I was a Doctor in AuschwitzGisella Perl's memoir is the extraordinarily candid account of women's extreme efforts to survive Auschwitz. With writing as powerful as that of Charlotte Delbo and Ruth Kluger, her story individualizes and therefore humanizes a victim of mass dehumanization. Perl accomplished this by representing her life before imprisonment, in Auschwitz and other camps, and in the struggle to remake her life. It is also the first memoir by a woman Holocaust survivor and establishes the model for understanding the gendered Nazi policies and practices targeting Jewish women as racially poisonous. Perl's memoir is also significant for its inclusion of the Nazis' Roma victims as well as in-depth representations of Nazi women guards and other personnel. Unlike many important Holocaust memoirs, Perl's writing is both graphic in its horrific detail and eloquent in its emotional responses. One of the memoir's major historical contributions is Perl's account of being forced to work alongside Dr. Josef Mengele in his infamous so-called clinic and using her position to save the lives of other women prisoners. These efforts including infanticide and abortion, topics that would remain silenced for decades and, unfortunately, continue to be marginalized from all too many Holocaust accounts. After decades out of print, this new edition will ensure the crucial place of Perl's testimony on Holocaust memory and education. |
Contents
Foreword | 11 |
Arrival at Auschwitz | 26 |
The Beauty Parlor | 42 |
Copyright | |
7 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
I was a Doctor in Auschwitz Gisella Perl,Phyllis Lassner,Danny M. Cohen,Eva Hoffman No preview available - 2019 |
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Abbé Brand alive arrived Auschwitz babies bandages barracks beat beautiful began Belsen Bergen Block 19 blood bodies bread brought burning cages camp cattle car child clothes cold crematory cruel Day after day dead death dirty doctor everything eyes face feet filthy German Gestapo Ghetto girl Gisella Perl going Hamburg hands happy head heart hospital human Hungarian hunger husband Irma Greze jailers Jeanette Jewish Jews knew later latrine lice looked margarine Marusa Mengerle morning mother murder Nazi never night Olga pain patients physician potatoes pregnant prisoners rags roll call Russian Russians are coming S.S. guards S.S. men S.S. woman saltpeter screams sent shoes sick smile soup stand stood strength strong suffering Sziget tears told tomb stone took torture Transylvania truck twins typhus victims waiting walked weeks whip wire fences women young