Siegfried Lederer escaped from Auschwitz on the night of 5 April 1944, wearing an SS uniform provided by Viktor Pestek, a guard at the concentration camp (gate pictured). Pestek opposed the Holocaust because of his Catholic faith and infatuation with Renée Neumann, a Jewish prisoner. Lederer, a former Czechoslovak Army officer and a Jewish member of the Czech resistance, tried unsuccessfully to warn the Jews at Theresienstadt Ghetto about the mass murders at Auschwitz. After he and Pestek returned to Auschwitz in an attempt to rescue Neumann and her mother, Pestek was arrested 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, historian Erich Kulka, and other writers.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Lederer%27s_escape_from_Auschwitz

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1710:

The Statute of Anne, the first legislation in Great Britain providing for copyright regulated by the government and courts, received royal assent and went into effect five days later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Anne

1936:

An F5 tornado struck Tupelo, Mississippi, and killed at least 216 people during the second deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Tupelo%E2%80%93Gainesville_tornado_outbreak

1966:

During the Buddhist Uprising, South Vietnamese military prime minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ personally attempted to lead the capture of the restive city of Đà Nẵng before backing down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_Uprising

1998:

The Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world, linking Awaji Island and Kobe in Japan, opened to traffic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akashi_Kaiky%C5%8D_Bridge

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

whelm: 1. (transitive) To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge. 2. (transitive, obsolete) To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it. 3. (transitive, obsolete) To ruin or destroy. 4. (intransitive) To overcome with emotion; to overwhelm. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/whelm

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The source of every Crime, is some defect of the Understanding; or some error in Reasoning, or some sudden force of the Passions. Defect in the Understanding, is Ignorance; in Reasoning, Erroneous Opinion.   --Thomas Hobbes https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes