Video: The dwarfs Ovitz are Jewish musicians who survived the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The Ovitz family is one of the few Lilliputian families in the world who became famous not only for successfully touring, giving musical concerts, but also miraculously survived in a Nazi camp during the Jewish Holocaust. The head of the family, Shimshon Aizik Ovitz, was a Lilliputian, and in two marriages with healthy women he became the father of ten children, seven of whom were of tiny stature. Many trials fell to the lot of this family, but they were lucky everywhere, they never parted and, perhaps, that is why they survived during the years of terrible terror.
The Ovitz family was originally from Romania, but Shimshon was Jewish by nationality. For a long time, the family managed to hide this fact. As a child of Lilliputians, Shimshon's second wife taught how to play musical instruments, the family formed a first-class ensemble, tiny violins, cellos, cymbals and even a drum kit were made for them. This was the beginning of the musical career of the collective, which called itself the "Troupe of the Lilliputians" (the name was not philosophized for a long time). Interestingly, in the pre-war years in Romania, such ensembles were popular, but Ovitz was perhaps the most numerous. Spectators came with pleasure to listen to music performed by dwarfs. Several times Ovitsy even went on tour to neighboring countries - Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
A legend has survived that before her death, Shimshon's second wife bequeathed to the children to stick together and never betray each other. Many believe that this helped them survive in the concentration camp, where the Ovitsy ended up in 1944. It is noteworthy that before that, dwarfs had successfully hid under fake passports. When the deception was revealed (one of the neighbors made a denunciation), and they still had to wear humiliating yellow stripes, they caught the eye of a German officer, who took pity on the musical troupe and decided to take all the dwarfs to him. For some time they hid in his house, in the evenings they entertained his guests with concerts. The relatively safe life ended when this officer was forced to leave the city. The German left the Ovitz family to their fate.
Subsequent events unfolded even more tragically: the Ovitz ended up in the Auschwitz labor camp. Here they became the object of close study of Dr. Josef Mengele, who investigated all kinds of pathologies. This situation was no less humiliating, but it also gave some privileges: the Ovits were allowed not to shave off their hair and not change into camp uniform. Having learned about the talents of the dwarfs, Mengele made them play music during his leisure hours or entertain him with theatrical performances. The doctor jokingly called them the seven dwarfs.
Mengele's "loyalty" still did not keep the Ovitz family out of the gas chamber. They were supposed to go there on January 27, 1945, but on that day Soviet troops took Auschwitz. It is difficult to believe in such coincidences, but it was this fact that allowed them to stay alive. The Soviet authorities released the dwarfs only in August 1945. They had to return to Romania on foot, since they had no money, but they were happy, because all members of their family survived (with the exception of their only brother, who decided to separate from the family and died). In 1949, the Ovitz emigrated to Israel, where all family members lived for many years.
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