Jonny Gould’s Jewish State circles back to a previous episode, uncovering startling new revelations. New details so rich, a bestseller has been updated to include them.
In episode 88, I sat down with my old friend, Jonathan Freedland to discuss The Escape Artist, the story of two young Jewish men who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world of the horrors within. Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler’s 32-page report reached the desks of Roosevelt, Churchill and the Pope and they warned Hungary’s Admiral Horthy to stop the deportation of his country’s Jews to Auschwitz - or they’d make him a war criminal.
On receiving this, Horthy panicked and stopped turning a blind eye to the death trains leaving from across Hungary. 200,000 Jewish lives were spared because of Vrba and Wetzler’s actions.
Dr. Bea Lewkowicz is a fellow member of my synagogue and one Shabbat morning, she told me that rather uniquely, she knew both Rudi and Alfred, who was her own Uncle Freddo.
But the contrasting post war fortunes of the two men was stark. Rudi lived a metropolitan academic’s life in Vancouver, but Fred was trapped behind the iron curtain in Czechoslovakia, constrained and ostracised by the repressive communist regime.
Bea is director of the AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive of the Association of Jewish Refugees, where she creates and archives holocaust testimonies. She’s also a director of Sephardi Voices UK. So for the first time in the series, I’m more than delighted to hand over the interview microphone to Jonathan, in conversation with Bea.
If you’ve read The Escape Artist and invested in their remarkable story, you’ll love this. If you haven’t, this is a great place to start.
Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.
If you'd also like to support Jonny's work, you can donate here.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
137: Loay Alshareef in London: "It’s bad news for the enemies of peace”
136: Nicole Lampert: I confronted Gary Lineker in public about his Palestinian tweets
135: Itamar Marcus: UNRWA, the worst thing that ever happened to the Palestinians
134: President Reuven Rivlin of Israel defies Poland's Holocaust Remembrance laws on Polish soil
EXTRA: Elon Musk and Ben Shapiro return from Auschwitz with their first impressions
133: Haviv Rettig Gur and Jonathan Spyer: “Deathblow” to Hamas would aid Gulf vision for stability
132: "Golda": producer Nicholas Martin, "We knew we were winning when Assad shot his generals"
131: “Another How To Make Peace In The Middle East" TalkTV Special
130: Dov Forman: “My trip to Kfar Aza and the Nova Festival site will change me forever”
129: Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Jerusalem's deputy mayor: "250,000 Israelis are displaced"
128: Bring Them Home! Orit Meir: mother of Gaza hostage, Almog, 21.
127: TalkTV Special: “How To Make Peace In The Middle East”
126: Chaim Oren: “A crisis can lead to rebirth”. How to build emotional resilience
125: Relief work in Ukraine and Israel. Elnet UK's reception at the Houses of Parliament
124: Lies, libels and lack of probity. Israel fights more than just Hamas, now also the UN and BBC
123: Bring Them Home! says Entebbe survivor Benny Davidson, "I know what our hostages in Gaza are going through”
122: Chuck Freilich: Catastrophe in Israel. What now as Hamas shows the world its true intentions?
121: Bill Browder, Putin's thorn. “We all need to be leaders, to stand up against wrong and for right”
120: Rt. Hon. Joan Ryan in conversation with the Rt. Hon. Lord Eric Pickles
119: Israelophobia: Jake Wallis Simons on the newest version of the oldest hatred
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Wondering Jews with Mijal and Noam
Unpacking Israeli History
Unorthodox
For Heaven’s Sake
Sivan Says: Taking the Torah Personally