This is the incredible story of how a family of Jewish Dwarfs survived the horrors of Auschwitz. The Hungarian Ovitz family was an entertainment ensemble known as the Lilliput Troupe. They sang, played musical instruments and performed all over Eastern Europe until their internment in Auschwitz. There they came to the attention of the monstrous Dr. Mengele who spared them from the gas chamber only to perform cruel experiments on them. Mengele had a perverse interest in the genetics of twins and dwarfs and many of those would die unspeakable deaths in his laboratory of horrors. 

As powerful beams of light revealed the new arrivals at Auschwitz, the SS guards could scarcely believe their eyes. One by one, seven tiny people were lifted off the train.

Five were women — each no taller than a girl of five, yet wearing make-up and elegant dresses. They looked like painted dolls.

Huddled together in a circle, the seven dwarfs made no attempt to join the teeming mass of passengers being herded up a ramp by soldiers with alsatians straining at the leash.

Instead, one of the male dwarfs started handing out autographed cards to the guards who surrounded them. After all, it couldn’t hurt for them to know the Lilliput Troupe was famed internationally for its variety shows.

Like most of the Hungarian Jews on the train, which had taken three days to arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the dwarfs had no idea they’d just been deposited in the Nazis’ most notorious extermination camp.  

An SS officer strode over and established they were all siblings from the Ovitz family. Immediately, the order went out: Wake the doctor!

It was nearly midnight on Friday, May 19, 1944, and Dr Josef Mengele was asleep in his quarters. All the troopers on duty, however, were well aware of his passion for collecting human ‘freaks’, including hermaphrodites and giants.

A lone dwarf wouldn’t have been sufficient reason to disturb his sleep, but a family — and seven of them — why, it was just like the fairy tale!

Here is the amazing story of the Ovitz family. Hat tip The Daily Mail.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2013 at 3:00 pm and is filed under History, Nazism, Special Report, World War II. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.