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Rudolf Vrba
and Alfred Wetzler, two Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz, escaped from
the camp on April 7 and provided detailed reports on the murder
practiced there. The two escapees spent two days hiding in a pile of
logs outside the inner perimeter of the camp. Members of the
Auschwitz resistance misled the Nazis’ search dogs by dipping
pungent Russian tobacco in gasoline whose scent led the dogs in the
wrong direction. Two weeks later, the escapees reached Slovakia and
met with Adre Steiner, a representative of the Underground Working
Group. On the basis of this meeting, Oscar Krasnansky wrote a
30-page report, the "Auschwitz Protocols." The protocols
described in detail the murderous actions being committed at the
camp, the number of Jews who had been murdered there, and
preparations that were being made there for the murder of some
800,000 Hungarian Jews. On May 16, the gist of the report was
forwarded to the West after several previous attempts had failed.
After its contents were disseminated, the world understood clearly
that Auschwitz was, in fact, an extermination camp.
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