#miklos nyiszli

[edwordsmyth]

Giorgio Agamben

[applesauce42069]

With people like Candace Owens spreading misinformation about medical experiments at Auschwitz, it is important to be literate in this aspect of Holocaust history.

TW below the cut for: medical experimentation and malpractice, forced sterilization, antisemitism, anti-roma and sinti racism, discussion of concentration camps and the Holocaust. I will not include any photos. My source for everything is this book, published by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.

There were more Nazi "doctors" at Auschwitz than I will be able to cover in this post. It is important to note that these "doctors" did not just perform experiments, but they also played a direct role in the genocide of the Jews at Auschwitz by participating in "selections." During these "selections," prisoners or prospective prisoners were chosen to be sent to the gas chambers. I say prospective prisoners because a selection usually took place at arrival upon the camp, with most children, the elderly, and anyone unfit for work, or for some people,just because, were sent immediately to the gas chambers without even being registered in the camp. This is a process that is unique to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Josef Mengele is by far the most famous SS "doctor" at Auschwitz. He was the head physician of the sector of Auschwitz II - Birkenau which held Roma and Sinti families, before the camp was "liquidated" which mean that every man, woman and child in it were sent to the gas chambers. Mengele performed experiments related to twins, people with dwarfism, and a disease called noma (don't look it up its gross).

Lorenc Andreas Menasche and his twin sister were experimented on by Josef Mengele. Menasche testified about undergoing experimentation with his sister:

"They also gave us injections all over our bodies. As a result of these injections, my sister fell ill. Her neck swelled up as a result of a severe infection. They sent her to the hospital and operated on her without anesthetic in primitive conditions"

Elzbieta Piekut-Warszawska, an Auschwitz prisoner forced to assist with Mengele's experiments, describes experiments on Jewish twins:

"Drops were also put into their eyes. I did not see the procedure itself, since they took the children into the next room. Some pairs of children received drops in both eyes, and others only in one. I was ordered to observed the reactions, and not to intervene in any way in case of any changes... The results of these practices were very painful for the victims. They suffered from severe swelling of the eyelids, a burning sensation, and intense watering of hte eyes"

Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian Jew, was also forced to assist Dr. Mengele. He describes being forced to perform autopsies on a pair of "small twins" who:

"... died [were killed] simultaneously... Their death makes it possible to carry out autopsies on them, intended to solve the mystery of reproduction."

Nyiszli says that Mengele was interested in twins with the aim of "increas[ing] the birth rate of the 'higher race'"

At the same time, two separate "doctors," Carl Clauberg and Horst Schumann, were performing sterilization experiments on Jewish prisoners in order to find an effective method of mass sterilization.

Clauberg's experiments involved introducing chemicals into the reproductive organs of Jewish women. Alina Białostocka, an Auschwitz prisoner who was forced to assist Clauberg testified that

"[the] procedure was carried out brutally, and often caused complications"

When it "worked," the procedure left women forcibly sterilized for life.

Horst Schumann's experiments involved the use of x-ray on male and female genitalia. According to Felicja Pleszowska, an Auschwitz prisoner forced to assist with experiments, Schumann's experiments were

"very painful and dangerous to life. There were frequent cases of men dying immediately after such procedures"

From the combined victims of these two men, only very few individuals survived.

Eduard Wirths, Friedrich Entress, Helmuth Vetter, Fritz Klein, Werner Rhode, Hans Wilhem Konig, Victor Capesius and Bruno Weber all tested pharmaceuticals on Auschwitz prisoners on behalf of companies like Bayer (which still exist and operate).

I cannot stress enough the mortality rate of all the medical experiments that took place in Auschwitz. I cannot stress enough the harm done to those who survived. I cannot stress enough the fact that the information I have provided here is just the tip of the iceberg, and that these experiments were VERY well documented BY THE NAZIS THEMSELVES.

This is horrifying. This is real. And we cannot let people insult the memory of these horrors by manipulating historical fact for selfish gain.

[giraffefeather]

PopSugar Reading Challenge #36: A Book Written by an Incarcerated or Formerly Incarcerated Person

"Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account" by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli

Holocaust books are always tough, but I believe remembering those events is important - to prevent them from happening again as well as to honor the memories of those who needlessly died.

"Auschwitz" is a very straightforward telling of what happened in the infamous concentration camp. The author states right away that he is a doctor, not a writer, and the book can feel cold and unfeeling just like you might expect doctor's medical notes to feel. And yet, the horrors described don't need emotion. They are terrible enough on their own, just the facts. And there are certainly plenty of facts here. For anyone who is familiar with the history of the Holocaust, the events are not surprising. But being able to see them from the perspective of someone who was there confirms the worst of what we've been told of Nazi Germany.

"The minute I entered this place I had the feeling I was already one of the living-dead. But now, in possession of all these fantastic secrets, I was certain I would never get out alive."

I hesitate to say I enjoyed the book; it's just not a pleasant topic. However, I feel I gained further understanding of this time in history, and that makes the read worth it.

[chirpingtiger]

With as many people as there are claiming that Wanda is a Nazi....

It's just occurred to me that these people are likely on the younger side, and might legitimately not have realized the significance of her stint with HYDRA.

So with that in mind...let's go into a little refresher on Doctor Mengele...

During World War II, Doctor Mengele was one of the Nazi scientists who experimented on Jewish victims who had been sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

In particular, Mengele was known for his fascination with twins.

There’s a very good article HERE, which I’m going to be quoting from, but let’s look at some of the parallels between Dr. Strucker and Dr. Mengele that are hinted at in Wanda and Pietro’s “recruitment” in the MCU.

Mengele's handsome physical appearance, fastidious dress, and calm demeanor seemingly contradicted his attraction to murder and gruesome experiments.

His ability to elude capture increased his notoriety

Mengele would get very excited when he found twins. The other SS officers who helped unload the transports had been given special instructions to find twins, dwarfs, giants or anyone else with a unique hereditary trait like a club foot or heterochromia (each eye a different color) [...] The twins were then tattooed and given a number from a special sequence. They were then taken to the twins' barracks where they were required to fill out a form.

About 3,000 twins were pulled from the masses on the ramp, most of them children; only around 200 survived. When the twins were found, they were taken away from their parents.

Since they were "Mengele's children," they were treated differently than other prisoners.

Though they suffered through medical experiments, the twins were often allowed to keep their hair and allowed to keep their own clothes.

.

Mengele's presence did not necessarily cause fear in the children. He was often known to appear with pockets full of candy and chocolates, to pat them on the head, talk with them, and sometimes even play. Many of the children, especially the younger ones, called him "Uncle Mengele." The twins were given brief instruction in makeshift "classes" and were sometimes even allowed to play soccer. The children were not required to do hard work and had jobs like being a messenger. Twins were also spared from punishments as well as from the frequent selections within the camp. The twins had some of the best conditions at Auschwitz until the trucks came to take them to the experiments.

... the twins underwent various medical experiments. Mengele kept his exact reasoning for his experiments a secret. Many of the twins that he experimented on weren't sure for what purpose the individual experiments were for, or what exactly what was being injected or done to them.

The autopsies became the final experiment. [Dr. Miklos Nyiszli] performed autopsies on twins who had died from the experiments or who had been purposely killed just for after-death measurements and examination.

And, of course, there’s the whole “HYDRA is basically the Marvel Universe’s version of Nazis” thing to take into consideration.

It truly is a rather unsettling parallel when you look at it, especially given that the Maximoff twins are supposed to be from a Jewish family.

(And that it was Captain America who eventually rescued them, as a call back to Steve raiding prison camps in The First Avenger.)

[the-little-fox-in-the-box]

It's important to address that MOST countries were complicit, but not all of them. Polish underground goverment formed an organisation called "Żegota" specifically to save Jews. Poland was the ONLY country in German-occupied Europe where such a government-established underground organization existed.

And while Polish people were risking and loosing their lives to aid jewish people, France was being PAID in gold to transport them by trains straight to Auschwitz. Though according to Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian ex-prisoner of Auschwitz, due to the summer heat and the long journey and the fact that Nazis didn't give them any water the whole wagons of people arrived already dead, so they didn't have to gas them, just undress them, strip them of their clothes and jewlery, rip out any golden teeth that they will later melt into golden pucks to pay France with and chug them into the cremating furnaces.

When talking about this subject we need to reneber who stood up against them, who was complicit and who literally took part in it for tge sake of profit.

being a jew studying preholocaust european jewish history is just *mourns over what could have been, mourns over what could have been, mourns over what could have been, mourns over what could have been, mourns-*

[sassytriumphant-blog]

01/03/2107 // I finished this book in 2 days read the last page today. 

I usually do not like parallel-reading, I mean reading 2 or more books at once because usually I am just going to abandon one of them in favour for the other. And I am reading the Brother Karamazov at the moment but I have a unique experience with this one: I have to take it slow. If I read only a couple of pages/day from the Brother Karamazov it can really sink in I can surely comprehend the meaning and message incorporated within the words. So I took a break and picked up this book about the Holocaust as I have long decided to read it.

I read it in Hungarian as the book was written in my mother-tongue and I prefer reading in the original language. My secret wish is to be able to read grand novels in their original language - the more the better. 

The book is written by a Holocaust survivor dr Miklos Nyiszli who shares details about his time spent in Auschwitz where he was picked to be the medical examiner to support dr Mengele’s experiments and research. He was a doctor not an author so the style of the book is detached and have traces of emotions in it. 

Many details are shared about how these death-camps worked and what the every-day life was like and at the end of the book (at least the version I read) additional information is given to specify certain elements and we also see what happened to the war criminals, including Mengele, after the defeat of the Third Reich. 

A very interesting read indeed but also raised a couple of questions for me so I am going to do some further reading. So this books is excellent food for thought.

I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the topic of the Second World War.

Beware! It is not a light read but definitely worth the time spent with it. 

[rainy-rose]

Bookwyrm readathon: Day 3 Dragon’s Wisdom

Some dragons are known for being bloodthirsty and terrifying. Other dragons are known for the wisdom they have to share. Share a book, author, or booklr recommendation.

Books: Why Mermaids Sing by C.S. Harris. Historical fiction and mystery part of the Sebastian St. Cyr Series. It can also work as a stand alone. I was already pretty into it before I realized it was part of a series :))

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke. Historical fiction, fantasy. A brick of a book

Flicker by Theodore Roszak. A thriller with movie conspiracy theories. I suggest skipping the first 100 pages or so. I almost gave it up because it bore me to death in the beginning

Watershp Down by Richard Adams. Fantasy novel about bunnies, but with themes serious and dark enough that they are not fit for children

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King - Danny from The Shinning grew up, but he can’t take a break

And for Romanian readers Toate Panzele Sus! ( All Sails up!) by Radu Tudoran. I cannot recommend this book enough! An adventure book about traveling the world via boat in order to discover and map an uncharted territory. Unfortunately I do not this it was ever translated din English

Authors: John Saul - thriller and psychological thriller. Thanks to this dude I manage to go through Stephen King’s books

Jo Nesbo - thriller, mystery, beautiful flawed characters

Leigh Bardugo - probably my favorite YA author and Kaz Brekker is definitely one of my top 3 favorite characters

Again a  mention for Romanian readers, Goerge Arion. He writes books based during the communist regime, but they are quite enjoyable, at least some of them. He blends mystery and humor and his main character, Andrei Mladin is quite sarcastic and witty. Again, I do not think his books have been translated.

Bookblrs: @books-and-cookies, @thevajunglebook, @ihaveseenthedragons they are just sooo lovely! And probably not a bookblr, but rather a writeblr @artattemptswriting I’ve learned a lot just by reading his posts ^_^

Reading update:

History is All You Left Me: done

The Raven Boys: done

Perks of Being a Wallflower: page 52 of 231. I am not enjoying this. he writting bugs me. I might DNF it and replace it with Auschwitz A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account by Miklos Nyiszli. This has roughly 160-170 pages long so it will fit one of the dragon challenges and will also prepare me for the not so easy reading I will have to do for my disertation

The Song of Achilles: page 40 of 253. I really like the fact that this is a bildungsroman and I get to see them grow up together and connect ^^

I was feeling quite under the weather today so I did not manage to read that much T_T

Join the readathon ^_^

[flashbrosales]

I Was Doctor Mengele's Assistant - My Review Of The Book

I Was Doctor Mengele’s Assistant – My Review Of The Book

This book is something different, I just need to say that first. This is not comfortable reading at all. This is the true story of the horror inside Auschwitz concentration camp during second world war. What is told in the book is not human at all, it’s just the terrible truth written down by Dr Mengele’s assistant Miklos Nyiszli. In 1946, right after the war was ended the book was written and…

[ageeksnerdyworld]

I have to rant about WWII movies. Specifically Holocaust movies. You know what we need? Holocaust movies not about Jews. They weren’t the only people to go through it. They weren’t the only people to die. Most of the people who went through the Holocaust were actually Romani gypsies. They suffered the exact same prosecution that the Jewish people did. Were considered not even human and worse than garbage. Hitler targeted them in his speeches too. They also were sent to the death camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor & Treblinka. They were also sent to concentration camps: Buchenwald, Dachau, Ravensbrück, Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen, & Begern-Belsen. Same went for any other minority group: the disabled, mentally ill, twins, dwarfs, Slavs, blacks, LGBTQA, autistic people, priests, anarchists, communists, trade unionists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Poles & resistance fighters.

And does anybody care?!?! No.

Why?? Because most people believe Hitler only targeted Jews. Most people don’t know that all these other groups were also targeted. That black people also suffered under the Nuremberg Laws. Hitler targeted every minority group. Targeted anyone and everyone who was different.

5 million total non-Jewish people died during the Holocaust. (That is the official number but many historians believe it should be more closer)

Do their stories get told? Do you learn about them in your history classes? Are movies made about the Slavic people who were in the camps? Are books written about the Romani who were at Auschwitz-Birkenau? Were museums dedicated to all of the mentally ill who died? What about the disabled? The autistic? The LGBTQA? The countless twins who were operated on and literally torn apart and cut open without any anesthetics just because they wanted to see if the other twin could feel the pain as well? The dwarfs who were also horribly experimented on?

Known records tell us that 19,000 Romani died at Auschwitz. 30,000 were shot and killed in the Baltic States when the Einsatzgruppen and other mobile killing units went around. Numbers of other mass deaths are estimated to total up to 35% of Europe’s Romani population; speculated to be somewhere around 1.5 million. Many historians believe the numbers & percentages are alot larger. Ceija Stokja was 10 years old when she was sent to her first of three camps. Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, and then Bergern-Belsen. Her brother died of Typhus while at Auschwitz and her and her mother were sent to Ravensbrück. There was a female guard there who would sick her dog on people. Stojka and her mother fled on train headed to Bergen-Belsen when the guard threatened to submerge the mom in ice water. They hid amongst the dead bodies until Allied forces attacked the train and freed them. Give me a movie about her.

60% of the LGBTQA who went to the camps died. Pierre Seel, a homosexual Frenchman, was 16 when he was sent to a camp. When they arrested him they raped him with a block of wood. While in the camp he had to watchcas his boyfriend was killed by being eaten by German Shepherds. He was released (reasons unknown) and forced to join the German Army. He ran, survived, and spoke about his time in the camp in a documentary as well as a memoir called I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual. (English translated title of course.) In the film he says: “Why did I not speak for 40 years? I am 90 percent disabled from the war.” He died in 2005. Give me a movie about him.

200,000 handicapped and mentally ill were speculated to have been killed during WWII. The euthanasia program was the first plan of mass-murder the Nazis committed. It broke the ground for all the others. They started it in 1939 with disabled children. Children were killed either by starvation or forced overdose of medication. At first it started with strictly infants but then the scope was widened up to the age of 17. In the autumn of ‘39 Hitler secretly signed an order to further it & protect the doctors whom performed the killings. That same autumn the Nazis began to kill handicapped and mentally ill adults. Everything was very secret and all the death notices were doctored to say the people died of natural causes. Hitler publicly stalled the program in 1941 but behind closed doors it still continued. Give me a movie about this.

Give me a movie about Josef Mengele. The Angel of Death. Garrison physician of Auschwitz he was responsible in all medical matters in the camp. But he’s most famous for his experiments with twins. The man who tore twins apart and stitched their bodies together. Who drugged one twin to see if the other would be affected. This is the man who collected and saved the eyes of his victims for “further research”.

Give me a movie about the man forced to work under Mengele. Prisoner-physician Dr. Miklos Nyiszli was imprisoned at Auschwitz along with his wife and daughter in 1944. This man was forced against his will to help Mengele perform his sick twisted experiments on twins and dwarfs. He was also forced to perform autopsies on those who died of infection. A man who, before working with Mengele, tried to help the ill and wounded.

Give me more movies like Der Utergang. Or Downfall which is the English translation. It’s a German film about Hitler’s last ten days of life. The movie shows a different side of Hitler than ever before. It’s the source of the rant that has since become a meme.

[la-princesse-de-cleves]

Toi qui as fait tant de mal à un homme simple En éclatant de rire à la vue de sa souffrance Ne te crois pas sauf Car le poète se souvient Czeslaw Milosz

Le bonheur n’est que dans ce qui agite, et il n’y a que le crime qui agite; la vertu ... ne peut jamais conduire au bonheur. Sade

Le châtiment correspond à la faute : être privé de tout plaisir de vivre, être porte au plus haut degré de dégoût de la vie. Kirkegaard

Avellanada, La Boca, Montserrat, Congreso... une carte dépliée, il se familiarise avec la topographie de Buenos Aires et se sent minuscule devant le damier, une puce insignifiante, lui qui terrorisait tout un royaume il n’y a pas si longtemps. Gregor songe à un autre damier, baraquements, chambres à gaz, crématoires, voies ferrées, où il a passé ses plus belles années d’ingénieur de la race, une cité interdite à l’odeur âcre de chairs et de cheveux brûlés ceinte de miradors et de fil de fer barbelé. En moto, à vélo et en auto, il circulait parmi les ombres sans visage, infatigable dandy cannibale, bottes, gants, uniforme étincelants, casquette légèrement inclinée. Croiser son regard et lui adresser la parole étaient interdits; même ses camarades de l’ordre noir avaient peur de lui. Sur la rampe où l’on triait les juifs d’Europe, ils étaient ivres mais lui restait sobre et sifflotait quelques mesures de Tosca en souriant. Ne jamais s’abandonner à un sentiment humain. La pitié est une faiblesse : d’un mouvement de badine, l’omnipotent scellait le sort de ses victimes, à gauche la mort immédiate, les chambres à gaz, à droite la mort lente, les travaux forcés ou son laboratoire, le plus grand du monde, qu’il alimentait en “matériel humain adéquat” (nains, géants, estropiés, jumeaux) chaque jour à l’arrivée des convois. Injecter, mesurer, saigner ; découper, assassiner, autopsier : à sa disposition, un zoo d’enfants cobayes afin de percer les secrets de la gémellité, de produire des surhommes et de rendre les Allemandes plus fécondes pour peupler un jour de paysans soldats les territoires de l’Est arrachés aux Slaves et défendre la race nordique. Gardien de la pureté de la race et alchimiste de l’homme nouveau : une formidable carrière universitaire et la reconnaissance du Reich victorieux le guettaient après guerre.

Du sang pour le sol, sa folle ambition, le grand dessein d’Heinrich Himmler, son chef suprême.

Auschwitz, mai 1943 - janvier 1945.

Gregor est l’ange de la mort, le docteur Josef Mengele.

[...] Ici , les semaines défilent, sa vie est morne, solitaire, depuis qu’il est à Buenos Aires il craint le faux pas, une mauvaise rencontre, il bute contre sa peur. Gregor est entravé. Tous les jours, il change d’itinéraire pour se rendre à son travail. Régulièrement, il croise des germanophones mais n’ose les aborder.

[...] Les jours filent, le médecin réfugié au Paraguay demeure introuvable mais Harel ne se résigne pas. Mengele “brûle comme un feu dans ses os”, le patron du Mossad envisage même l’assaut de la pension, convaincu qu’il s’y terre encore. Ses hommes l’en dissuadent, il risque de faire capoter toute l’opération.

Le 20 mai 1960, un avion El Al de Buenos Aires à destination de Tel Aviv, avec à son bord Adolf Eichmann en tenue de navigant, drogué. Harel jure à ses hommes qu’ils auront bientôt la peau de Mengele. Ils formeront la nouvelle unité spéciale en charge de traquer les nazis et le médecin d’Auschwitz sera leur première cible.

Quelques jours plus tard, lorsque Ben Gourion annonce la capture d’Eichmann à la Knesset, les criminels de guerre réfugiés en Amérique du Sud sont foudroyés. Qui sera le prochain sur la liste ? Qui sera enlevé, tabassé, abattu froidement dans son lit ou sur un parking par un commando de vengeurs surgi à l’improviste ? Qui sera ramené de force en Israël, exposé à la vindicte des juifs et de l’opinion mondiale  dans une cage de verre dégradante, comme un mosntre de foire, tel Eichmann lors de son procès à Jérusalem, l’année suivante ? Les nazis en exil ne connaîtront plus la paix. S’ils veulent sauver leur peau, ils doivent s’exclure, renoncer aux réjouissances terrestres, se condamner à une existence clandestine de fuyards, à une cavale sans refuges ni repos.

Cette fois, la chasse aux nazis est ouverte.

[...] Le voila livré à la malédiction de Cain, le premier meurtrier de l’humanité : errant et fugitif sur la terre, celui qui le rencontrera le tuera.

[...] Cette danse macabre d’Auschwitz, un médecin légiste hongrois a été forcé de l’exécuter à l’été et à l’automne 1944. Miklos Nyiszli appartenait aux Sonderkommandos, les morts vivants condamnés à recueillir les cheveux et à arracher l’or des cadavres gazés avant de les jeter dans les fours. Le juif Nyiszli fut le scalpel de Mengele. Sur ses ordres, il a scié des calottes crâniennes, ouvert des thorax, coupé à travers des péricardes, et après avoir miraculeusement échappé à l’enfer, il a consigné l’inimaginable et l’effroyable dans un livre, Médecin à Auschwitz, publié dans l’immédiat après-guerre en Hongrie, et en France en 1961.

“Mengele est infatigable dans l’exercice de ses fonctions. Il passe des heures entières tantôt plonge dans le travail, tantôt debout une demi-journée devant la rampe juive où arrivent déjà quatre ou cinq trains par jour chargés de déportés de Hongrie... Son bras s’élance invariablement dans la même direction : à gauche. Des trains entiers sont envoyés à la chambre à gaz et aux bûchers... Il considère l’expédition de centaines de milliers de juifs à la chambre à gaz comme un devoir patriotique.”

[...] Mengele est le prince des ténèbres européennes. Le médecin orgueilleux a disséqué, torturé, brûlé des enfants. Le fils de bonne famille a envoyé quatre cent mille hommes à la chambre à gaz en sifflotant. Longtemps il a cru s’en sortit aisément, lui, l’avorton de boue et de feu qui s’était pris pour un demi-dieu, lui qui avait foulé les lois et les commandements et infligé sans affect tant de souffrances et de tristesse aux hommes, ses frères.

L’Europe vallee de larmes.

L’Europe nécropole d’une civilisation anéantie par Mengele et les sbires de l’ordre noir à tête de mort, pointe empoisonnée d’une flèche lancée en 1914.

Mengele, l’employé modèle des usines de la mort, l’assassin d’Athènes, Rome et Jérusalem, pensait échapper au châtiment.

Mais le voila livré à lui-même, asservi à son existence, aux abois, moderne Caïn errant au Brésil.

Maintenant commence la descente aux enfers de Mengele. Il va ronger son cœur et s’égarer dans la nuit.

[...] Tout le monde voulait faire de la biologie car elle menait aux carrières les plus prestigieuses et les plus rémunératrices. Oui marmotte Mengele au bâtard Cigano, la société allemande ne raisonnait alors qu’en termes biologiques. La race, le sang : les lois fondamentales de la vie régissaient le droit, la guerre, le sexe, les relations internationales et la science suprême, la médecine. A l’université, toute sa promo admirait la Grèce antique parce que l’individu éphémère s’y pliait aux exigences de la communauté et de l’Etat. Pour sa génération, les inférieurs, les improductifs et les parasites étaient indignes de vivre. Hitler les guidait, Mengele n’était pas le seul à l’avoir suivi, les Allemands s’étaient tous laissé ensorceler par le Führer, par la mission grisante et titanesque qu’il leur avait confiée, guérir le peuple, purifier la race, construire un ordre social conforme à la nature, étendre l’espace vital, perfectionner l’espèce humaine. Il avait été à la hauteur, il le savait. Pouvait-on le lui reprocher ? Lui retirer si facilement ses précieux titres universitaires ? Il avait eu le courage d’éliminer la maladie en éliminant les malades, le système l’y encourageait, ses lois l’autorisaient, le meurtre était une entreprise d’Etat.

[...] “Mon devoir, lui dit-il droit dans les yeux, mon devoir de soldat de la science allemande : protéger la communauté organique biologique, purifier le sang, le débarrasser de ses corps étrangers.” Il devait classer, trier et éliminer les inaptes qui arrivaient par milliers tous les jours au camp. “J’ai essayé de désigner le plus grand nombre de travailleurs afin d’épargner un maximum de vies. Les jumeaux avec qui j’ai fait progresser la science me doivent aussi la vie”, ose-t-il. Rolf le regarde de travers. Mengele essaie d’expliquer son principe de sélection : dans un hôpital militaire, tous les blessés ne sont pas opérables. Certains doivent mourir, c’est la guerre, ainsi sont régies les lois de la vie, seuls les plus forts subsistent. A l’arrivée des convois, il y avait tant et plus de morts vivants. Qu’en faire ? Auschwitz n’était pas un asile mais un camp de travail, dit Mengele : mieux valait leur épargner d’énièmes souffrances en les éliminant immédiatement. “Crois-moi, ce n’était pas facile tous les jours. Tu comprends ?”.

[...] Ainsi se termine la cavale de Josef Mengele, plus de soixante-dix ans après la fin de la guerre qui anéantit un continent cosmopolite et cultivé , L’Europe. Mengele ou l’histoire d’un homme sans scrupules à l’âme verrouillée, que percute une idéologie venimeuse et mortifère dans une société bouleversée par l’irruption de la modernité. Elle n’a aucune difficulté à séduire le jeune médecin ambitieux, à abuser de ses penchants médiocres, la vanité, la jalousie, l’argent, jusqu’à l’inciter à commettre des crimes abjects et à les justifier. Toutes les deux ou trois générations lorsque la mémoire s’étiole et que les derniers témoins des massacres précédents disparaissent, la raison s’éclipse et des hommes reviennent propager le mal.

Puissent-il rester loin de  nous, les songes et les chimères de la nuit.

Méfiance, l’homme est une créature malléable, il faut se méfier des hommes.

La disparition de Josef Mengele Olivier Guez

[moviemorning003-blog]

The Complete Detail Of Son of Saul (2015) Name Son of Saul (2015) Storyline Two days in the life of Saul Auslander, Hungarian prisoner working as a member of the Sonderkommando at one of the Auschwitz Crematoriums who, to bury the corpse of a boy he takes for his son, tries to carry out his impossible deed: salvage the body and find a rabbi to bury it. While the Sonderkommando is to be liquidated at any moment, Saul turns away of the living and their plans of rebellion to save the remains of a son he never took care of when he was still alive. Detail Of Son of Saul (2015) Director László Nemes Writer

László Nemes

Clara Royer

Produced by

Krisztina Pintér -- producer

Gábor Rajna            -- producer

Gábor Sipos --  producer

Judit Stalter -- executive producer

Robert Vamos -- associate producer

Stars & Cast

Géza Röhrig -- Saul Ausländer

Levente Molnár -- Abraham Warszawski

Urs Rechn -- Oberkapo Biederman

Todd Charmont -- Bearded Prisoner

Jerzy Walczak-- Rabbi Frankel

Gergö Farkas-- Saul's Son

Balázs Farkas  --  Saul's Son

Sándor Zsótér -- Dr. Miklos Nyiszli

Marcin Czarnik -- Feigenbaum

Levente Orbán -- Russian Prisoner

Kamil Dobrowolski            -- Mietek

Uwe Lauer -- Oberscharführer Voss

Music by László Melis Genres Drama | War Country Hungary Language Hungarian | Yiddish | German | Polish | French Release Date

Hungary -- 11 June 2015

France -- 4 November 2015

Netherlands -- 5 November 2015

Filming Locations Hungary Certificate N/A Box Office Of Son of Saul (2015) Budget HUF 280,000,000 (estimated) Opening Weekend $37,930 (USA) (18 December 2015) Gross $1,776,814 (USA) (13 May 2016) Technical Specs of Son of Saul (2015) Runtime 107 min Sound Mix Dolby Digital Company Credits of Son of Saul (2015) Production Company

Laokoon Filmgroup

Hungarian National Film Fund

[coolelectronicsoulstudent-blog]

I Was Doctor Mengele's Assistant - My Review Of The Book

I Was Doctor Mengele’s Assistant – My Review Of The Book

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This book is something different, I just need to say that first. This is not comfortable reading at all. This is the true story of the horror inside Auschwitz concentration camp during second world war. What is told in the book is not human at all, it’s just the terrible truth written down by Dr Mengele’s assistant Miklos Nyiszli.

In 1946, right after the war was ended the book was written…

[smokescreenproductions-blog]

Mengele Research Trip to Krakow, Poland

From the very beginning, as an actor I knew this was going to be a significant project to be a part of; working on a script that carries not only the weight of the past and history, but also the weight of the present, of what is being repeated, paths being re-tread in the now, is a challenging feat for a young actor. Or any actor. When a story such as this, of Josef Mengele, of his escape from Nazi Germany, of his experiments in the name of Medical Science and his faith in Eugenics, I knew the rehearsal and research process was going to challenge us as a cast on an emotional as well as cerebral plain. How does one not grimace or judge such a man as Josef Mengele? How does one not transfer their own morality onto a man that arguably does not have one? These were the questions I was beginning to ask myself when our production team and cast decided to make the journey to Krakow, specifically Auschwitz-Birkenau, to the very ramp and ground that Mengele worked and walked upon.

Along with our production team, simply walking the streets of Krakow was a humbling experience; meandering through the same side streets and squares that Mengele and the SS frequented during the war. It was very much about absorbing the tension that eerily still lingers in Krakow despite its sublime beauty of horse drawn carriages, peach evening skies and cafes lining the main square, cafes that were open for business to Nazi officials and commandments during World War Two.

Back on the street and Krakow’s rich air, heavy with Klezmer and the sound of strings, the Jewish Quarter at night time was an opportunity to source and search for the music we needed to open Act Two. Although the Argentine Tango between Josef and Azrael was agreed upon, the team wanted to immerse itself in an authentic Polish Ballroom/Dance Hall; not a performed Dance Hall for the tourists, but with all the performative still there in its dancers and music.

Coming across Klub Kabaret down a hidden back water of Krakowska within the Kazimierz Jewish Quarter, we found what we were looking for. Locals had gathered for Midnight Tango in the basement of the club. A time capsule of 1930’s Krakow, it was perfect. Watching the couples from above, you begin seeing the significance of what a dance within a play can do to the audience and narrative overall. Why does it come at this point in the play? Who leads? Who follows? What’s been discussed before the dance? What are the feelings of the characters? What do they want from each other? Who is she to him, and him to her? Like the dances in Ibsen and Chekhov, the Argentine Tango in ‘Mengele’ will certainly carry a subtext as we experiment with tempo, tone, and these factors in the rehearsal room.

Oskar Schindler’s Factory

The external of the factory remains untouched, like most of Krakow, and this white building on Lipowa, proved exceptional in resource material about Jewish life in pre-Nazi Krakow and during the liquidation of the ghetto in 1943.

As a testament to the danger Oskar Schindler put himself in, it is harrowing to think how this individual, this one man made the decision to save Jewish lives when placed in a position of power within the Nazi state. He realised he had the choice and he took it. I began making connections between him and Josef Mengele; these were two men, two individuals who were in strong positions of power and influence, both held the power of life in their hands, and it proves fascinating to look at how both utilised that power. One particular section of the play that stands out to me whilst going through this museum was : -

MENGELE   We were men of action.

AZRA      I can see that. This is not always easy … It takes a strong man to take such decisions.

MENGELE   Yes. Someone had to be strong. Someone had to do the work, to take action.

These men were both indeed men of action. Both took action. Both members of the Nazi Party, in the Krakow area, perhaps even circulating similar social circles. And that idea of choice, of being a strong man in difficult times, that someone had to step forward ‘to do the work’ makes you think how these two men who had extremely similar circumstances and backgrounds, could develop such opposing moral duties in battle of one another.

 Jewish Ghetto and Wall

The stories of the past and the shadows of the Jewish Ghetto still permeates through the city. Commuters, shop venders and builders live and work in the Kazimierz, and you do wonder how the people of Krakow keep the memories of the past firmly in the past. Many who returned to the city after 1944, returned not to a home, but to a mausoleum. Many could no longer call it home.

The streets that were their playgrounds, the houses that were their homes; all now monuments. Artefactual in silent splendour.

When you approach a section of the old Jewish Ghetto Wall; we walked the stretch on Lakowska Street, the unsettling shapes the wall makes on the sky line look like the heads of grave stones. Perfect circular arches one after another. Unlike the historical areas of London or Paris, one can very easily trace the buildings behind the wall. They didn’t seem to have even been repainted since the Ghetto. That same, cheap mars black ever so slightly peeling back rusted windows that could speak without words. As a generally stoic character with a strong physical presence on stage, I found these buildings in the Ghetto particularly significant in the development of my character Azra and how she navigates Mengele towards the truth.

Auschwitz-Birkenau 

One cannot attempt to grasp the scale of what happened here. Auschwitz-Birkenau is more than a physical place now; it is a place in the human conscious. And it still very much exists in the memories of many. So, when something like this transcends into an actual place you step onto, with walls you can touch, and steps you can climb, it shatters you with the silence of its place in reality. It wasn't a nightmare. It was real.

Tim and I both walked the path of Mengele’s victims at Birkenau and the responsibility we have as actors to the piece became overwhelming. For Tim, he could walk through the exact process geographically of Mengele’s selections. From track, to cart, to gate, to unloading, and then categorisation by gender and age. And then of course the exact footsteps he made when selecting his patients at The Ramp. This was his work. For me, as the actor, the attack on the senses was inescapable. But all the more necessary for when we were to work on Act Three in the rehearsal room.

It’s incredibly important for Tim and I as a cast to be able to experience the weight of these places as actors that are taking on such sensitive material. In doing so, with the Ghetto, Kazimierz and Auschwitz-Birkenau, we are gaining access to the geography of Josef Mengele’s life and work. It’s about capturing and harnessing the tangible atmosphere we have experienced in Krakow and translate that into the stage play in the UK.

 As rehearsals continue after Krakow, we're continuing to find further levels and dimensions with in the text. For me, the relationship between Josef and this woman goes through many stages within a very condensed period on stage. Their exchanges throughout the piece become faster as repetition and finishing one another's sentences becomes part of the rhythm of Tim and Phil's writing. Almost like they are speaking as one person. A universal voice. And with this universality of two characters on stage, I couldn't help thinking of how it relates to the imagery of the twins Mengele was so obsessed by in his experiments. Are the two characters twins? Are they indeed speaking as one? Are they themselves a part of some greater experiment bigger than Mengele could ever imagine? These are all ideas and questions that an actor goes through with a text very much open to interpretation in who or what these people are in the play. 

  Reading List of the Team whilst in Krakow: -

I was Doctor Mengele's Assistant by Miklos Nyiszli

Auschwitz: The Nazis & The Final Solution by Laurence Rees

If Not Now, When? By Primo Levi

On Photography by Susan Sontag

Roman by Polanski by Roman Polanski

Right to Live by Philip Wharam

[chaoticneutralofthemind]

Dr. Josef Mengele,  “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele was born on March 16th, 1911 to Karl and Walburga Mengele in Gunzburg, Germany near Ulm. He was the eldest of three brothers. Dr. Mengele earned a Phd in physical anthropology at the University of Munich and soon after (January of 1937)  became an assistant to Dr. Otmar Von Verschuer at the Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene. Dr. Von Verschuer was infamous for his research and studies on twins, a study that impacted Dr. Mengele immensely. In 1937, Dr. Mengele joined the nazi party and the following year, joined the SS and then received a medical degree. Now, there is Unsure documentation of the events that took place during the times of 1937 through 1943. However, throughout these years, Dr. Mengele was drafted into the army and joined the Waffen-SS, or the Armed-SS, had a clear first function as a medical expert for the Race and Settlement Main Office, and served as a medical officer with the SS division “Wiking” when the SS Pioneer battalion V faced action on the eastern front. Dr. Mengele returned back to Germany, wounded, in 1943. During his recovery, he worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (KWI) for anthropology, human genetics, and Eugenics. During the summer of 1943, he was promoted to SS Captain and was transferred to Auschwitz on May 30th, 1943. He became the “Chief Camp Physician” at Auschwitz Birkenau In November and then started to perform lethal and agonizing tests on many Jewish and Roma/Gypsy children and twins. Under his Chief name, he had the full license to maim, torture, and kill subjects. Dr. Josef Mengele was responsible for many things, Including the Gypsy death camp at Birkenau. Alongside of this death camp, he also was responsible for performing “Selections” (The choice of which Jewish people lived, died, and were tested on), and often came off-duty for the search of twins. He specifically had a fascination with twins, heterochromia (A condition in which an individual’s two irises differ in color), and Noma (gangrene that infects the mucous membrane of the mouth and other tissue). He firmly endorsed nationalist and socialist racial theory and tried to demonstrate the degeneration of Gypsy and Jewish bloodline. During January 1945, Mengele fled Auschwitz as the Soviet Union approached. He Stayed at Gross-Rosen for a few weeks until its evacuation, then traveled west to avoid his capture from Soviet Union. His name was listed on the Wanted War Criminals. The US captured Mengele and unknowingly released him. Under false papers he worked as a farmhand in Rosenheim, Bavaria from 1945 to 1949.The warrant for his arrest was put out in 1959, 14 years after WW2 ended. In 1960, Mengele ran away to Paraguay and then to Brazil, where he then resided. Josef Mengele suffered a stroke while swimming and was buried under the name Wolfgang Gerhard. He eluded his captors for 34 years and was never caught. His former assistant Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a prisoner-physician, was under duress and was forced to assist Dr. Mengele. He later published “Auschwitz: A doctor’s eyewitness account” in his native hungarian language in 1946, and in english in 1960. Mengele conducted numerous experiments and has more than 1,000 deaths on his hands in the short 21 months he spent there. His most memorable experiments and acts of cruelty are listed below. ~ He once gassed 750 women whose block was infected with lice. ~ Killed all of the Jews from a transport by gas after a mother scratched and bit the doctor after he moved her away from her 13 year old daughter. ~ Collected the eyes of the deceased patients to further experiment and “research” artificially changing eye color and eye pigmentation. ~Performed an open autopsy on a One year old baby. ~Injected unknown chemicals and dyes into the eyes of children in hope to change eye color - which often led to complete blindness and excruciating pain. ~Removed organs and limbs, performed sex change operations, and performed other surgeries without anesthesia. ~Castrated boys ~Researched how long it took to freeze to death and the effects of freezing. ~Performed incestuous impregnations. ~Stood on pregnant women with full force and timed how long it took until the body miscarried and expelled the unborn baby. ~Tested unknown, illegal drugs on subjects. ~Put subjects through isolation endurance and then also studied their reaction to various stimuli. ~Injected subjects with lethal germs. ~Were placed in pressure chambers. His studies on Twins: ~Drew blood from twins until they died. ~Transfused blood from one twin to another ~Sew two gypsy children together to create siamese twins. However, they passed away due to a severely bad infection of gangrene in their hands after their veins were resected. ~Injected chloroform into the hearts of 14 pairs of twins and then dissected every single body and took note of each part. ~He would inject one twin with a deadly virus and then kill the other to compare organ tissue during their autopsy. The Ovitz Family: The Ovitz family is the largest family of Dwarves ever on record. Prior to WW2, they had been a sort of Vaudeville Act - The Lilliput Troupe. They would travel around Europe and sing folk songs in several languages. They also Happened to be Jewish. In 1944, they were sent to Auschwitz and were specifically chosen to be experimented on by Dr. Mengele. ~He would take blood samples and bone marrow samples daily. ~He would inject chemicals into their eyes which led to almost immediate blindness. ~He would pull on their hair and teeth daily. ~Ear drip torture. ~Subjects were even stripped in front of audiences and researchers during lectures and analysis. 12 members of the Ovitz clan survived WW2 - the largest family group to do so. They headed back to their hometown of Romania before they settled permanently in the newly created Israel.

Over the course of 21 months, 3,000 twins were murdered. We will never truly know the extent to his gruesome and inhumane psychological and physical experiments.

-Chaotic Evil.

[piinapuu]

Hair was also a precious material, due to the fact that it expands and contracts uniformly, no matter what the humidity of the air. Human hair was often used in delayed action bombs, where its particular qualities made it highly useful for detonating purposes.

Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account written by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli and translated by Tibere Kremer & Richard Seaver. Fawcett Publications Inc. 1961.