In our hearts we were giants The remarkable story of the Lilliput Troupe : a dwarf family's survival of the Holocaust

Yehuda Koren

Book - 2004

"This remarkable, never-before-told account of the Ovitz family, seven of them dwarfs, bears witness to the best and worst of humanity and to the terrible irony of the Ovitzes' fate: being burdened with dwarfism helped them endure the Holocaust. Through dogged research and interviews with Perla, the last surviving Ovitz sibling, and other relatives, Koren and Negev weave the tale of a beloved and successful family who were popular entertainers in Central Europe until the Nazis deported them to Auschwitz in May 1944. Descending from the transport train into the hell of the concentration camp, the Ovitz family--known widely as the Lilliput Troupe--was separated from other Jewish victims. When Dr. Josef Mengele was notified of their ...arrival, he assigned them to sequestered quarters. His horrific "research" on twins and other genetically unique individuals already under way, Mengele had special plans for the Ovitzes. The authors chronicle Mengele's loathsome experiments upon the family members, the disturbing fondness he developed for these small people, and their interminable will to survive."--Back cover. more