Eilat Negev

I was drawn in by the mere title of the book, and sighed in admiration upon seeing the elegance of the cover. I joyfully looked at the beaming, warm smiles of the family outfitted in such finery of the likes I only wear on Yom Kippur. The sepia tone of the photo above the plain blackness of the title background was an excellent artistic choice. I kept going back to this cover as I read this book, and even as I started reading, I lingered on it. I wanted something beautiful in my mind to combat the horrors I was about to encounter.

Sometimes this book goes into second person narration, which I'm not a fan of, but I kept reading. The book goes into the social history of people with dwarfism, which fascinating and horrifying. Human beings were baked into pies and jumped out as merriment. I was so upset to learn that, that I had to set down the book for twenty minutes. That's not even thirty pages in. People were given to royal families as gifts, and seen as pets, entertainment, and most frequently, children. I hadn't known any of this before. I'm glad I do now. I was aware of the royalty-inspired stage names, though. Originally I was so upset, thinking they were terms of mockery. This book informed me that no, the entertainers chose their own names. Then it made a few jabs at rulers including Napoleon, and I laughed uproariously.

The descriptions of the camps and the testing, along with my horror and disgust, started soon after. The experiences of other prisoners are described as well. Halfway through the book, I wanted it to be over. Meticulous historical details are presented, and--just kept going. Many years' experiences are documented, and nine chapters are spent on 1944 alone. The chapters that follow address the decades until 2000, when the last survivor of the family, Perla, died. Two different collections of photos are scanned into the book, one solely from the 1940s and the other from 1945 onward. The photos somehow make everything bleaker, but I looked at them carefully. I tried to read this book in one sitting so it would be over, and worried I'd have nightmares. I didn't dream anything I could remember, and finished the book the next morning. I just sat for awhile. There was little else I could do.

This book is so important.… (mehr)

"In our Hearts we were Giants" is quite possibly the kindest, gentlest Holocaust story I've ever read. Although there are horrors in it, as there must be, they are delivered dryly with very few details. It's also unique in that, none of the 'characters' you come to know and admire through the pages will die in Auschwitz. (I wouldn't consider this a spoiler, since this information is readily found from the photos in the center of the book--and who doesn't look at the photos first?)

That this group of dwarfs and their entire extended family managed to survive is miraculous. I was astounded, again and again, by the sheer luck that blessed the Ovitz family. Partly owing to their own audacious personalities and partly owing to peculiar twists of fate, they fared far, far better than most Jews during the Holocaust. While horrible things did happen to them, given their size and relative fragility, I'm really amazed nothing worse befell them. And throughout their trials, full of twists and turns and struggles, they seemed to remain cheerful, hopeful, and devoted to one another. It was nothing short of inspirational.

While I don't think it did a terrific job depicting the full scope of the horrors of the Holocaust, I don't think that was its intent. Neither did it depict Josef Mengele as the demon that he was and I think was because, for the Ovitz family, he was as much their savior as their torturer. In fact, having read extensively about Mengele over the course of many years, I was surprised to encounter a different perspective of him.

I would not recommend this as a standalone history of the Holocaust. You can't read this book and have a firm understanding of all that happened, how truly horrific the Holocaust was, how horrible were the daily operations of Auschwitz, or even the sheer scale of the genocide. Instead, I think it would make an excellent following act to something more comprehensive and honest. Or, perhaps this would be an excellent introduction to the topic for young adults.… (mehr)

"Seven dwarfs ...liege to no benevolent Snow White but to a heartless beast"
By sally tarbox on 3 October 2017
Format: Paperback
The fascinating and terribly moving story of the Jewish Romanian Ovitz family, ten siblings, of whom seven were dwarfs. From a happy early life, where they formed The Lilliput Troupe, a successful vaudeville act, they were later caught up in the horrors of World War 2.
The narrative follows their time in Auschwitz, where their disability saved their lives - although at the cost of tortuous and pointless medical experimentation by Dr Josef Mengele, who was fascinated by the genetics of abnormalities. Their size also saved non-dwarf family members (and friends who claimed to be related); they got to live together with slightly better conditions than the rest. But life was fraught as they realised they could be killed at any time. However the whole family miraculously made it through - the only sibling killed was an average-sized brother who was living independently.
After Liberation, realising they had no future in Romania, they settled in Haifa in the emerging state of Israel - again a tough life at the outset, but one where they succeeeded.
The husband and wife authors are Israeli journalists. They meet with the only remaining sibling, Perla, and travel to the family's former home in Rozavlea, Romania; and to Auschwitz, where they pore over documentation and give an emotive view of the place.
Very interesting and terrible account.… (mehr)