I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz

Gisella Perl's memoir is the extraordinarily candid account of women's extreme efforts to survive Auschwitz. With writing as powerful as that of Charlotte Delbo and Ruth Kluger, her story individualizes and therefore humanizes a victim of mass dehumanization. Perl accomplished this by representing her life before imprisonment, in Auschwitz and other camps, and in the struggle to remake her life. It is also the first memoir by a woman Holocaust survivor and establishes the model for understanding the gendered Nazi policies and practices targeting Jewish women as racially poisonous. Perl's memoir is also significant for its inclusion of the Nazis' Roma victims as well as in-depth representations of Nazi women guards and other personnel. Unlike many important Holocaust memoirs, Perl's writing is both graphic in its horrific detail and eloquent in its emotional responses. One of the memoir's major historical contributions is Perl's account of being forced to work alongside Dr. Josef Mengele in his infamous so-called clinic and using her position to save the lives of other women prisoners. These efforts including infanticide and abortion, topics that would remain silenced for decades and, unfortunately, continue to be marginalized from all too many Holocaust accounts. After decades out of print, this new edition will ensure the crucial place of Perl's testimony on Holocaust memory and education.

Introduction by Phyllis Lassner and Danny M. CohenForewordDr. Kapezius"I Want to Go with Them..."Arrival at AuschwitzAuschwitz-an A Day within its BordersDinner at AuschwitzThe "Beauty Parlor"Auschwitz Treasure-Trove: Julika FarkasCharlotte JungerThe Value of a Piece of String...Irma Greze"Concert" in AuschwitzMargarineBlock VII: The LatrineChildbirth in Camp CThe Hospital StaffThe Story of the Fatal HandkerchiefOne Woman's DeathThe Bag of DiamondsThe Life-Saving EmbryoThe Story of JeanetteLiquidation of Camp CFarewell to AuschwitzTrip to HamburgHamburg-Dege WerkeBelsen BergenGeneral Gleen HughesAbbé BrandAfterword by Eva HoffmanAbout the Editors