Biography
Rudolf Vrba was a Slovak-Jewish biochemist and Auschwitz survivor who appeared as himself in documentary films. Born Walter Rosenberg on 11 September 1924 in Topoľčany, Czechoslovakia, he escaped from Auschwitz-Birkenau in April 1944 and co-authored the Vrba-Wetzler report detailing mass murder at the camp.
Vrba featured in Claude Lanzmann’s nine-hour documentary Shoah (1985), providing testimony based on his experiences. He also appeared in the television series The World at War (1973–1974) and The Final Solution (1979). After the war he worked as a scientist in England and Canada, becoming a professor at the University of British Columbia. He died on 27 March 2006 in Vancouver.
