Miklos Nyiszli
Encyclopedia
Miklós Nyiszli was a Jewish prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp
. Nyiszli, along with his wife and young daughter, were transported to Auschwitz in June 1944. On arrival, Nyiszli volunteered himself as a doctor and was sent to work at number 12 barracks
where he operated on and tried to help the ill with only the most basic medical supplies and tools. He was under the supervision of Josef Mengele
, an SS officer and physician. Mengele decided after observing Nyiszli’s skills to move him to a specially built autopsy
and operating theatre. The room had been built inside Crematorium 2 (Crematorium 1 being in Auschwitz Town camp), and Nyiszli, along with members of the 12th Sonderkommando
, were housed there.
and twins. Mengele had done research into the causes of dwarfism and twinning, and used Nyiszli to gather more information for him. Nyiszli also carried out the autopsies of prisoners; specifically those suspected to have died from camp diseases. Mengele was also searching for evidence supporting the "inferiority of the Jewish race"; at one point Nyiszli was forced to carry out medical experiments on a father-son pair, and after their murder, to prepare their skeletons for study at the Anthropological Museum in Berlin
.
One day, after the gassing
of a new shipment of prisoners, Nyiszli was summoned by prisoners working in the gas chambers
who had found a girl alive under a mass of bodies in a gas chamber. Nyiszli and his fellow prisoners did their best to help and care for the girl but she was eventually discovered by SS guards and shot. This incident was dramatized in the film The Grey Zone
.
Nyiszli was appalled by the disregard for human life and lack of sympathy for human suffering shown by the SS guards and officers; However, like all in the camp his actions were dictated by his tormentors, thus he was forced to perform what for him were immoral acts. As he said (in obvious protest, under duress):
During the roughly eight months he spent in Auschwitz, Nyiszli observed the murder of tens-of-thousands of people, including the slaughter of whole sub-camps at a time. These sub-camps held different ethnic, religious, national, and gender groups. For example there was a Gypsy camp, several women’s camps, a Czech
camp, and so on. Each sub-camp usually housed between 5,000 and 10,000 prisoners, and some had even higher populations. Nyiszli was often told of, or given prior notification of, which camps were to be exterminated next, as it would signal that an increased workload was imminent.
When Nyiszli discovered that the women’s camp his wife and daughter lived in, Camp C, was to be liquidated, he bribed
an SS officer to transfer his wife and daughter to a women’s work camp. Nyiszli remained in Auschwitz until shortly before its liberation by the Soviet army on January 27, 1945. On January 18 Nyiszli, along with an estimated 66,000 other prisoners, was forced on a death march
that took the prisoners into various parts of the Third Reich’s territories including: Germany
proper, Poland
(which was part of Greater Germany) present-day Austria
, Czechoslovakia
, and further into various smaller concentration camps.
, near the city of Linz
. After a three-day-stay in a quarantine barracks at Mauthausen, he was sent to the Melk an der Donau concentration camp, about three hours away by train. After a total of 12 months of imprisonment, including two months in the Melk an der Donau camp, Nyiszli and his fellow prisoners were liberated on May 5, 1945, when U.S.
troops reached the camp. Nyiszli's wife and daughter also survived Auschwitz and were liberated from Bergen Belsen.
Nyiszli died of a heart attack on May 5, 1956. His daughter Susanna married a Gentile
in 1952 and had a daughter, Monica. She died on 8th January 1983. His wife Margareta died on 5th September 1985, aged 84
Map of Auschwitz death marches and info: Figure 1.1
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
. Nyiszli, along with his wife and young daughter, were transported to Auschwitz in June 1944. On arrival, Nyiszli volunteered himself as a doctor and was sent to work at number 12 barracks
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
where he operated on and tried to help the ill with only the most basic medical supplies and tools. He was under the supervision of Josef Mengele
Josef Mengele
Josef Rudolf Mengele , also known as the Angel of Death was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. He earned doctorates in anthropology from Munich University and in medicine from Frankfurt University...
, an SS officer and physician. Mengele decided after observing Nyiszli’s skills to move him to a specially built autopsy
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
and operating theatre. The room had been built inside Crematorium 2 (Crematorium 1 being in Auschwitz Town camp), and Nyiszli, along with members of the 12th Sonderkommando
Sonderkommando
Sonderkommandos were work units of Nazi death camp prisoners, composed almost entirely of Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber victims during The Holocaust...
, were housed there.
Authorship
During Nyiszli’s time in the camp he witnessed many atrocities to which he refers in his book Auschwitz—A doctor’s eyewitness account.Accounts of life in the camp
While imprisoned, Nyiszli was forced to carry out medical experiments and perform autopsies on dozens of bodies, particularly on dwarfsDwarfism
Dwarfism is short stature resulting from a medical condition. It is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than 4 feet 10 inches , although this definition is problematic because short stature in itself is not a disorder....
and twins. Mengele had done research into the causes of dwarfism and twinning, and used Nyiszli to gather more information for him. Nyiszli also carried out the autopsies of prisoners; specifically those suspected to have died from camp diseases. Mengele was also searching for evidence supporting the "inferiority of the Jewish race"; at one point Nyiszli was forced to carry out medical experiments on a father-son pair, and after their murder, to prepare their skeletons for study at the Anthropological Museum in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
One day, after the gassing
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...
of a new shipment of prisoners, Nyiszli was summoned by prisoners working in the gas chambers
Gas Chambers
Gas Chambers is a fast, hollow and shallow point break type of wave. Being that it is a high performance wave it is well suited for the average to pro level surfer. Gas Chambers is located on the North Shore of Oahu about a 1/4 of a mile north of Ehukai Beach Park and 1/2 a mile west of Sunset...
who had found a girl alive under a mass of bodies in a gas chamber. Nyiszli and his fellow prisoners did their best to help and care for the girl but she was eventually discovered by SS guards and shot. This incident was dramatized in the film The Grey Zone
The Grey Zone
The Grey Zone is a 2001 film directed by Tim Blake Nelson and starring David Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino and Daniel Benzali. It is based on the book Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account written by Dr. Miklós Nyiszli....
.
Nyiszli was appalled by the disregard for human life and lack of sympathy for human suffering shown by the SS guards and officers; However, like all in the camp his actions were dictated by his tormentors, thus he was forced to perform what for him were immoral acts. As he said (in obvious protest, under duress):
An event never before experienced in the history of medicine worldwide is realized here: Twins die at the same time, and there is the possibility of subjecting their corpses to an autopsy. Where in normal life is there the case, bordering on a miracle, that twins die at the same place at the same time? [...] A comparative autopsy is thus absolutely impossible under normal conditions. But in Auschwitz camp there are several hundred pairs of twins, and their deaths, in turn, present several hundred opportunities!"
During the roughly eight months he spent in Auschwitz, Nyiszli observed the murder of tens-of-thousands of people, including the slaughter of whole sub-camps at a time. These sub-camps held different ethnic, religious, national, and gender groups. For example there was a Gypsy camp, several women’s camps, a Czech
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
camp, and so on. Each sub-camp usually housed between 5,000 and 10,000 prisoners, and some had even higher populations. Nyiszli was often told of, or given prior notification of, which camps were to be exterminated next, as it would signal that an increased workload was imminent.
When Nyiszli discovered that the women’s camp his wife and daughter lived in, Camp C, was to be liquidated, he bribed
Bribery
Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
an SS officer to transfer his wife and daughter to a women’s work camp. Nyiszli remained in Auschwitz until shortly before its liberation by the Soviet army on January 27, 1945. On January 18 Nyiszli, along with an estimated 66,000 other prisoners, was forced on a death march
Death marches (Holocaust)
The death marches refer to the forcible movement between Autumn 1944 and late April 1945 by Nazi Germany of thousands of prisoners from German concentration camps near the war front to camps inside Germany.-General:...
that took the prisoners into various parts of the Third Reich’s territories including: Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
proper, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(which was part of Greater Germany) present-day Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, and further into various smaller concentration camps.
After Auschwitz
Nyiszli’s first major stop after the forced march out of Auschwitz was the Mauthausen concentration camp in northern AustriaAustria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, near the city of Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
. After a three-day-stay in a quarantine barracks at Mauthausen, he was sent to the Melk an der Donau concentration camp, about three hours away by train. After a total of 12 months of imprisonment, including two months in the Melk an der Donau camp, Nyiszli and his fellow prisoners were liberated on May 5, 1945, when U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
troops reached the camp. Nyiszli's wife and daughter also survived Auschwitz and were liberated from Bergen Belsen.
Nyiszli died of a heart attack on May 5, 1956. His daughter Susanna married a Gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
in 1952 and had a daughter, Monica. She died on 8th January 1983. His wife Margareta died on 5th September 1985, aged 84
Map of Auschwitz death marches and info: Figure 1.1
Hierarchical structure
Interlocking Directorates: German Industries and Banks (I.G. Farben, Siemens, Bundesbank, Deutsche Bank, ...)- Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG)
- Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and EugenicsKaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and EugenicsThe Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics was founded in 1927. The Rockefeller Foundation supported both the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Psychiatry and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics...
- Eugen FischerEugen FischerEugen Fischer was a German professor of medicine, anthropology and eugenics. He was director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics between 1927 and 1942...
/Otmar von Verschuer- Karin MagnussenKarin MagnussenKarin Magnussen was a researcher at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics during Germany's Third Reich, known for her 1936 publication "Race and Population Policy Tools", and her studies of heterochromia iridis using iris specimens from Auschwitz concentration...
- Joseph Mengele
- Miklós_Nyiszli (slave at Auschwitz)
- Joseph Mengele
- Karin Magnussen
- Eugen Fischer
- Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics
Dramatization
- The Grey Zone, a 1996 play by Tim Blake NelsonTim Blake NelsonTim Blake Nelson is an American director, writer, singer, and actor.-Early life:Nelson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Ruth Kaiser Nelson, who is a noted social activist and philanthropist in Tulsa, and a geologist father...
- Auschwitz Lullaby, a 1998 play by James C. Wall, printed: 2000 ISBN 0-87129-826-0; audiocassette & CD: 2000, ISBN 1-889889-02-4
- The Grey ZoneThe Grey ZoneThe Grey Zone is a 2001 film directed by Tim Blake Nelson and starring David Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino and Daniel Benzali. It is based on the book Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account written by Dr. Miklós Nyiszli....
, a 2001 film by Tim Blake NelsonTim Blake NelsonTim Blake Nelson is an American director, writer, singer, and actor.-Early life:Nelson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Ruth Kaiser Nelson, who is a noted social activist and philanthropist in Tulsa, and a geologist father...
See also
- Sanitätswesen (German concentration and extermination camps)
- Research Materials: Max Planck Society ArchiveResearch Materials: Max Planck Society ArchiveAt the end of World War II, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society was renamed the Max Planck Society, and the institutes associated with the Kaiser Wilhelm Society were renamed "Max Planck" institutes. The records that were archived under the former Kaiser Wilhelm Society and its institutes were placed in the...