines to disrupt com­munications and harass the Germans by all possible means. We were quickly isolated and command of our unit was taken over by partisan headquarters in Kiev, (Russia); a new Commander, Col: Debrov of the Russian Army was parachuted to us. He was killed in action soon afterwards and Uher (by then a Captain) resumed command of the unit.

Capt. Uher was killed in action on 28th February 1945. Lt. Krazicky then took over command of the unit and his Chief of’ Staff Placak is the signatory of my discharge papers.

When the Russian forces arrived on 7th April 1945, we were still actively fighting, but severely depleted. At the request of the Russians, we undertook one final military action and then were retired to a military hospital to recuperate before being returned to the front. By that time, I had actively participated in ten battles against· S.S. units in several raids on German artillery posts, in the destruction of railway bridges and supplies etc.

I was awarded the Czechoslovak Medal for Bravery, the Order of’ the Slovak National Insurrection (II Class), and the medal of Honour for Czechoslovak Partisans

Capt. Uher was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Nation and the Order of the Slovak National Insurrection (I Class).

The bodies of all Members of our unit who had been killed were, after the war, exhumed on orders of’ the Government and reburied together in a special monument built at the birthplace of Capt. Uher, at Lubina, in Western Slovakia.

Whilst we were still in hospital, the war ended. Almost immediately after the end of the war, a military commission composed partly of Russian officers and partly of Czechoslovakian officers (who nevertheless came from Russia) suggested that henceforth the unit be renamed “The Second Stalin Partisan Brigade.” We were all awarded membership of the Communist Party and everyone signed the collective sheet which took the place of a normal application. I requested a discharge from the Army immediately, as I wished to study chemistry at the university. I ·was discharged as “Rudolf Vrba (W. Rosenberg)” and I left for Bratislava in May 1945, to commence my studies.

6. First, I had to pass my university entrance examination and, accordingly, went to a special school for ex-servicemen to take an intensive preparation course. I was there from May to October 1945, when l passed the university entrance examination, I enrolled on 20th October into the Department of Chemical Technology at the Czech. Technical University in Prague.

When I left the Army, I applied to legalize my new, name Rudolf Vrba – for this special permission of the Minister of Interior was needed and valid reasons had to be given. The reasons were that after my experiences of the Germans, I did not ·wish to have a German sounding name and this new· name ·was the one under which I had fought actively against the Nazis. My request was granted in August 1945 in sufficient time for me to qualify for university in my new name.

I moved to Prague and lived at several student addresses in lodgings.

From then until 1949 with one small interlude to which I shall refer to later, my life was one continuous period of’ intensive study.  I purposely severed all links with my war-time friends and concentration camp inmates as I wished to forget this period of my life. My time was divided between my digs and the university library with occasional attendance at lectures and for examinations and also some times for distractions and work in the laboratories. I had my own seat in the university library where most of my work was done.

From 1945 onwards, the composition of the Czechoslovak Government was a four-party coalition. of which the Communists were one, holding thirty-eight percent of the parliamentary seats. They were the largest parliamentary party and held certain ministerial posts including the Ministry of the Interior. During 1947 I began to realize that I was being constantly followed by plain-clothed security men.

Frequently, on returning to my digs I noticed that my personal effects had been interfered with and often I noticed that I was being followed. Even friends of mine were followed when they left my flat.

By the end of 1947, I had become so nervous that I decided to find out the reason behind this activity. I made some investigations and found out that a number of my friends had been interviewed concerning me and eventually with the help of friends I managed to find out the name of the person conducting this investigation. I obtained his address, visited him and asked him what I was supposed to have done. He immediately recognized me and told me that there was nothing against me, they knew of my good record both in Auschwitz, the Army and at the
University – He then assured me that it was only 1·1ished to help me and that I should not concern myself any further.

For some months I had no idea of the purpose behind these enquiries and I only found this out at the time of the Communist take-over, in February 1948.

After leaving the Army and at first while I was at the University, I had no contact whatever with the Communist Party. I did not pay any subscriptions and, in the ordinary course of’ events, this alone would have disqualified me from further membership. On the 1st May, 1946 (the first post-war Labour Day) there was a great celebration at ·the University.  I attended with a friend of mine Pick (now the Dean of the University) , he was a member of the Communist Party and knew that I had been a member sometime previously. He asked me to come to a reunion of the Party at the University and I did so. This first r:1eeting was a social affair and I made a few friends and afterwards, attended approximately one half of the meetings which were held. From this time onwards, I also paid my subscriptions.

I was attending university on a grant and it was not necessarily a bad thing from a personal point of view to be a member of a political party. The communist takeover came suddenly in February 1948 dash I knew nothing about it in advance. I was sitting in the university library one day, as was quite usual, when quite suddenly a fellow party member (Pelisek, later a cultural attache in Cuba) came up to me and asked me to accompany him immediately to the university itself. I asked him what it was all about and he replied that I should simply accompany him and not ask questions. It was very cold and I could see that something serious was going to happen and therefore I asked him if I should take warm underwear. This was partisan jargon and a way of asking whether any fighting would be involved. He replied that it might not be a bad idea.

Whilst we were walking to the university, the streets were very quiet and when we arrived there, I immediately saw a large poster with my name on it. This proclaimed that there was a government crisis, the country was in danger of enemy intervention (which was intended to convey that the Germans might, again, interfere) and that therefore the university was being taken over by a non-political action committee of which representatives of all four parties would be members. The Communist Party member was to be Pelesek, the other three parties were each represented by one member, a man called Landa represented the official forces and I was to represent the home resistance. Landa and I were proclaimed to be non-political members. Pelesek was the chairman of the committee.

After the first meeting, it became apparent that the other three political members were in fact subject to communist control. Landa and I were card carrying party members.

Pelisek from the start completely controlled the committee and told us all what to do but at first we were asked to do nothing objectionable and life continued quite normally for about 6 months, IE until August. Meanwhile, the government takeover had occurred and when I returned from holidays in September an entirely new situation presented itself.

I was summoned to the central university Communist Party headquarters, informed that Pelisek (who was also chairman of the party within the chemical technology branch) was to be promoted. His term of office did not expire until the following January and I was to be designated as his successor temporarily until the following January and that thereafter the post would be given to me for a full term of office.

It was clear to me that it would have been dangerous to refuse and also that I had been chosen partly because I was acceptable to non communist elements as well as to the communists.

For the first month I had to do very little and then I was told that there were too many unworthy students occupying places at the university. I was to divide the students into three categories, namely the brilliant and hardworking, the medium to good and the mediocre to bad. The top category was not to be touched and the bottom category were automatically to be dismissed. Those in between these two categories (which in fact formed the vast body of the students) were to be selected on the basis of merit. I prepared the groupings as instructed and then was told that, in so far as the middle category was concerned, the procedure for selection had been changed and that those students who had working class backgrounds or who were party members were to remain at the university whereas all the others i.e. the bourgeois elements and active anti communists were to be removed under the pretext of lack of application to studies. In addition, I was instructed that party members with in the lowest category were to be allowed to retain their places.

This was clearly against the charter of the university in that it involves the application of both political and class discrimination I refused to carry out this task immediately on this ground and was told that there would be no moral offence as far as I was concerned as it was to be done pursuant to higher orders. This was the same excuse which had been used by the Germans and I pointed this out to them. The committee were very shocked and looked at me as if I was mad. They asked me to think it over and told me that they hoped i knew the consequences for a party member to commit a disciplinary offence, i.e. Disobedience to party orders

Nothing happened for about two days and I was then summoned again and asked for my decision. I replied that I felt unable to change my mind. They appeared to be prepared for my reaction and immediately communicated their decision to me.

The spokesman was Cisar (later Minister of Education) who was not a member of the committee but a delegate sent from the central committee of the Communist Party to deal with this case. He told me that whilst they were not prepared to commit themselves from a long-term point of view no immediate action would be taken against me provided I was prepared to resign my position as chairman and to make a public statement confessing my failures and to say that I felt unable to carry out both my official duties and my studies and that I had chosen my studies first before my duties to the party. All this had happened by the end of October and I then returned quietly to my studies and a new chairman was elected immediately after I had made my public statement.

I graduated in October 1949 as a chemical engineer and continued with my studies in order to obtain my doctorate. I obtained a three-year postgraduate fellowship and worked as an “aspirant” under Dr. Kleinzeller who I was delighted to work for as he had spent the wartime in England and his laboratory was the finest in Prague as it had been equipped by the Germans during the war.

I stayed with him for two years and obtained my doctorate in 1951 and then I spent the remaining year of my fellowship in the department of Physiology in order to add some biological experience to my chemical background. This department was part of the academy of science to which I obtained a transfer.

After one year, namely a 1952, my student grant and studies had come to an end and I needed work.

My political disgrace had made it very difficult for me to obtain any post and I ended up as a chemist on the night shift of the penicillin factory at Prague roztoky where although I had two high academic qualifications, I performed A technicians work for a technician salary. This continued until April 1953 until a friend Dr. Milan Horvath, offered me the opportunity to return to research period the Ministry of Health had opened a research department for higher nervous activity within the Institute of Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Diseases in Prague. He offered me a small laboratory in the basement of his establishment on condition that I was prepared to work on the chemistry of the brain. Brain biochemistry was a completely unknown field in Czechoslovakia at that time and only an obscure person could be given this position which otherwise would have appeared to be an extravagance.

I accepted and the next four years of my life were spent in basement laboratory where I remained as inconspicuous as possible. This was the well-known period of the purges and the days of self-critical statement had gone and been replaced by mock trials and summary execution or alternatively simple disappearance. Many friends of mine disappeared never to be seen again and I myself fully expected to follow them

In 1956, something surprising happened. I had, without authority, in 1955 cent a paper to “Nature” at a London scientific journal who published it under my name A Russian Professor, Koshtljanc, read it, came to Prague and said that he wished to see me and to discuss some problems of brain biochemistry. I was put into a far more elegant laboratory and then introduced to this gentleman who was the Dean of the Department of Biological Science at the University of Moscow, naturally, a very important person in Prague. He offered to publish the results of my work in a far more extensive manner than had been done in England, i.e. In the foremost biological journal in the USSR (Progress of Soviet Modern Biology) and, very soon, this publication appeared. It was the first time that a Czechoslovak biologist’s work had received such a prominent place in Soviet professional journals and this considerably affected my position in Prague.

Overnight I again became respectable and my withdrawal from political activity could now be explained simply by my preoccupation with work. I was given a passport which entitled me to participate in the Second International Neurochemical Conference at Aarhus in Denmark in August 1956 and invitations to lecture in Russia in 1957 and 1958 followed. I was a guest of the Ukrainian Academy of Science in February 1957 and of the University of Rustov in April 1958 at the same time, I was invited to lecture at the brain Research Institute in Moscow.

In April 1958, an invitation came for me to attend in August the third international neurochemical Congress at Strasburg in order to read a paper and, later, I was also invited to the 4th international Congress of biochemistry in Vienna which was to take place almost immediately after the Strasburg conference. I immediately applied for permission to attend these conferences and assumed that I would be able to attend although advanced notification and consent was never given until the last moment. One ‘s passport was always kept at the Ministry of Science and would usually be handed to one at the airport, when one was about to make an authorized exit.

For reasons which will appear later, I did not return from Vienna.

Between 1949 and 1958, my political activities were restricted to attending the minimum possible number of party meetings. Attendance at each meeting was checked and consistent failure to attend would have been dangerous. I did not take any active part in such meetings as i attended and participated in a minimum of social activities organized by the party.

Politically, I remained as quiet as possible whilst seeking to advance my scientific position which apart from the benefit to my career would serve to protect me if I was really successful.

7. I became married in 1949 to Gerta Sidon whom I had known since childhood. Her family came from turn of a comma we were childhood friends and I met her again in 1945 when I helped her to attain entrance to the university.

Gerta was a card-carrying party member, she knew of my difficulties but was not really active herself politically.

We lived together in Prague and had two children namely Helena born 26 May 1952 and Susanna born 3rd of may 1954.

Serious matrimonial difficulties started in about 1953 or 1954.

Prior to 1950, when she obtained her doctorate in medicine, she had been a quiet and unassuming person but after that she became ambitious. Our difficulties arose out of the fact that I wasn’t obscure scientist and she started to make contact with influential people and party members in order to advance her position. I disagreed with what she was doing and we had many disputes on the subject.

Eventually things became so bad between us that she made certain threats both about me and my friends of whom some were not very sympathetically disposed towards the regime and ventilated their opinions at our home when they thought it was safe to do so.

Immediately, I made sure that those friends did not visit me any longer although I continued to see them, alone,. Eventually, my wife sued me for a divorce on the ground of incompatibility, there were hearings which I attended and one of the statements made by her was that I was not able to guarantee a socialist education to our children.

She struck up a friendship with her present husband, Dr. Hilton, who at that time visited Czechoslovakia quite frequently as a representative of the British “progressive science.” My wife was appointed as his interpreter on his first visit when he came with his then wife.

On subsequent visits Dr. Hilton came unaccompanied by his wife. My wife was constantly with him on these visits, we were, of course, by that time divorced but I saw her quite frequently because of the children and was well aware of her activities.

I warned her that there would be no possible good ending to her association with a married man from England because in any event, it was against the rules and might cause her professional harm.

By 1958, it was quite clear to me that their association was serious and also that it must have the blessing of the authorities as they made no secret of it.

Doctor Hilton was obviously persona grata as he was able to live at my wife’s flat when he was in Prague, to come and go as freely as he liked, and to travel freely around the country. To me this meant one of two things, either my wife was severely endangering herself and consequently the children or that her actions had official blessing. One night in July or August 1958 when I was returning from visiting a friend at Michalany in eastern Slovakia I saw them quite by chance boarding the train at an intermediate station. The place where they boarded was not a tourist district and, therefore, I concluded that official approval must exist.

I was apprehensive about the whole situation and made arrangements with my mother to give me a signal should anything happen whilst I was abroad which was the obvious time for her to take any steps as I would not then be in a position to interfere. There was an interval of one day between the Strasburg and Vienna conferences at which time I was supposed to go back to Czechoslovakia. The danger signal I had arranged with my mother was that she should fail to write to me; I did not receive a letter and accordingly, went direct from Strasbourg to Vienna instead of to Vienna via Prague.

Whilst I was in Vienna, I learned that my wife had left Czechoslovakia with the children but I did not know where she or the children were and, therefore, did not return with the delegation.

From Vienna I went to Israel and after six weeks was offered a position in the United States of America. I immediately applied for a visa but after 18 months it became abortive.

I worked for about 18 months in Israel in the department of biochemistry and Physiology at the veterinary Research Institute of the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture at Beth Dagan and, meanwhile acquired an Israeli passport and obtained a visa and labour permit to come to England where I had, meanwhile, ascertained my wife had taken the children.

I came to England in early 1960 and took up an appointment at the neuro-psychiatric Research Institute of the Medical Research Council, in Cardiff.

On arrival in London, I immediately went to see my children and from this incident there followed A lengthy and bitter battle with the Hiltons who, by this time, were married, doctor Hilton having, meanwhile, obtained a divorce from his wife who is a friend of mine.

After five years in England, I applied for British nationality which was granted to me on the 13th of August 1966.

My contract with the Medical Research Council expires in may 1967 and I have been offered a position in the New York State institute for basic research in mental retardation by the director of the institute, doctor George a Jervis who was authorized to make this offer by the associated commissioner for research of the New York State department of mental hygiene. I have seen this institute and know the excellent professional abilities of its director and I am convinced that there I shall find such conditions for my work as will enable me I sincerely hope, to contribute to the welfare of human society in a way which will give me great satisfaction.

Eight. The professional side of my life between 1958 to 1966 is, I think, adequately covered by the list of papers which is enclosed.

Nine. Following my experiences both under Naziism and Communism, I do not hold any strong political views except that I am opposed to totalitarianism in any form. I like to reserve the right to change my mind occasionally and my attitude to life is dictated mainly by my professional work.

I have occasionally been prompted to take some anti-communist action, the main occasion was when I replied to President Novotny’s article in The Times.

I have frequently discussed political matters with friends and acquaintances who, not unnaturally, are interested in my experiences and I hope that I have been able to explain to them the practical side and applications of Communism.

After my defection a number of other fellow scientists also defected from Czechoslovakia and, in 1964, I was approached by a Czechoslovak journalist, in London, who suggested that I might like to return to Czechoslovakia. He said that I would be received with honor and given an extremely good position. This interview took place as a result of my radio broadcast on the BBC connected with my book. I refused to go and gave as my reasons that I liked living in a place where I could hold opinions of my own and, in any event, that after I had served my purpose, I should not have thought my prospects in Czechoslovakia were very good.

*

This document was originally entitled

IN THE MATTER OF THE IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT

IN THE MATTER OF DR. RUDOLF VRBA

AFFIDAVIT OF DR. RUDOLF VRBA