Impossible Escape: Chapters 20–27

by Steve Sheinkin
This is the true story of Slovakian teenager Rudolf Vrba, who escaped from the Auschwitz concentration camp in April 1944 and provided eyewitness testimony that stopped the deportation of 200,000 Jews in Hungary, including his childhood friend and future wife, Gerta Sidonová, who reconnected with him through her underground resistance network.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Prologue–Chapter 5, Chapters 6–12, Chapters 13–19, Chapters 20–27, Chapter 28–Epilogue
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. contraband
    goods whose trade or possession is prohibited by law
    Rudi made maybe three hundred trips a day back and forth, carrying contraband on only a select few.
  2. genuinely
    in accordance with truth or fact or reality
    Bruno appeared genuinely shocked.
  3. casualty
    a decrease of military personnel or equipment
    Axis commanders hurled waves of troops and tanks into the ruins, but Soviet defenders held fast, fighting back from basements, from the skeletal remains of buildings, inflicting heavy casualties on the invaders.
  4. decisive
    determining or having the power to determine an outcome
    The news made it sound as if Axis forces were closing in on a decisive victory.
  5. ration
    restrict the consumption of a relatively scarce commodity
    Hitler was demanding a steady stream of supplies from his allies, which caused food shortages in Hungary. The government began rationing food, but since they were in the country illegally Gerta’s family was not eligible for the ration stamps needed to purchase groceries.
  6. situate
    put something somewhere firmly
    The ramp was a long wooden platform along the train tracks coming into camp. Situated between Auschwitz main camp and Birkenau, it was almost like a train station.
  7. endure
    face and withstand with courage
    People would do anything to stay with their families, endure any misery to give their children a chance to live.
  8. deploy
    place troops or weapons in battle formation
    By the end of 1942, more than forty countries were fighting in World War II, with tens of millions of soldiers deployed worldwide.
  9. incriminating
    charging or suggestive of guilt or blame
    He grabbed the book, flipped to a map of Poland, tore out the page, and shoved it in his shirt. Rudi raced to the latrine and pulled out the paper. He couldn’t keep such an incriminating piece of evidence.
  10. tributary
    a branch that flows into the main stream
    The town sat near the meeting point of the Vistula River and one of its tributaries, the Sola.
  11. perplex
    be a mystery or bewildering to
    The level of security had perplexed Rudi at first. Now, based on everything he’d learned, it made sense.
  12. unconditional
    not subject to any restrictions or limitations
    President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in Casablanca, Morocco, to chart a path toward Allied victory in World War II. Roosevelt announced to the world that there was only one acceptable outcome: the unconditional surrender of Germany, Japan, and Italy.
  13. lurch
    move haltingly and unsteadily
    Skeletal prisoners lurched down unpaved paths.
  14. rank
    very offensive in smell or taste
    The air was rank with smoke and the stink of death.
  15. cavernous
    being or suggesting a large dark enclosed space
    The doorway opened on a cavernous room with low concrete ceilings and freshly whitewashed walls.
  16. facility
    a building or place that provides a particular service
    Everything in this building was similar to what Filip had seen before, only bigger and newer, engineered to function like a factory. And this was just one of four such facilities in Birkenau.
  17. blunder
    an embarrassing mistake
    The mighty French army made it all the way into Moscow before a combination of ferocious Russian resistance and a brutal Russian winter turned Napoleon’s advance into a catastrophic retreat. Could Hitler have made the same blunder with his Soviet invasion?
  18. denounce
    accuse or condemn openly as disgraceful
    “We were told that you might be illegal immigrants. Pack a few personal things you want to take with you, because if your identity papers are not in order you will be sent to a detention camp.”
    Who had denounced them?
  19. inadequacy
    unsatisfactoriness by virtue of lacking necessary qualities
    “I knew that the feeling of inadequacy swamped him,” Gerta would recall. “He was unable to take proper care of us, and he couldn’t bear it.”
  20. privileged
    blessed with special advantages
    This was a privileged position, with incredible luxuries such as better food and real clothes in place of striped pajamas.
  21. ledger
    a record in which commercial accounts are recorded
    Rudi asked for details of how many people they’d arrived with and where they were from, adding these facts to the ledger in his head.
  22. shun
    avoid and stay away from deliberately
    A lot of prisoners shunned members of the Sonderkommando, refused even to shake their hands, and Rudi got it, felt a bit of that disgust himself.
  23. uproot
    move forcibly from a homeland into a new foreign environment
    Yet Horthy did not think uprooting nearly a tenth of the population could be done without disrupting the country’s economy. It simply wasn’t in Hungary’s best interests.
  24. harrowing
    causing extreme distress
    The other teens had all been separated from their parents and told harrowing stories of life on the run.
  25. adverse
    contrary to your interests or welfare
    “Perhaps I knew,” she’d say, looking back at this moment, “that I should start learning how to face adverse situations independently and make my own decisions.”
  26. baffling
    hard to comprehend, solve, or believe
    Lesson four: “Carry no money.” A baffling bit of advice. It was easy enough to organize cash in camp. Wouldn’t Rudi need it to buy food?
  27. inevitable
    incapable of being avoided or prevented
    Rudi would be desperate for food; that was inevitable.
  28. forage
    collect or look around for, as food
    You’ll need matches, to cook any food you’re able to forage, and a watch, which can be used as a compass.
  29. dismantle
    tear down so as to make flat with the ground
    By the end of fall 1943, the SS had dismantled the killing centers of Belzec, Treblinka, and Sobibor.
  30. elaborate
    developed or executed with care and in minute detail
    In October, prisoners at Sobibor pulled off a more elaborate revolt.
  31. cobbler
    a person who makes or repairs shoes
    Minutes later, another guard entered the cobbler shop to pick up a pair of boots—and got the same treatment.
  32. partisan
    devoted to a cause or political group
    About fifty survived the war by joining partisan groups or hiding with sympathetic Polish farmers.
  33. jargon
    a characteristic language of a particular group
    Rudi Vrba had survived more than a year and a half in Auschwitz. In the jargon of the camp, there were “new” prisoners and “old” prisoners. Rudi was an ancient prisoner.
    He was nineteen.
  34. discreet
    marked by prudence or modesty and wise self-restraint
    He later spoke to one of the men he’d seen working on the project, a Polish kapo he knew well enough to ask a discreet question.
  35. boisterous
    marked by exuberance and high spirits
    Escape—but how?
    Lots of prisoners thought they’d found the answer.
    One was a Slovak named Fero Langer, a big guy, boisterous and always laughing, always willing to share his bread.
  36. devise
    come up with after a mental effort
    He immediately devised a plan to get out.
  37. riddle
    pierce with many holes
    Dobrovolny got a week’s leave as a reward, and the SS got five bullet- riddled bodies to put on display. A blunt force message meant to crush all hope of escape.
  38. goulash
    a rich meat stew highly seasoned with paprika
    Dr. Andrej Milar, a friend from their barracks, had organized a pot of goulash soup and Rudi was welcome to a bowl.
  39. pry
    move or force in an effort to get something open
    He dropped to his knees and pried up a floorboard under which he’d seen Charlo hide his treasures.
  40. regent
    someone who rules during the absence of the monarch
    In mid-March, Hitler ordered his troops into Hungary.
    Miklós Horthy stayed on in the role of regent, but with greatly reduced day-to-day power over the government.
Created on Tue Jun 04 10:39:33 EDT 2024 (updated Wed Jun 05 13:29:23 EDT 2024)

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