denying communion : Baron, Stopping , p. 209.
‘Hell!’ : Ibid.
Chapter 22: What Can I Do?
flabbergasted : Mordowicz, USHMM interview, p. 24.
silent rejoicing : Ibid., p. 26.
he was furious : Rosin, Kulka interview, p. 8.
reveal under torture : Vrba to Martin Gilbert, 30 July 1980, FDRPL, Vrba collection, box 3.
steep sidewall : Mordowicz, USHMM interview, p. 29.
bread and two pairs of overalls : Ibid.
turpentine : Ibid., p. 32.
whose numbers had increased : Ibid., p. 28.
found a matchbox : Kulka, ‘Five Escapes’， p. 208.
most sincere embrace : Rosin, Kulka interview, p. 21.
prison visitor : Zimring, ‘Tale’， p. 381.
get a haircut, drink in a bar, meet women : Vrba, I Escaped , pp. 305–6.
twenty days : Vrba to John S. Conway, 2 July 1976, FDRPL, Vrba collection, box 1, p. 4.
police informers : Ibid., p. 14.
over lunch : Krasň ansk?, ‘Declaration’， p. 3.
Mordowicz began to sweat : Mordowicz, USHMM interview, p. 50.
wine and Camel cigarettes : Kulka, ‘Five Escapes’， p. 210.
only jotting down : Ibid.
‘Monsignor, listen to me’ : Mordowicz, USHMM interview, p. 50.
‘all and any means’ : Vrba to John S. Conway, 2 July 1976, FDRPL, Vrba collection, box 1, p. 15.
‘You have to do one thing’ : Mordowicz, USHMM interview, p. 51.
in a single day : ‘Death Trains in 1944: The Kassa List’。
Chapter 23: London Has Been Informed
hand it to the Gestapo : Interview with Krasň ansk?, 22 December 1980, in Gilbert, Auschwitz , p. 203.
unpaid first secretary : Kranzler, Mantello , p. xxii.
Spanish, French, German and English : Ibid., p. 91.
four arresting press releases : Ibid., p. 98.
telegram despatch : Baron, Stopping , p. 18.
mailboxes of the city’s newspapers : Rings, Advokaten , p. 144.
none of the four : Kranzler, Mantello , pp. 208–9.
later that same day : Bogdanor, Kasztner’s Crime , p. 187.
383 articles : Fleming, Auschwitz , p. 233.
revised down : Rings, Advokaten , pp. 140–6.
more articles appeared about Auschwitz : Fleming, Auschwitz , p. 233.
special masses : Tibori Szabo?, ‘Auschwitz Reports’， p. 113.
Basel and Schaffhausen : Zimring, ‘Men’， p. 81.
correspondent in Geneva : Daniel T. Brigham, ‘Inquiry Confirms Nazi Death Camps’， New York Times , 3 July 1944.
‘shocking’ : Interview with Garrett in Rings, Advokaten , p. 144.
‘broadcasted immediately’ : Gilbert, Auschwitz , p. 233.
in Czech and Slovak : Records on the broadcasting of London and Moscow radios, Central Archives, Prague, SUA4, URP. Cart. 1170, cited in Kárn?, ‘Report’， p. 559.
‘London has been informed’ : ? wiebocki, London , p. 56.
News for Women : Fleming, Auschwitz , Appendix I, line 46.
inmates of Auschwitz heard the BBC : The episode was recalled by Erich Kulka in conversation with Gerhart Riegner, who discussed it in an April 1995 interview with Martin Gilbert at the World Jewish Congress in Geneva. Baron, Stopping , p. 15 n. 32.
flowers, flirtatious notes : Waller, Disciples , p. 136; Baron, Stopping , p. 16.
‘Could you also?’ : Gilbert, Auschwitz , p. 233.
‘Seems more in your line’ : Ibid.
‘at least 1,500,000’ : Winik, ‘Darkness’， p. 68.
‘a positive contribution’ : FDRPL, Records of the Department of State Relating to the Problems of Relief and Refugees （War Refugee Board）， Miscellaneous Documents and Reports re Extermination Camps for Jews in Poland （1）， box 69; Baron, Stopping , p. 21.
‘less Jewish account’ : Kárn?, ‘Report’， p. 563.
last thirteen people : Ibid., p. 564.
the Auschwitz crematoria : Kulka, ‘Five Escapes’， p. 207.
Jacob Rosenheim : Gilbert, Auschwitz , p. 236.
‘lives at stake’ : Winik, ‘Darkness’， p. 67.
‘explore it’ : Wyman, America and the Holocaust , vol. XII, p. 104; Baron, Stopping , p. 20.
a ‘diversion’ from that effort : Gilbert, Auschwitz , p. 238.
‘kill’ the idea : Baron, ‘Myth’， p. 24.
thirteen hundred 500-pound bombs : Winik, ‘Darkness’， p. 69.
No one ever examined those pictures : Ibid., p. 70.
the gruesome brutality : Ibid., p. 75.
‘participating in this horrible business’ : Ibid., p. 77.
‘Now we know exactly what happened’ : Martin Gilbert, ‘Could Britain Have Done More to Stop the Horrors of Auschwitz?’， The Times , 27 January 2005.
found its way to the Foreign Office : Fleming, Auschwitz , p. 235.
‘railway line leading from Budapest to Birkenau’ : Gilbert, Auschwitz , p. 269.
he had never displayed before : The judgement is that of Sir Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Churchill. In a 1993 lecture, he declared: ‘I have never seen a minute of Churchill’s giving that sort of immediate authority to carry out a request.’ Gilbert, ‘Churchill and the Holocaust’， https://winstonchurchill.org/the-life-of-churchill/war-leader/churchill-and-the-holocaust-the-possible-and-impossible/
‘invoke me if necessary’ : Fleming, Auschwitz , p. 249.
‘out of our power’ : Gilbert, Auschwitz , p. 285.
‘costly and hazardous’ : Ibid.
more apparent than sincere : This is the case advanced by Michael Fleming in Auschwitz , p. 250. He suggests that both Churchill and Eden were anxious above all to be seen to be acting to save Jewish lives, including by posterity.
by accident : Gilbert, Auschwitz , p. 315. It happened on 13 September 1944 when a US air raid on Monowitz went slightly astray, hitting both Auschwitz I and Birkenau. In the main camp, fifteen SS men and twenty-three Jews were killed; in Birkenau the bombs damaged the railway sidings leading to the crematoria.
would keep looking up at the sky : Winik, ‘Darkness’， p. 70.
Chapter 24: Hungarian Salami
‘the most important’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 293.
led the effort to support : Braham, ‘Hungary’， p. 40.
in German : Tibori Szabo?, ‘Auschwitz Reports’， p. 102.
He did not sleep that night : Porter, Kasztner’s Train , p. 134.
headquarters on Sip Street : Tibori Szabo?, ‘Auschwitz Reports’， p. 103.
two rash young men : Ibid., p. 104.
spread alarm : Personal correspondence with Professor Zoltán Tibori Szabó, 1 November 2021.
shaking with rage and grief : Porter, Kasztner’s Train , p. 136.
Kasztner said no : Tibori Szabo?, ‘Auschwitz Reports’， p. 105.
$45,000 : Fatran, ‘Working Group’， p. 171.
for its own reasons : Braham: ‘Hungary’， p. 40.
‘Europa plan’ : Fatran, ‘Working Group’， pp. 173–7.
‘reliable’ man : Braham, ‘Hungary’， p. 43.
began on 5 April 1944 : Reichenthal, ‘Reappraisal’， p. 223.
wear the yellow star : Braham, Politics of Genocide , vol. 2, p. 939.
he would not have to wear a yellow star : Reichenthal, ‘Reappraisal’， p. 223.
agreement reached by the rail networks : Ibid., p. 224.
knew his secret : Rudolf Vrba believed that. See the epilogue to I Escaped , p. 320. The claim is also made in Tschuy, Dangerous Diplomacy , pp. 83–4, and echoed by Tibori Szabo?, ‘Auschwitz Reports’， p. 105. But documentary evidence that Kasztner showed Eichmann the report is elusive.