Event Flyer: Disability in the Holocaust

This artifact takes the viewer back to Nazi Germany, in the 1930’s, when Adolf Hitler began his reign. To give more information about this time period, we must go back to the basis of Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship. The first taste of power Hitler had contracted began when he was appointed as the Chancellor of Germany. Having gained this new power, he introduced his first rendition of his infamous concentration camps.

Concentration camps, as explained by The Wiener Holocaust Library, were “place(s) where people are concentrated and imprisoned without trial. Inmates are usually exploited for their labour and kept under harsh conditions.” implemented The first concentration camp that was implemented by Hitler was Dachau, where he started out relatively small, compared to his later camps. He began with approximately 4,800 people, whom were composed of different political adversaries posing a threat to Hitler’s dictatorship. Soon after, he was flooded with an intense amount of power from the support he received by Germany leaders and citizens. This would unfortunately, encourage the creation of several more, each having more inhumane and disturbing treatment than the last.

Adolf Hitler would intentionally seek out and put specific groups into concentration camps. A few of these groups were those who practiced the Jewish faith, the disabled, and homosexuals.

Perla Ovici, who was both Jewish and born with dwarfism, had a very disturbing experience in these concentration camps during World War II. Perla was born into a family of twelve, with 9 siblings, 6 of which were dwarves and 3 were averaged-sized people. Her mother, Batia, was an average sized woman, while her father, Shimshon Eizik, had dwarfism. After the passing of Shimshon Eizik Ovici, Batia came to the realization that there would always be a struggle for money within their family, because of the children’s inability to work. So, she took the initiative to put her family in the lime-light and created the Lilliput Troupe.

The Lilliput Troupe was a choreographed group, where they would sing and dance to entertain an audience to make a living. The dwarf siblings would be the center of attention, while the other three siblings would work and help out backstage. Their performances consisted of the siblings playing child sized instruments, and performing some comedy skits. This went on until, “1940, when Hungary took over northern Transylvania and implemented racial laws, the Ovicis managed to obtain identification papers with no mention of their religion and thereby continue in their career until March 1944” (​"Portrait of a member of the Ovici family").

Though the Ovici’s were able to continue performing until March 1944, there was another shift in power. Germany had taken over Hungary, which lead to new and more aggressive racial laws, like Atkin T-4 Euthanasia. This was implemented by Hitler in 1941, and was forced to be adopted by Hungary once overtaken. The law itself was another section of Hitler’s guidelines of who was to be sent off into concentration camps, but this specifically was towards the physically and mentally disabled.

Once this law flooded its way into Hungary, the Ovici’s were caught in the current and swept away to Auschwitz, along with the other 440,000 Jewish citizens. Perla recalls the very moments of her arrival at the notorious concentration camp, “We were completely naked. Without even our underpants. For five hours we stood there like soldiers, stark naked” (Israelifilms). After standing in the freezing cold for hours, Perla and her family were sent into a room: “​It was almost dark and we stood in what looked like a large washing room, waiting for something to happen. We looked up to the ceiling to see why the water was not coming. Suddenly we smelled gas. We gasped heavily, some of us fainting on the floor. With our last breath we cried out. Minutes passed, or maybe just seconds, then we heard an angry voice from outside – 'Where is my dwarf family?'” ​(Koren and Negev).

The angry voice Perla and her family heard was Dr. Josef Mengele, also known as the “Angel of Death”. Dr. Mengele took a very special interest in the Ovici family because of the number of offspring within their family, along with their dwarfism. It was also known that Hitler himself had an odd fascination with dwarfs, which encouraged Dr. Mengele to seek out the family even more.

The infatuation with Perla and her family, from Dr. Josef Mengele escalated quickly and was very intense. He would do bizarre and disturbing experiments on each and everyone of them, inflicting intolerable pain as if it was his second nature. Mengele would bring them to the breaking point, let them recover, all to do it again in a few days. Some experiments included the injection of chemicals straight into their eyes, blinding them, as well as for the women, having their uterus’ scraped and pierced for many unknown reasons. Yet, with all of this abuse, Perla still stuck by Dr. Mengele’s side saying, “If the judges had asked me if he should be hanged, I’d have told them to let him go,” she recalled. “I was saved by the grace of the devil; God will give Mengele his due” (Kelly).

All of these experiences that Perla faced, accompanied with the stories she tells of her family, were captured in the in-depth documentary by Shahar Rozen. The documentary is titled Liebe Perla, which is loosely translated to “Love Perla.” This title is also displayed on the artifact, which is a flier that invites those in the Fitchburg, Massachusetts area to come for a panel discussion and a documentary viewing event. The documentary is described as an “astounding and intimate documentary film that traces the friendship of two disabled women as they resurrect a lost history- the history of brutality toward and murder of disabled people in Nazi Germany." The panel discussion consisted of a handful of members who have in-depth backgrounds of either the Holocaust or disability. The entire event was sponsored by organizations such as: The Jewish Heritage Foundation, Office of Disability Services, and the Expanding Horizons Program.

The history that Perla discloses within her documentary is vital, not just for her family, but for the disabled community and Holocaust survivors as a whole. By speaking up and going through the horror of her past, we as the audience gain a very unique perspective of the treatment towards individuals with disabilities. This should allow us as a society to break through barriers and create a welcoming and inclusive community for all.

Eigen, Sara. “Liebe Perla, Memento Mori: On Filming Disability and Holocaust History.” Women in German Yearbook, no. 22, 2006, pp. 1–20. 

"The Holocaust and World War II Key Dates." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-holocaust-and-world-war-ii-key-dates.

Israelifilms, director. ​Liebe Perla​. ​YouTube​, 2009, ​www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6qnd7v212A​.

Kelly, Erin. “When The Seven Dwarfs Of Auschwitz Met The Nazis' Most Monstrous Doctor.” ​All That's Interesting​, 27 June 2019, allthatsinteresting.com/ovitz-dwarfs-auschwitz.

Laska, Vera. “In Our Hearts We Were Giants: the Remarkable Story of the Lilliput Troupe--a Dwarf Family's Survival of the Holocaust.” ​International Journal on World Peace,​ vol. 21, no. 4, 2004, pp. 87–89. ​

Koren, Yehuda, and Eilat Negev. “The Dwarves of Auschwitz.” ​The Guardian​ 23 Mar. 2013, www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/23/the-dwarves-of-auschwitz.

"Portrait of a member of the Ovici family, a family of Jewish dwarf entertainers known as the Lilliput Troupe, who survived Auschwitz, next to a vase of flowers." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum​,  https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1144379.
 
“Types of Camps.” ​Concentration Camps – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for Schools​, www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-camps/types-of-camps/concentration-camps/. 

"Victims of the Nazi Era: Nazi Racial Ideoloty." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/victims-of-the-nazi-era-nazi-racial-ideology.