Inspiring Stories About People Who Escaped The Holocaust

The Holocaust was indisputably one of the most horrific events in human history

But amid the horror were moments of defiance and inspirational stories of compassion and the endurance of the human spirit, even in the bleakest times

So, today we're going to take a look at some inspiring stories about people who escaped the Holocaust

Okay, time to travel back to the Second World War and find some light in the darkness

When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Leo Bretholz fled his homeland and eventually ended up in France

Unfortunately, Germany invaded France too, and France's Vichy regime collaborated with its invaders

That is some pretty bad luck. Bretholz was eventually arrested and sent to Auschwitz in 1942 on a train with nearly a thousand other Jewish deportees

Bret Holtz, however, was determined to get off that train before it reached Auschwitz

So, along with another deportee named Manfred Silberwasser, he spent hours prying open iron

bars in their train car to create an opening big enough for them to slip through. The two men used

science to maximize their efforts. As Bret Holtz explained decades later, we know that when you make a cloth wet, it has tensile strength in wringing it. You can wring it

and when you twist it, it becomes like a tourniquet. The two men removed their sweaters

and dipped them in the bucket of human waste that was in the train car. They then wrapped the sweaters around the bars

and twisted them until all the liquid had poured out. Eventually, they could see the rust in the frame

falling as dust, and they could tell the bars were moving. They continued working on the bars

until they managed to create an opening about a foot across. When the train slowed to turn a corner

Bret Holtz and Silbervassa jumped. They laid low in a ravine before walking towards a village

The two escapees managed to track down the village priest, hoping that he would help them

The priest fed them and let them stay the night, but patrols regularly came by very early in the

morning, so the two had to be on their way before 5 a.m. the next day. The priest gave them a letter

of introduction to another priest they could trust and sent them on their way. Brettholt survived the

war and immigrated to the United States, all thanks to his knowledge of how fabrics behave

when wet. As a wise man named Jesse Pinkman once said, yeah, science. Germany invaded Belgium

in 1940, and with German occupation came the deportation of Belgian Jews. In 1943, 11-year-old

Simon Granowski and his mother Hannah were among the deportees from Brussels. They too were forced

on a train bound for Auschwitz After the train departed the station the Belgian resistance made themselves a nuisance to the train operators who were forced to deploy the brakes Members of the resistance took the opportunity to cut open one of the train doors and 17 imprisoned people managed to escape the train The train began to

move again, but Hannah was determined to get Simon off before it was too late. As Simon recalled

decades later, his mother lowered him down by his shirt and his shoulder, but the train was moving

so fast he didn't dare to jump. But gradually, he felt the train slow down until he finally told

his mother, now I can jump. She let go, and he escaped. It would be the last time he ever saw

his mother. Free from the train, Simon ran into the woods and kept walking until he came across

a village. There he asked a woman for help, and she took him to the local police station

Luckily, the officer didn't turn him in to German officials. Instead, the policeman told him

we're good Belgians. We won't betray you, and sent the young boy home to Brussels

Once back in Brussels, Simon Granowski was reunited with his father. Another reason to

like the good Belgians, in addition to the waffles. Slovakian-born Rudolf Werba was imprisoned at Auschwitz in 1942, where he was selected to be

an enslaved laborer. His g included sorting through the belongings of prisoners

who had died at the camp's gas chamber. Later, he worked as a registrar. After two years at the

camp, Werba was desperate to flee, but even discussing an escape was incredibly dangerous

because the Germans had agents planted everywhere. Luckily for Verba, he had been imprisoned with a hometown friend named Alfred Wetzler

whom he trusted implicitly. You grow up with a guy, you trust him to be part of your escape plan

The two men began by carefully observing the SS guards at the camp

The guards, they noted, spent around three days searching for escapees before giving up

So Verba and Wetzler figured all they had to do was evade detection for three days

and they'd have a decent chance of survival. Three days is doable, right? That's totally doable

On April 7, 1944, they hid under a pile of lumber on a tract of land being prepared for the camp's expansion

According to tablet magazine writer Jackson Richman, the two men covered themselves with gasoline-soaked Russian tobacco

hoping it would mask their scent from the SS dogs. After remaining immobile in the hiding spot for three days, they sprinted for the woods

A few weeks later, Werberbach and Wetzler made it back to Slovakia

where they provided detailed intel about Auschwitz to the Slovak Jewish Council

From there, the information circulated around the world, shocking and horrifying all who read it

Sobibor was an extermination camp located in German Poland Over the course of the conflict the Third Reich murdered 250 Jews there Not all the prisoners perished however

Some were selected as laborers to keep the camp running. Their tasks included serving German officers

and seeing to the burial of slain prisoners. But even this position in camp didn't guarantee safety

At Sobibor and other camps, even laborers were at risk. On October 14, 1943, some prisoners at Sobibor

put an escape plan into action when they feared the camp would soon close. While that sounds like

a cause for celebration, closing down the camp meant eliminating all of its prisoners. The clock

was ticking. Using weapons they had secretly collected, prisoners in an underground resistance

movement took out 11 German officers and fled the camp. Although roughly 300 prisoners initially

escaped, about 100 of those were swiftly recaptured. Only about 50 of the escapees were still living

when the war ended two years later. Haim Engel and Selma Weinberg, who met and fell in love at Sobibor

were among those who successfully escaped. As Haim later recalled, once the uprising started

the couple had two choices, escape or die. He said, Selma gave me a knife

I don't think I was a big hero or a big courageous man, but I figured it's self-defense and survival

After their escape, Haim and Selma hid in Poland. They stayed out of sight from authorities and civilians

who would have turned them in by hiding out in a corner of a little hayloft

Haim and Selma survived the war, married, and eventually moved to Connecticut

When David Visnia was sent to Auschwitz in 1942, the skilled musician's talent likely saved his life

As a singer, Visnia performed for officers and thus didn't have to do heavy labor

He literally sang for his supper. Two years later, Visnia was sent to Dachau, where he was forced on a death march

At one point during the march, Visnia obtained a small shovel, and he used it to seize his freedom

After a failed group attempt at escape, Visnia figured he'd try it again on his own

Visnia recalled, I had a shovel over there on the side. I smacked one of the guys who was guarding us right in the head as he was trying to gather us

and there was nobody else, and I took off. And while it is unclear whether he delivered a cool shovel-related pun while securing his escape

let's assume that he did. Visnia eventually found his way to American troops

which was a surprise. He had expected to find Russian troops, not American ones

Though he had difficulty communicating with the Americans because he didn't speak English, the soldiers provided care

for Visnia and employed him for the rest of the war. Kazimierz Pihovski arrived at Auschwitz as a prisoner in 1940

Though all prisoners likely dreamed of escaping Pihovski was finally moved to action when he learned that his friend in the camp would not make it out alive He and the friend came up with a daring plan They would steal SS uniforms take one of the camp cars and drive away to freedom So two years after he

first arrived, Pichowski, his endangered friend, and two other prisoners made their attempt

It was a harrowing ordeal, as Pichowski recalled decades later, but he just kept repeating to

himself, we have to do this. We have to believe. Incredibly, the plan worked. Their stolen uniforms

and car got them beyond the camp's gates. But the group wasn't home free just yet. They still had

to pass through a final checkpoint. As they approached it in the car, their hearts sank

when they realized that the barrier was down and the guard was in no hurry to raise it

Would he ask for identification? Trying to stay ahead of what could be a dangerous situation

Pichowski knew he had to take matters into his own hands. In what sounds like the tense finale of a prison break movie

he opened the car door and let out a stream of military abuse towards the guard

Then he jumped out of the car and vigorously placed his hand on his holster

In other words, he bluffed and bluffed good. The guard leapt toward the handle, opened the gate

and saluted the escapees as they drove to freedom. Help sometimes comes from the most unlikely places

That's what happened when Wiedoslav Lerderer, a Jewish former army officer from Czechoslovakia

escaped Auschwitz with the help of an SS guard named Viktor Pestek

Historian Alan J. Levine describes Pestek as a decent man who loathed what he was doing and had behaved well toward the prisoners

And while Hermann Langbein, a Holocaust survivor, claimed there was nothing positive to report about 99% of the guards

he agreed that Pestek was in a minuscule minority of SS guards who showed some kindness to prisoners

However, there was a catch to Pestek's offer to help Lerderer escape. Pestek declared that he was

in love with Rene Neumann, another prisoner of Auschwitz. In exchange for Pestek's help

Lerderer would have to help Neumann and her mother get out of the camp as well

To prepare for the escape, Pestek gave Lerderer an SS uniform, and the two simply walked out of

camp together in April 1944. From there, they traveled to a series of Czech cities and villages

to gather papers and documents from Lerda Er's Czech contacts. Tragically, when Pestek returned

to Auschwitz to smuggle out the Neumanns, he was arrested and executed. To his credit

despite being fiercely interrogated, Pestek never revealed the names of Lerda Er's contacts

Free of the camps, Lerda Er joined the Czech resistance and devoted himself to sounding

the alarm about Auschwitz and fighting the Axis for the remainder of the war