There are so many heroes of the Holocaust. All that survived the horrors of the Nazis, and those who did not, deserve to be honored. There are many whose stories have been celebrated and retold through novels and movies, and even more whose stories vanished when they lost their lives. The story of Dr. Gisella Perl, a doctor in Auschwitz, almost fell into this later category, because of its controversial nature. A female gynecologist who performed over a thousand abortions is not the usual type of figure to be celebrated - now or during the 1940’s. However, her courageous actions during the Nazi regime were not forgotten due to her memoir, I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz.
Little is known about Perl’s childhood; her memoir only mentions a few select scenes from her past. What they demonstrate, however, is her strong desire to become a physician, and her devotion to her religion. Achieving this delicate balance was difficult, but Perl succeeded, even during her stay in Auschwitz. She fulfilled her promise to her father to be a “good, true Jew." Perl grew up, and remained until being deported to Auschwitz, in Sziget, Transylvania with her entire family. She married an optometrist, and together they had one son, who was a talented violinist. Perl had a thriving practice, and was well known as an expert in her field.
On March 19, 1944, Germany over ran Hungary, and the decline of life, as Perl knew it began. At first, Hungarian Jews were forced to wear the yellow Star of David on their arms and adhere to a strict curfew, but soon all of the Jews in Sziget were herded into the ghetto. Dr. Perl and her family were wealthy and well established, and with that came additional benefits during life in the ghetto. These advantages significantly increased their chances of survival over other families being relocated from the country.
The Perl family stay in the ghetto was atypically short, a mere two weeks, but while there Perl was able to acquire a vial of morphine from the outside. 40 centigrams each was distributed among the family members in small vials and stuffed into their shoes, in case things became unbearable. However, the terrible conditions of the ghetto was just a warning of things to come; food was scarce, and living conditions close. As a result, Perl’s brother David contracted pneumonia, as many did, and became gravely ill. He was not able to recuperate before the family was deported, and had to be carried to the transport. Before the Perl family was herded onto the train for Auschwitz, three members had already drank their vial of morphine, and committed suicide. The only other family member who would have the chance to take the poison was Perl herself.
Upon their arrival in Auschwitz women and men were separated and the initial selection process began. When Perl got off the transport she found a SS guard, and begged for medical attention for her brother. She also asked for her son to accompany him. It was only later that she found out the Red Cross trucks drove her only child and brother straight to the gas chambers. This would also be the last time she would see her husband, father, and mother. Her husband and father were sent to the men’s camp, and later perished, and her mother was sent to the left. (To be sent to the left was a sentence that meant immediate death.) Not everyone was lucky enough to die in the gas chambers upon their arrival at this death camp - the children were ripped away from their mothers, only to be thrown into a ditch together and burned alive. This was the routine of every “shipment” of people.
Perl’s first encounter with Dr. Mengele, the "Angel of Death" in Auschwitz, almost cost her life. While standing for selection, a process that took four hours twice a day, Dr. Mengele came to visit Bloc C, the Hungarian women’s barracks. Still new in Auschwitz, she was unaware of the horrors that Mengele took pleasure in. When he asked her to round up all of the pregnant women to send them for better treatment she immediately consented. As a gynecologist, she felt a responsibility to protect these women’s lives. The women were herded onto Red Cross trucks, and they drove off. It was only minutes later that she saw these same trucks stop in front of the crematorium, and both women and fetus were burned alive. She unknowingly had sent fifty pregnant women to their deaths. Once she realized what she had done, Perl drank her vial of morphine, but it was not enough to kill her. She recuperated, and made a promise to herself that there would never be another pregnant woman in Auschwitz.
After a short stay in Auschwitz, a hospital was established and Perl was assigned to take care of the sick and wounded. By day she was busy with her endless stream of patients, and by night she performed countless abortions to protect the mothers. Death was not the only “cure” for pregnancy in Auschwitz. Dr. Mengele took a special interest in pregnant women and once they were discovered he liked to experiment on them. These experiments would take place with no anesthesia and, more often than not, the women would be killed afterward anyway. When I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. I was able to view some of the actual recordings of these and other experiments performed by Dr. Mengele. I cannot even begin to describe them. Perl did not have any medical tools, and was forced to perform these abortions on the floors of the disease filled barracks with her bare hands.
Auschwitz was a highly organized means to accomplish the Nazi goal; to kill all the Jews. It was also a world of its own, and any outsiders could not judge the actions that went on in there.
“There was only one law in Auschwitz – the law of the jungle – the law of self-preservation. Women who in their former lives were decent self-respecting human beings now stole, lied, spied, beat the others and – if necessary – killed them, in order to save their miserable lives.” Perl.
Perl’s actions, although highly controversial, were taken to save the lives of the mothers in the camp. Although, on one hand, she aborted 1,000 fetuses, she in turn worked to save over 1,000 lives.
One of the main reasons that Dr. Perl’s story is not a commonly known one is because of its controversial nature. Perl performed over 1,000 abortions in Auschwitz - this large number is shocking even today, when a large portion of our nation has liberal ideas about a “woman’s right to choose.” However, during the 1940’s and 50’s, abortion was not a common practice to say the least. Some are disgusted about number of abortions she performed, and some about the conditions. All she had to nurse the former mothers back to health was encouraging words about the end of the Nazis. These abortions generally seem like unnecessary deaths to outsiders, but when closely examined, these abortions were necessary for survival. And above all, life is valued in the religion of Judaism. If Perl could save one mother’s life, and she could go on to bear more children in the future, then the Nazis would have failed. The Jewish race would continue on.
Dr. Gisella Perl was an incredibly strong woman. Not only did she have the physical and mental strength to withstand the horrible conditions of the camps, but she also passed this strength to others through her encouraging words. From the time that she arrived in New York after liberation, until she moved to Israel in 1979, Dr. Perl delivered over 3,000 healthy babies. She became an expert in infertility, and helped many women who previously could not get pregnant. Until her death in 1988, Dr. Gisella Perl did all she could to bring life into this world. And before she delivered each baby, she would silently pray to herself, “G-d help me, I should be able to give back life today.”
