Gisella Perl
Gisella Perl (born December 10, 1907 in Sighet ; † 1988 ) was a Jewish gynecologist who lived in Sighetu Marmației , Romania (then Máramarossziget , Hungary , due to the Second Vienna Arbitration ), until 1944 German troops occupied Hungary and the Jewish there Population deported .
Life
She and her family were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in May 1944 , where she lost her parents, her only son and other family members. In the camp she helped her fellow prisoners as a doctor and helped to cure diseases with the smallest of resources. Neither clean towels, antiseptic cutlery nor running water were available. She saved hundreds of pregnant women prisoners through premature abortion, as pregnant women were most often beaten and killed, or abused for vivisection through Josef Mengele's experiments .
After she was liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as the last station, she found out that her husband and son had also died. She then tried to poison herself and was sent to a nunnery in France to recover until 1947 . After returning to New York City in March 1947, she was interrogated and suspected of assisting the camp doctors and violating human rights. She was finally granted American citizenship in 1951. Perl began working as a gynecologist at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital and helped give birth to an estimated 3,000 babies in New York alone, which also made her an expert in the treatment of infertility .
In June 1948 she published a book about her life in Auschwitz and described in detail the cruel experiences among the prisoners as a doctor. She was later able to find her daughter Gabriella Krauss Blattman, whose hiding she was able to organize during the war. Both then moved to Herzliya , Israel to live there together. Perl died in Israel in 1988.
Perl was the sole author or co-author of nine papers on vaginal infections published between 1955 and 1970.
literature
- Gisella Perl: I was a doctor in Auschwitz , International Universities Press, New York 1948.
- Ernst Klee : Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices and victims and what became of them. A dictionary of persons , S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-10-039333-3 .
Movies
In 2003 the film Out of the Ashes was released . The story of the film is based on Dr. Perl's life, played by actress Christine Lahti .
Web links
- Literature by and about Gisella Perl in the catalog of the German National Library
- Gisella Perl: Angel and Abortionist in the Auschwitz Death Camp
- Gisella Perl
- Journal of Women's Health, Profiles: Dr. Gisella Perl
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nadine Brozan: Out of Death, a Zest for Life . New York Times , Nov. 15, 1982
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Perl, Gisella |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American-Romanian doctor of Jewish origin and Holocaust survivor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 10, 1907 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sighet |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1988 |