The Ovici (Ovitz) family

The Ovici or Ovitz family was the largest family to remain intact and survive Auschwitz due to Dr. Joseph Mengele's interest in the family because of their dwarfism, the type being pseudoachondroplasia.  They were the subject of Menegele's medical experiments from the moment of their arrival on May 12th, 1944.

Their approximate height was three feet. Due to their mother, Batia Ovici, the children had learned the skill of entertainment. They were known as the Lilliput Troupe, which performed musical routines and comedic sketches throughout Romania, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

When the racial laws were implemented in Transylvania in 1940, the Ovicis had obtained distinctive identification documents which did not specify their religion and therefore allowed them to continue their livelihood until March 1944.  The Ovicis were thus sent to Auschwitz.

In the May of 1949, they emigrated to Israel where the troupe was revived and continued to entertain and perform until retirement in 1955.

     

The photograph below is of a dwarf prisoner sent for execution. The fact that the Ovici family had survived intact and at all was extraordinary because dwarfs were seen as individuals with a physical disability, therefore "unfit for work" and murdered through the gas chamber, pogroms or euthanasia. 

  

Here are some links for further research: 

1. Ovici Family: 

http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1144369

For information on Nazi Euthanasia I recommend:

1. Jewish Virtual Library: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/

2. Yad Vashem: http://www.yadvashem.org/

3. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: http://www.ushmm.org/

Thank you! 

The Lebensborn Project

The Lebensborn project was founded on December 12th, 1935 by Heinrich Himmler. Within the same year, the Nuremberg Laws were passed which prohibited the intermarriage, sexual relations and citizenship of all Jews and "Non-Aryans".

The purpose of the Lebensborn project was to increase Germany's declining birthrate and create a new generation that would lead the Nazi/Aryan nation by allowing "racially pure" women to secretly conceive with an SS officer and give birth to a "racially pure" child. The children born into Lebensborn nurseries were taken by the SS. Expectant mothers through the program, regardless of their marital status, were provided with a home and a safe environment for birthing the child.

Here are links for further research:
1. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Lebensborn.html
2. http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/General/LebensbornEng.html