Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe

by Steve Sheinkin Narrated by Rob Shapiro

Overview

From three-time National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor author Steve Sheinkin, a true story of two Jewish teenagers racing against time during the Holocaust-one in hiding in Hungary, and the other in Auschwitz, plotting escape.

It is 1944. A teenager named Rudolf (Rudi) Vrba has made up his mind. After barely surviving nearly two years in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, he knows he must escape. Even if death is more likely.

Rudi has learned the terrible secret hidden behind the heavily guarded fences of concentration camps across Nazi-occupied Europe: the methodical mass killing of Jewish prisoners. As trains full of people arrive daily, Rudi knows that the murders won't stop until he reveals the truth to the world-and that each day that passes means more lives are lost.

Lives like Rudi's schoolmate Gerta Sidonová. Gerta's family fled from Slovakia to Hungary, where they live under assumed names to hide their Jewish identity. But Hungary is beginning to cave under pressure from German Nazis. Her chances of survival become slimmer by the day.

The clock is ticking. As Gerta inches closer to capture, Rudi and his friend Alfred Wetzler begin their crucial steps towards an impossible escape.

This is the true story of one of the most famous whistleblowers in the world, and how his death-defying escape helped save over 100,000 lives.

Editorial Reviews

OCTOBER 2023 - AudioFile

Rob Shapiro balances a neutral tone and deep emotions as he recounts the horrific and sometimes miraculous experiences of Rudi and Gerta, two Jewish Slovakian teens who are trying to survive WWII. Shapiro captures the author's engaging writing style as he reveals Rudi's horrific experiences in Auschwitz and Gerta's secret activities as a member of the Slovakian underground. Shapiro creates edge-of-your-seat immediacy as Rudi escapes Auschwitz, determined to expose its realities, and when Greta makes the quick, gut-wrenching decision to leave her mother behind when the two are captured. As always, Sheinkin weaves powerful details into a compelling story, and Shapiro's narration transforms it into absorbing audio. Politics and history come alive with poignancy when viewed through the lens of these courageous, impassioned youths. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

★ 06/26/2023

In striking detail, Sheinkin (Fallout) chronicles how, in June 1944, 19-year-old Rudi Vrba, together with 24-year-old Alfred Wexler, both Slovakian Jewish, were the first to reveal to the world the then-hidden Nazi atrocities occurring in Auschwitz. Both prisoners who witnessed firsthand the “death on an industrial scale,” the two made a perilous escape from the camp, determined to alert the public. Sheinkin entwines Vrba’s story escaping Slovakia and enduring hardships in a labor camp with that of his slightly younger Jewish friend Gerta Sidonová, whose family fled to Hungary in spring 1942, where they lived in privilege, posing as Catholics for more than a year until they were caught and sent to a detention camp. Expertly threaded throughout in smooth and accessible prose is the history of Hitler, the Nazi party, and antisemitism. Sympathetic Vrba’s compassion, resourcefulness, and steadfast integrity, and Sidonová’s adaptability and quiet determination, fortify them through their arduous experiences. These noteworthy subjects, combined with Sheinkin’s extensive research, proffer an important, highly readable addition to the library of Holocaust literature for young people. Includes an author’s note, maps, source notes, and a bibliography. Ages 12–up. (Aug.)

From the Publisher

Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor Book

★ "Passionate, absorbing, and, unfortunately, more than a little relevant to current events." —Kirkus, starred review

★ "[A]n important, highly readable addition to the library of Holocaust literature for young people." —Publisher's Weekly, starred review

★ "Sheinkin has penned another must-read with this powerful and harrowing account." —School Library Journal, starred review

★ "Sheinkin's meticulous research, memorable subjects, and haunting atmosphere contribute to an exceptional, soul-stirring narrative... nonfiction at its best." —Shelf Awareness, starred review

★ "National Book Award finalist, Newbery Honoree, and Sibert Medalist Sheinkin is a tried-and-true nonfiction expert whose books make big events, like WWII, accessible for younger readers. This latest, which draws on his own family history, is no exception." —Booklist, starred review

★ "In his latest masterful work of narrative nonfiction, Sheinkin's tale of suspense is tinged with the physical and psychological horror of the Holocaust." —Horn Book Magazine, starred review

"Sheinkin’s meticulous research makes this a riveting account, balancing the larger events of the geopolitical shifts throughout the war with the specific brutality of the camps." —BCCB

“Impossibly riveting, impossibly heartbreaking, impossibly inspiring. Impossible Escape should be required reading for every human being.” —Alan Gratz, New York Times–bestselling author of Allies

“This riveting account of individual survival amid politically motivated persecution works equally well as a thriller, as a history, and as a warning. Masterful.” —Eliot Schrefer, New York Times–bestselling author of Endangered

"This unforgettable, heartbreaking testimony to the heroism of ordinary people is astonishing in its story of youthful determination and survival—and the never-ending need to TELL THE WORLD.” —Elizabeth Wein, author of the Printz Honor book Code Name Verity

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

A Kirkus Best Book of 2023

Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book of 2023

Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of 2023

2024 Bank Street Best Book of the Year

2024-2025 Dogwood Final Reading List

School Library Journal

★ 08/01/2023

Gr 8 Up—Sheinken has penned another must-read with this powerful and harrowing account of childhood friends Rudolf Vrba and Gerta Sidonová, Slovakian Jewish teens who not only survived the Holocaust but fought back against the Nazis. In 1942, when their government announced that Jews were to be deported to "work camps," Rudi was determined not to go and ran away to try to make it to England. He was captured at the Hungarian border and sent to Auschwitz. Due to his age and health, he was spared the gas chambers and sent to work. With cunning, determination, and good luck, he managed to survive, but never stopped thinking about escape. In April 1944, Vrba and friend Alfred Wetzler made an astonishing escape—even though they were near starvation, they walked to Slovakia with a goal to tell the world what was happening in the camps. Their account became known as the Vrba-Wetzler report, which compelled President Roosevelt to intervene with the Hungarian authorities, credited with saving over 200,000 lives. Paralleling Rudi's story, readers learn how Sidonová and her family hid with relatives in Hungary, and her later work with a Hungarian resistance. Sheinkin's unflinching account of the torturous conditions in Auschwitz is chilling and unimaginable, and the escape is heart pounding. This is all expertly interwoven with informative background information making for an absorbing page-turner. This book is well documented with extensive source notes, bibliography, and index; it also includes two diagrams of the camp and black-and-white photos. VERDICT Thoroughly researched with exceptional writing, this riveting narrative is an important addition to Holocaust literature. Highly recommended for all libraries.—Karen T. Bilton

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2023-06-08
The dramatic stories of two Jewish teenagers who beat the odds by surviving the Holocaust and went on to bear witness.

Challenging his readers to understand that it’s up to them to keep what happened then from happening again—or, as he puts it in his final line: “You read the story. You know what to do”—Sheinkin recounts the experiences of two seemingly ordinary young Slovaks under the Nazi regime. Readers meet Gerta Sidonová, who joined a resistance group and, in a gut-wrenching moment, was forced to make a quick choice between staying with her mother or seizing a chance to escape when they were captured together, and Rudi Vrba, who spent nearly two harrowing years in Auschwitz and other prison camps before escaping to deliver one of the first widely distributed eyewitness accounts of what was going on. Along with adding historical context with testimony from other captives, postwar Nazi trial transcripts, and hefty loads of other documentary evidence, and carrying on to the deaths of Rudi in 2006 and Gerta in 2020, the author concludes with a gripping report of a later courtroom exchange between Vrba and a Canadian Holocaust denier. This is a moving tale of luck, pluck, and stubborn endurance with a strong message about where the slippery slopes of hatred and prejudice still, and ever do, lead.

Passionate, absorbing, and, unfortunately, more than a little relevant to current events. (author’s note, source notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159914781
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	10/03/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged

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