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.
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61: Tim Marshall: The Power of Geography, "compromise is a beautiful word"
60: Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely: Israel’s first female ambassador to the United Kingdom
59: Upheaval: The Journey of Menachem Begin. The documentary film of his life story
58: Gaza, Israel and the Jewish diaspora under attack
57: Je Suis Sarah Halimi, London: Solidarity with French Jews outside the French Embassy
56: Shaun Bailey: Conservative candidate for London Mayor’s views on Israel and Jewish Londoners
55: Tuvia Tenenbom’s “The Taming of the Jew” is British Jewry’s wakeup call
54: Is Israel's politics only about Bibi vs. Anyone But Bibi? Ambassador Danny Ayalon and Dr. Nachman Shai
53: Bristol's Jewish students confront University over “end Zionism” professor
52.1: Col. Richard Kemp OBE: Israel’s vaccine success and Biden’s foreign policy priorities
52: Israel's world-leading Covid vaccine rollout. How did Israel lead the world in implementing the vaccines to the people?
51: Brendan O'Neill: Israel and the hard-left, Israel and the EU
Israel Briefing 2 with James Marlow: Mossad did kill Iran’s nuclear chief, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh
50: Jewish Telegraph at 70: Editor Paul Harris on the day he took his family into Arafat’s lair!
49: Labour Against Antisemitism: has Starmer done enough to change Labour?
48: Justice for Malki: Arnold Roth calls for Tamimi's extradition and BBC apology to its audience
47: UAE Ambassador Mansoor Abulhoul: The Abraham Accords of Israel UAE peace
46: Eva Schloss: Anne Frank's stepsister, "I forgive the Nazis"
45: Ambassador Ferenc Kumin: The Hungarian Holocaust and the State of Israel as allies
Trailer: Jonny Gould’s Jewish State, “For those who listen, for those who are willing to listen”.
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