Vrba, Rudolf 1924-2006

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Vrba, Rudolf 1924-2006

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born September 11, 1924, in Topolcany, Czechoslovakia (now in Slovakia); died of cancer, March 27, 2006, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Pharmacologist, educator, and author. Vrba was best known for as a former Auschwitz prisoner who helped save the lives of about 100,000 Jews during the Holocaust. Born to a Jewish family, he was imprisoned in 1942 as a teenager by the Nazis and sent to the infamousconcentration camp Auschwitz. There, he was lucky enough not to be sent to the ovens, but instead was put to work performing such jobs as registrar for the quarantine area and as one of those in the "Sonderkommando" whose job it was to get rid of thousands of dead bodies. Learning that the Germans were planning to orchestrate the last major roundup of Jews in Europe and send them from Hungary to concentration camps, Vrba determined at last to escape the camp and warn others. Managing, in 1944, to flee the camp with fellow prisoner Alfred Wetzler, he made it to the Czechoslovakian border, where he found further aid in his escape from the underground. With his photographic memory as a valuable tool, Vrba and his companion prepared a report of exactly what was occurring at Auschwitz, including detailed diagrams showing the camp's layout. They delivered the report, through the Jewish underground, to Hungary, and from there it was sent to British and American military commands. With the backing of reports from two more Auschwitz escapees, Vrba and Wetzler's story was finally believed, and the Hungarian government ceased deportation of Jews from their country. It was estimated that this action likely saved about 100,000 Jews from certain extermination. Meanwhile, Vrba, who was originally named Walter Rosenberg, changed his name while fighting with the Slovak partisans toward the end of the war. He would keep the name Vrba thereafter. With the war over, he resolved to study chemistry at Czech Technical University, earning a doctorate in 1951; he also received a C.Sc. from the Czechoslovak Academy of Science in 1956. Vrba became a medical researcher at the Institute of Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Diseases in Prague, where he studied brain chemistry and diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Two years at the Ministry of Agriculture in Israel were followed by employment with England's Medical Research Council from 1960 to 1967. During this period, Vrba published a book about his war experiences: I Cannot Forgive (1964); he also contributed to documentary films. His last position was with the University ofBritish Columbia, where he joined the faculty as an associate professor of pharmacology in 1967; he retired in the early 1990s.