Alan Twigg – författare

Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg declared there were only two great Holocaust heroes - the leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Mordechai Anielewicz) and Rudolf Vrba. After he escaped from Auschwitz-Birkenau in April of 1944, Vrba and his co-escapee Alfréd Wetzler co-authored the Vrba-Wetzler Report, credited with saving 200,000 Hungarian Jews. "No other single act in the Second World War," according to World War II historian Sir Martin Gilbert, "saved so many Jews from the fate that Hitler and the SS had determined for them." As one of the 20th century's most important whistleblowers, Vrba also stands out in Claude Lanzmann's Shoah as a handsome, charismatic and cheerful iconoclast.This is the introductory volume for a biography project to examine the remarkable life of Rudolf Vrba; including his decorated service with the partisans, his love affairs, his two marriages, his accomplishments as a Nazi hunter and his iconoclastic stamina to always speak the truth about the Holocaust. Compiled over a five-year period by a journalist who knew him, Holocaust Hero provides previously unrevealed information about Vrba based on research at the FDR Presidential Library in New York and interviews with those who knew him, including Robin Vrba, his wife of 31 years, who speaks candidly about her husband for the first time."Rudi was gorgeous and totally charismatic. And he was funny. I remember we were in Auschwitz for a documentary. We were doing the film inside the camp. Then it was about 5:30 and it was time to leave. We were trying to get out. The gate had been locked. It was really muddy. Everybody started to really fret. How are we going to get out? And Rudi said, loudly, so everyone could hear, 'Never mind. I know another way out!'"-- Robin Vrba

One night in April, after a Sunday soccer game, Alan Twigg couldn't remember the names of his two sons or his wife-and he couldn't hold a pen. An emergency CAT scan revealed a large brain tumour squeezed against his motor cortex. 'Intensive Care' tells the story of why this was a good thing. 'Intensive Care' isn't a medical survival story; it's a yearlong reflection on how the imminence of death can enhance life. The grass gets greener. Confirmation that one is loved is exhilarating, more powerful than any drug. On May 26th, 'The Globe & Mail' ran a front page story about a recent medical study that concluded one in five Canadians will have a tumour in their head at some point in their lives. Two days later, Dr. Christopher Honey, a neurosurgeon at Vancouver General Hospital, removed the benign tumour from Alan Twigg's head during a five-hour operation. He started writing again, in the Intensive Care ward, three hours later.