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‘Giants’ a stirring story of Jewish dwarfs who survived the Holocaust

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/25140/full/25140/-giants-a-stirring-story-of-jewish-dwarfs-who-survived-the-holocaust/ ‘Giants’ a stirring story of Jewish dwarfs who survived the Holocaust Friday, February 18, 2005 | by dan pine It is one of the more nightmarish of Nazi-era images: Josef Mengele standing at the Auschwitz gates, and with the flick of a finger, deciding who would live and who would die. Most perished, but one day in May 1944, Mengele allowed an entire family to live and, by death-camp standards, to live well. They were Jewish. And they were dwarfs. Seven dwarfs. Of the many survival stories to emerge from the ashes of the Holocaust, not many are as amazing as that of the Lilliput Troupe. The Lilliput Troupe was composed of the Ovitz family, seven brothers and sisters who traveled the Transylvanian countryside staging musical concerts. In the 1920s and 1930s, the dwarfs enjoyed fame and fortune, beloved in the Jewish shtetls of the region. Their story is brought to life in the new book "In Our Hearts We Were Giants," by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev. The saga begins with the family patriarch, a 19th century Hungarian dwarf named Shimson Ovitz. He fathered seven children with dwarfism. (He also had several children who grew to average normal height.) The kids showed artistic talent, and though widely ranging in age, they banded together to form a musical act. The Lilliputs sang in Yiddish, Hungarian, Romanian, Russian and German. They played miniature instruments, wore beautiful handmade clothes and were the only ones in their village to have a car. As observant Jews, they also made sure they were always home in time for Shabbat. Isolated from the gathering horrors in Western Europe, the Ovitz family avoided the Nazis for a relatively long time. In 1944, the Nazis seized the family's property and packed the Ovitzes on a cattle car to Auschwitz. Thanks to his twisted theories about genetics, Mengele was beside himself with joy upon meeting the dwarfs. He segregated them along with their extended family members (including non-dwarfs) to launch a battery of lurid medical experiments. Every day brought physical pain and humiliation. But the Ovitzes had it better than most inmates. They could keep their own clothes (nothing else would fit), their belongings, even their hair and cosmetics. They were also fed better than the others, and for most of their internment, they lived together. The most fascinating aspect of the story is the relationship between the Ovitzes and Mengele. They understood right away that staying on Menegele's good side would help them survive, though it was no guarantee. (He surely would have killed them once he completed his experiments.) Meanwhile, daily survival meant pleasing the master, which the Ovitzes did by singing German songs to him and amusing him with jokes. The most horrific scene recounts a performance Menegele organized for visiting Nazi dignitaries. The unknowing Lilliputs, thrilled to be back on a stage, donned their finery and prepared a concert. Instead, Menegele had the dwarfs strip naked as he presented them to the bemused Nazis as some great "find." After the war, the family immigrated to Israel where they resurrected their lives and careers. Most of them lived to a ripe old age, serving as a testament to Jewish survival. Israelis Koren and Negev do a fine job conveying daily life in Auschwitz, in particular the ghoulish world of Josef Mengele. Frustratingly, most of the Ovitz personalities blur together in the book. This is probably not the fault of the authors, who had only Perla, the last surviving member of the troupe, as a direct source. (She has since died.) But the intimacy and inextinguishable joie de vivre of the family comes across page after page, even in the death-camp sequence. The story of the Ovitz family is unique. Perhaps because they were so extraordinary, one may momentarily forget the "ordinary" Jews murdered by the millions. But no one can blame the Ovitzes for trying to survive, though some fellow inmates later did accuse them of kissing up to the Nazis. In the end, such an argument means little. The Ovitzes were tiny heroes who outlasted and, arguably, outfoxed the greatest evil the world has ever known. "In Our Hearts We Were Giants" is a must for all readers. "In Our Hearts We Were Giants: The Remarkable Story of the Lilliput Troupe, A Dwarf Family's Survival of the Holocaust" by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev, (305 pages, Carroll & Graf Publishers, $25).

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