A father will be retracing the steps of two men who managed to escape from Auschwitz and walk to freedom.

Roger Aitken, who lives in East Barnet, will be taking part in a 140km walk to commemorate the bravery of two Slovakian men who were imprisoned in the notorious concentration camp during the Second World War.

In April 1944, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler managed to escape from their prison and travel by foot to Zilina, in modern Slovakia.

The walk will follow a route estimated to be the one Vrba and Wetzler followed - travelling from Auschwitz on foot to the Slovakian border, and then on trains to the city of Zilina as the two men did.

Mr Aitken, a father of two, will be taking part in the walk from August 19 to 25, walking around 20km a day and sleeping in simple wood cabins.

The walk has been organized by the Czech branch of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, and will be led by experienced guides.

Mr Aitken said: “It’s organised in the escapees memory, to retrace the March they made to freedom. The walk had a trial run last year, they are hoping this walk in the footsteps of these Jewish men will be an annual event.”

The pair recorded eyewitness treatments of life in the camps and made detailed drawings, now knowm as the Aushwitz Protocols, which provided allied forces with information on the camps.

Mr Aitken, 49, heard about the walk at its global launch, which was held at the Slovakian embassy in London in February. Rudolf Vrba’s widow Gerta Vrba, who now lives in London, was one of the speakers. Although “Barnet born and bred” Mr Aitken has been interested in Czech and Slovak culture since a friend took him to a BCSA event several years ago.

He is now a BCSA member, and has travelled around the area and in 2014 he was awarded a Czech prize for his travel writing on the Czech Republic.

Mr Aitken said: “I am quite excited to be taking part, but it is a sombre and sobering thing when you think about it. I think it will be quite moving.

“It’s the sheer magnitude of what they did. The project aims to do ongoing work, going into schools and talking to children about these two guys. It has an educational element.

“I’m not an expert, but I had never heard of them. I think the most important thing is that the memory of these two people and the other victims is kept alive.”