The Man Who Escaped from Auschwitz to Warn the World

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Rudolf Vrba was sent to Auschwitz at the age of seventeen, and, against astonishing odds, he managed to escape the camp. He lived to provide direct testimony of the Holocaust that reached Allied governments. Jonathan Freedland tells Vrba’s story in his new book, “The Escape Artist.” Plus, the Sudanese American poet Safia Elhillo talks about her latest collection, “Girls That Never Die,” which responds to some of the backlash that she received online from her earlier work. “I think I really had to sit down and dismantle this idea that if I was polite enough, respectful enough, modest enough, quiet enough, silent enough—that nobody would ever want to do me harm,” Elhillo says.

The Man Who Escaped from Auschwitz to Warn the World

David Remnick talks with Jonathan Freedland about his new book, which chronicles the life of Rudolf Vrba, who escaped from Auschwitz as a teen-ager.

Safia Elhillo on Vulnerability and Anger in “Girls That Never Die”

The Sudanese American poet talks with Dana Goodyear about her new work, which breaks the strictures that she earlier set in an effort to present herself modestly.

The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.