Escape from Auschwitz

A historian associated with the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem and himself a survivor of Auschwitz, Kulka here tells the suspenseful story of Siegfried Lederer, who escaped from the death camp in Poland. The breakout was initiated by Viktor Pestek, a Romanian of German extraction and a guard at the camp who fell in love with an inmate. To lay the groundwork for the rescue of this Jew and her aged mother, Pestek arranged for himself and Lederer to escape in order to procure forged release documents. They made their way to Lederer's native Czechoslovakia, where the ex-prisoner's contacts made it possible for them to survive. On returning to Auschwitz to accomplish their plan, Pestek was captured and killed; Lederer managed to flee, but the mission was scrapped. Kulka's account of this episode provides a searing delineation of the horrors of the Nazi regime. Photos. Jewish Book Club selection. (March)