Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land

A transport arrived from Hungary late at night. Since there was no one in the infirmary at that late hour, Mengele ordered the SS men to break down the gate and take the family of midgets to the room located in the rear of the infirmary. Only the women were taken there as the men had already been taken to the men's camp.

Early that morning we arrived at the infirmary as usual, before roll call. In the infirmary we found three female midgets, two normal women who were married to midgets, and a three-year- old boy who was the son of a midget. In its entirety the family consisted of ten people. They had all been circus performers in Budapest.

The father of the family was a midget, and the mother was a tall, strong woman. She had borne only midgets: three daughters and three sons. The women had normal nicely shaped heads and curly hair. They spoke good German in a clear, bright voice. Their height, about fifty centimeters, did not bother them. Their short stature and their small feet and hands were the source of considerable attention, and the attention was not solely professional. "We have had proposals of marriage," they assured us and told us how certain men played with them as if they were dolls. One of the sons had married a normal woman, a pretty girl who had given birth to a normal boy in good physical condition.

"Is this really the son of that midget?" asked Mengele.

The other SS men were not stingy with jokes about that subject either.

Of the millions who came to Auschwitz, Mengele loved to single out those who had not been created "in God's image." I remember how he once brought a woman to our area who had two noses. Another time he brought a girl of about ten years of age who had the wool of a sheep on her head instead of hair. On another occasion, he brought a woman who had donkey ears. Now he had

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