Gisella Perl and the Tragedy of Mothers at Auschwitz

A Polish doctor, who had become Anna's friend, advised her not to reveal anything about her condition. For Anna, it was difficult, because prisoners received only two ladles of soup per day, to be shared among six people. One of the pregnant women could no longer endure the hunger and decided to declare herself. Indeed, she began receiving milk. Others followed her example and confessed their pregnancy. After some time, they were all taken away and were never seen again.

Anna chose to remain silent. She continued carrying out forced labor in the camp, which, as could be expected, led to a premature birth. The first contractions began during the morning roll call, when prisoners had to stand for hours regardless of the weather, in rain, snow, or blazing sun. Anna managed to hide the pain and only when the roll call finally ended did she enter the barrack and hide under some blankets. She tried to endure the pain of natural childbirth as long as possible, but she could not. She let out a scream as she gave birth to a child. Mengele heard the scream and immediately went to her. Without hesitation, he seized the newborn and threw him directly into the fire, burning him alive. Anna had not even yet expelled the placenta.

To avoid such barbaric scenes, the gynecologist Gisella Perl, a prisoner who worked for Mengele, decided to perform abortions on all pregnant women in Auschwitz. It was a decision completely contrary to her faith, but for her the possibility of saving the mother weighed more heavily, because as a rule, once discovered, all pregnant women were sent to the gas chamber. Alternatively, they died shortly after giving birth. Dr. Perl had to act in secret, because if she had been discovered, she would have risked her life. By day she worked for Mengele in the camp hospital, but at night she secretly entered the barracks to help the women.

At first, like many other prisoners, Dr. Perl was naive enough to believe that the SS truly offered help to pregnant women who came forward voluntarily, promising them food or better accommodation in another camp. Until one day she saw with her own eyes SS men and women beating pregnant women with sticks, whipping them, and setting dogs on them. When the women fainted, they were thrown into the crematorium still alive. Perl witnessed the scene paralyzed, unable to move or scream. Horror turned into anger, and at that very moment she decided she would use her knowledge of gynecology to save all pregnant women. She ran from block to block to recount what she had seen and warn that no woman should ever reveal she was expecting a child.

Dr. Perl began delivering babies in secret, in the dark corners of the camp, in bathrooms, on the floor, amid filth, without a drop of water. After the birth, she bandaged the mother's abdomen and immediately sent her back to work so that no one would suspect she had just given birth. The newborns were killed and buried in the dead of night, as were the aborted fetuses.

When necessary, Perl managed to have some women admitted to the camp hospital, which, in her words, was a great sham because there were no medicines or proper instruments, only a few rusty tools. She diagnosed them with "pneumonia," a condition considered safe because it was not a valid reason to be sent to the gas chamber.

Every afternoon, Mengele made a brief visit to the hospital where Dr. Perl worked. It was a dreaded moment for everyone, because he vented his sadism on the imprisoned doctors and nurses. He could beat them, whip them, kick them with his heavy boots, or send them directly to the crematorium, doing whatever he wished with them. One night, a group of nine prisoners working in the hospital believed that Mengele would not come, as he was very late. They took advantage of the moment to light a fire and cook some potatoes: a feast for those whose stomachs were devoured by hunger. It was already night when a car stopped in front of the hospital. It was Mengele. He stood there with a fierce grin that displayed teeth like a wolf's. The women were paralyzed with fear. After a moment of silence, he exploded like a wild beast, kicked the stove, overturned the potatoes, and flipped over an operating table. "This is how I imagined a Jewish hospital. Dirty whores… indescribable Jewish swine!" he shouted furiously.

Dr. Perl quickly sought a way to placate his anger. She grabbed a fetus immersed in a jar and, stammering, said to him: "Herr Hauptsturmführer, perhaps this specimen might interest you; it is rare to have one fully intact." Mengele stopped shouting for a moment, seized the jar, examined it, and gave a cruel, satisfied smile. "Perfect… wonderful… Take it to the crematorium tomorrow morning. We will send it to Berlin," he ordered. Then he turned and left, as if nothing had happened.

A few days later, an order arrived: pregnancy would no longer be punished with death, but it had to be terminated and the fetus delivered to Mengele. Dr. Perl breathed a sigh of relief because she could continue doing what she had already been doing, but officially, without risking her life and in better conditions than on the filthy floor of the barracks. Mengele collected human fetuses as part of the range of research he conducted in Auschwitz.

During that long month of August 1944, some men of the Sonderkommando carried out a remarkable feat. A civilian worker managed to smuggle a camera into the concentration camp. He hid it at the bottom of a bucket and got it into the hands of a Greek Jew named Alex. Despite the enormous risk of being discovered, Alex entered a gas chamber and hurriedly took four photographs, without even looking through the viewfinder. The most shocking image he managed to capture showed a pile of naked bodies in an open-air incineration pit in front of Crematorium V. He then put the camera back into the bucket, which secretly made its way into the hands of Helena Dantón, an employee in the SS canteen. The woman hid the film inside a tube of toothpaste.