English 102
Gretta Slone
Mengele and the Family of Dwarfs is a remarkable and unforgettable account of how one family survived the Holocaust. The story takes place during a time where almost nine out ten people were sent directly to the gas chambers. It was highly unlikely for two members of a single family to survive which makes the fact that an entire family emerged from the war unscathed intriguing. The Ovitz family of twelve members, seven of them dwarfs, performed all over Europe, singing and playing instruments. The family was able to produce false papers renouncing their Judaism which allowed them to hide out even keep performing for almost the whole war. They were discovered and sent to Auschwitz May 15th 1944. Josef Mengele was very interested in the family upon arrival; one might argue that the family was treated the best out of all the other prisoners. The Ovitz were Mengele’s only dwarf specimen, which made him less likely to subset them to any of the more dangerous experiments. They also were able to wear their own cloths and had their own barracks. On January 27th 1945 liberation came, less than a year after they arrived. Perla Ovitz said it best while voicing the opinion of the group, “I was saved by the grace of the Devil”
Yehuda Koren offers a story that seems to be straight out of a story book, but is as close to non-fiction as you can get. Koren uses his outstanding word choice to grab your attention and hold till the end. This journal article was useful to me in my research because it tell an account of a family that had direct contact with Josef Mengele