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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOn the night of April 5, 1944, Siegfried Lederer escaped from Auschwitz.
Siegfried Lederer's escape from Auschwitz
Gate of the "family camp" at Auschwitz IIBirkenau
On the night of 5 April 1944, Siegfried Lederer, a Czech Jew, escaped from the Auschwitz concentration camp wearing an SS uniform provided by SS-Rottenführer Viktor Pestek. Because of his Catholic faith and infatuation with Renée Neumann, a Jewish prisoner, Pestek opposed the Holocaust. He accompanied Lederer out of the camp, and the two men traveled together to the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to obtain false documents for Neumann and her mother.
Lederer, a former Czechoslovak Army officer and member of the Czech resistance, tried unsuccessfully to warn the Jews at Theresienstadt Ghetto about the mass murders at Auschwitz. He and Pestek returned to Auschwitz in an attempt to rescue Neumann and her mother. Pestek was arrested under disputed circumstances and later executed. Lederer returned to occupied Czechoslovakia, where he rejoined the resistance movement and attempted to smuggle a report on Auschwitz to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Switzerland. After the war he remained in Czechoslovakia. The story of the escape was retold by Lederer and writers including historian Erich Kulka.
{snip}
Gate of the "family camp" at Auschwitz IIBirkenau
On the night of 5 April 1944, Siegfried Lederer, a Czech Jew, escaped from the Auschwitz concentration camp wearing an SS uniform provided by SS-Rottenführer Viktor Pestek. Because of his Catholic faith and infatuation with Renée Neumann, a Jewish prisoner, Pestek opposed the Holocaust. He accompanied Lederer out of the camp, and the two men traveled together to the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to obtain false documents for Neumann and her mother.
Lederer, a former Czechoslovak Army officer and member of the Czech resistance, tried unsuccessfully to warn the Jews at Theresienstadt Ghetto about the mass murders at Auschwitz. He and Pestek returned to Auschwitz in an attempt to rescue Neumann and her mother. Pestek was arrested under disputed circumstances and later executed. Lederer returned to occupied Czechoslovakia, where he rejoined the resistance movement and attempted to smuggle a report on Auschwitz to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Switzerland. After the war he remained in Czechoslovakia. The story of the escape was retold by Lederer and writers including historian Erich Kulka.
{snip}
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On the night of April 5, 1944, Siegfried Lederer escaped from Auschwitz. (Original Post)
mahatmakanejeeves
Apr 2021
OP
Rustyeye77
(2,736 posts)1. Very interesting.
Great post....I learned something.
Rustyeye77
(2,736 posts)2. Fyi
New book came I think 2 months ago
The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler
Karadeniz
(22,499 posts)3. That was a wonderful human!
Rustyeye77
(2,736 posts)4. kick... in memory of Siegfried Lederer
a brave great man.