‘They’ve got them! C’mon … Hurry’ : Ibid.
a sharp pain : Wetzler, Escape , p. 139.
they hugged each other : Ibid.
‘we’d have been trapped’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 277.
Chapter 1: Star
example to be followed : Author correspondence with Robin Vrba.
run an errand : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 71.
bolt of lightning : Author correspondence with Robin Vrba.
Walter chose none : Vrba, World at War , part I, p. 4.
unreliable, untrustworthy : Kubátová and Lání? ek, Imagination , p. 22.
flat fields of ripe corn : Vrbová, Trust , p. 11.
set fire to both synagogues : JTA, ‘2 Synagogues Burned in Slovakia’， 14 December 1938.
‘Jews out, Czechs out’ : Vrbová, Trust , p. 14.
inorganic and organic chemistry : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 55.
a personal tutor : Author interview with Robin Vrba, 22 October 2021.
hat with pom-poms : Vrbová, Trust , p. 21.
a bulletin board : Vogel, USHMM interview, p. 2.
keep his butcher shop alive : Vrbová, Trust , p. 21.
It was open season : Spira, ‘Memories of Youth’， p. 43.
‘The strictest laws against Jews are Slovakia’s’ : The front page of government propaganda paper L’udové noviny （People’s Newspaper）， 21 September 1941. The headline read: ‘Already sent the Jews packing: the strictest racial laws against Jews are Slovak’。
six inches across : Vrba, World at War , part I, p. 2.
daily humiliation and exclusion : Vrbová, Trust , p. 17.
the socialists : Author correspondence with Robin Vrba.
twenty-five kilograms : Vrba, World at War , part I, p. 12.
follow later : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 2.
any future resistance : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 4.
stupid instruction : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 2.
leaving his mother : Vrba, World at War , part I, p. 12.
‘green cheese’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 1.
locksmith : Author interview with Robin Vrba, 16 November 2020.
‘where we got you’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 1.
‘take a taxi’ : Ibid., p. 5.
Chapter 2: Five Hundred Reichsmarks
a box of matches : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 6.
‘dirty, bloody Yid’ : Ibid., p. 17.
huge barracks : Ibid., p. 19.
pea soup and potatoes : Frieder, Souls , p. 105.
‘bloody troublemaker’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 20.
pathetically inadequate : Ibid., p. 21.
Chapter 3: Deported
‘dead duck’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 34.
hit one of the adults : Vrba, World at War , part I, p. 20.
three years earlier : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 45.
you never knew how long : Vrba, World at War , part I, p. 28.
‘you bastards’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 45.
‘between fifteen and fifty’ : Vrba–Wetzler Report , p. 21.
a long trek ahead of them : Ibid.
Chapter 4: Majdanek
‘Anything in the pocket?’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 52.
scavenging for food : Ibid., p. 56.
raised their arms in greeting : Ibid., p. 60.
up to a thousand people : State Museum at Majdanek, ‘Living Conditions’， https://www.majdanek.eu/en/history/living_conditions/13
empty their bowels : Cesarani, Final Solution , p. 659.
shot the rabbi dead : Vrba–Wetzler Report , p. 23.
artificial fat of the worst quality : Ibid., p. 22.
enormous physical effort : Fackler, ‘Music’， p. 2.
‘in a few days’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 64.
‘Go there and you’ll die’ : Ibid., p. 65.
‘You’ll be sorry’ : Ibid., p. 67.
primitive wooden shacks : Vrba–Wetzler Report , p. 24.
Chapter 5: We Were Slaves
highly disciplined dogs : The World at War , Thames TV, Episode 20, ‘Genocide’， 27 March 1974.
secret was being guarded : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 73.
skin and bone : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1333.
special stipple : Wetzler, 1963 testimony, p. 26.
fainted : Vrba–Wetzler Report , p. 1.
‘old number’ : Langbein, People , pp. 70–1.
star formed from two triangles : D?ugoborski and Piper, Auschwitz , vol. II, p. 17.
non-men : Levi, If This Is a Man , p. 103.
feign vitality : Langbein, People , p. 120.
‘They’re today’s harvest’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 81.
‘they knew too much’ : Ibid., p. 82.
first transfer was to Buna : Vrba–Wetzler Report , p. 24.
‘worked in your lives’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 112.
the higher storeys : Ibid., p. 94.
one hundred prisoners : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1247.
other for the Kapo : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 113.
nothing to eat or drink : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1248.
metal pipe : Rothman, USHMM interview, p. 14.
exhaustion and starvation : Greif, We Wept , p. 368 n. 24.
either potato or turnip : Vrba–Wetzler Report , p. 24.
There were no spoons : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1248.
the tainted source : Ibid.
‘attempted to escape’ : Vrba–Wetzler Report , p. 24.
‘Run for the hat’ : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1250.
on their shoulders : Ibid., p. 1252.
five and ten corpses : Ibid., p. 1251.
five on the other : Ibid., pp. 1330–1.
how many were alive : Ibid., p. 1332.
in the women’s camp : Ibid., p. 1253.
rapidly became swollen : Itzkowitz, USHMM interview, p. 14.
mastered the pain : Vrba–Wetzler Report , p. 25.
to paint them : Ibid.
shot several Jews for sabotage : Ibid.
twenty yards back : Vrba, Testimony, pp. 1254–5.
run for his life : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 130.
500 lives a month : Bacon, Saving Lives , p. 47.
recover from typhus : Langbein, People , p. 204.
They would kill the sick : Bacon, Saving Lives , p. 47.
a total of 746 prisoners : Ibid.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 131.
‘You’re lucky, boys’ : Ibid., p. 132.
Their hair was shorn : Vrba–Wetzler Report , p. 2.
Chapter 6: Kanada
six large barracks : Greif, We Wept , p. 338 n. 45.
more than two acres : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1306.
any hidden valuables : Greif, We Wept , p. 338.
running a careful finger : Hart, I Am Alive , pp. 69–70.
twenty women : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 28.
eat and survive : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 43.
vague suspicions : Ibid., p. 145.
swallowed up by the night : Levi, If This Is a Man , p. 21.
Chapter 7: The Final Solution
sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau : Cesarani, Final Solution , p. 522.
haphazard integration : Ibid., p. 520.
some 600,000 Jews : Wachsmann, KL , p. 292.
It acquired that function gradually : Author interview with Nikolaus Wachsmann, 28 May 2021.
not discreet enough : D?ugoborski and Piper, Auschwitz , vol. III, p. 121.
burning corpses : Ibid.
served as a morgue : Ibid., p. 122.
great bellowing sound : Ibid., p. 129.
tatty clothes : Ibid.
‘You will now bathe’ : Ibid., p. 131.
violent banging and knocking : Müller, Eyewitness , pp. 31–9.
motorbike was doing laps : D?ugoborski and Piper, Auschwitz , vol. III, p. 131.
heavy coughing : Wachsmann, KL , p. 301.
some 60,000 people : Ibid., p. 304.
trees and shrubs : Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, ‘The Death of Silent Witnesses to History’， http://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/the-death-of-silent-witnesses-to-history,466.html