The 12 members of the Ovitz family were imprisoned at Auschwitz in 1944, where they were experimented on by Josef Mengele.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesThe Ovitz family arrives in Israel on April 15, 1949.
Auschwitz was one of the most infamous concentration camps of the Holocaust. Between 1940 and 1945, more than 1.1. million people were murdered at the camp, including one million Jews. When the Ovitz family was deported to the camp in 1944, their chances of survival seemed especially thin: They were not only Jewish, but seven of them were dwarfs.
Because the Nazis persecuted both European Jews and people with physical disabilities, the Ovitz family was in serious danger. Yet all 12 members of the Ovitz family — from a 58 year old woman to a toddler — survived the time they spent at Auschwitz before the camp was liberated in January 1945.
Their survival was ensured by a surprising figure, the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Though Mengele subjected the Ovitz family to painful medical experiments, he also protected them from certain death.
This is their story.
The Ovitz Family Before The Holocaust
The Ovitz family originated from a village in Transylvania, where the patriarch, a dwarf named Shimson Eizik Ovitz, was a respected rabbi. Shimson married twice and fathered ten children, seven of whom were born with dwarfism. After Shimson’s death in 1923, his widow worried about the dwarf children’s future. She urged them to make a living as performers, since their small size prevented them from working with crops or livestock.
The dwarf children — Rozika, Franzika, Avram, Freida, Micki, Elizabeth, and Perla — performed as the music and theater act “The Lilliput Troupe.” The non-dwarf siblings — Sarah, Leah, and Arie — worked behind the scenes, helping with costumes and sets. For 15 years, they successfully toured around central Europe, putting on shows wherever they went.
United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumThe seven dwarfs of the Ovitz family, who were part of a popular ensemble act before they were deported to Auschwitz in 1944.
But when World War II began, the Ovitz family found itself in deep danger. Not only were the Nazis going after European Jews, but they were also determined to exterminate people with physical disabilities.
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Ovitz family was able to avoid detection for years, primarily through forged papers which excluded their Jewish identity. But things changed in 1944. Then, the family was arrested and deported to Auschwitz.
They seemed to face certain death at the infamous concentration camp. But salvation came from an unlikely source.
How A Family Of Dwarfs Survived Auschwitz
When the Ovitz family arrived at Auschwitz, camp guards immediately woke up Dr. Josef Mengele. An infamous Nazi physician known for his gruesome medical experiments on prisoners, Mengele was especially interested twins, people with physical abnormalities — and dwarfs. When he heard about the Ovitz family’s arrival in Auschwitz, Mengele rushed to see them.
Over the next eight months, Mengele kept the Ovitz family safe from harm. Under his watch, they had their own living quarters, were allowed to wear their own clothes, and were given better meals than other prisoners. But this elevated treatment came at a price. Mengele also subjected the Ovitz family — especially the women — to painful medical experiments.
United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumJosef Mengele performed painful medical experiments on the Ovitz family, but also protected them from certain death.
“The most frightful experiments of all were the gynecological experiments.” Elizabeth Ovitz later recalled. “They injected things into our uterus, extracted blood, dug into us, pierced us, and removed samples. The pain was unbearable…it’s impossible to put into words the intolerable pain that we suffered, which continued for many days after the experiments ceased.”
Mengele pulled the Ovitz family’s teeth, extracted their bone marrow, and drew copious amounts of their blood. He conducted painful tests on their bodies, questioned their intelligence, and repeatedly tested them for syphilis. Yet Mengele also protected the Ovitz family from death on more than one occassion, which created an odd bond between him and them.
As the Daily Mail reports, the family addressed Mengele as “Your Excellency” and often sang him his favorite songs. Mengele, meanwhile, was polite — and even flirtatious — with the Ovitz family. He often complimented Frieda, and if she didn’t wear makeup one day, he might say: “Are you in a bad mood today? Why didn’t you wear your beautiful red lipstick?”
Mengele also brought the Ovitz family toys and sweets. One day, the family’s youngest member, 18-month-year-old Shimshon, even toddled toward Mengele saying, “Daddy, Daddy.” Mengele smiled at the toddler and responded: “No, I’m not your father, just Uncle Mengele.”
Public DomainHungarian Jews at Auschwitz in the spring of 1944, around the same time that the Ovitz family arrived at the camp.
But Mengele could also be mercurial. In one horrifying incident, he forced the entire family to strip on stage in front of an audience of SS guards. In another, he had other dwarfs killed and their bodies boiled so that their bones could be displayed in a museum.
All the while, the Ovitz family lived in constant fear of execution. But in January 1945, Auschwitz was liberated. Mengele disappeared into the night. The Ovitz family — all 12 members — walked out of the camp alive.
‘I Was Saved By The Grace Of The Devil’
After the war, the Ovitz family returned to performing. They ultimately immigrated to Israel, where they bought two cinema halls. Mengele, meanwhile, made his way to South America, where he drowned in 1979.
But the Ovitz family never forgot Mengele. Though he had subjected them to medical experiments, humiliation, and fear, he also protected them. On at least one occasion, Mengele saved Ovitz family members from execution.
“If the judges had asked me if [Mengele] should be hanged, I’d have told them to let him go,” Perla Ovitz recalled in an interview. “I was saved by the grace of the devil; God will give Mengele his due.”
YouTubePerla Ovitz speaking about her experiences during the Holocaust in an 1999 interview.
In Giants: The Dwarfs of Auschwitz: the Extraordinary Story of the Lilliput Troupe, Perla further reflected on her dwarfism and how her condition, which should have doomed her at Auschwitz, ended up saving her life.
“If I was a healthy Jewish girl, [five feet, 10 inches tall], I would have been gassed like the hundreds of thousands of other Jews in my country,” she said. “So if I ever wondered why I was born a dwarf, my answer would have to be that my handicap, my deformity, was God’s only way to keep me alive.”
After reading about the Ovitz family, the family of dwarfs who survived Auschwitz, look through this heartbreaking collection of photos of Holocaust victims. Or, discover the inspirational stories of these Holocaust Heroes who saved countless people from certain death.
