I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz (Bloomsbury Studies in Jewish Literature)

ISBN: 1498583946

Author: Perl

Condition: New

Gisella Perls memoir is the extraordinarily candid account of womens 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. Perls 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, Perls writing is both graphic in its horrific detail and eloquent in its emotional responses. One of the memoirs major historical contributions is Perls 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 Perls testimony on Holocaust memory and education.