Miklós Nyiszli
| Miklós Nyiszli | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 17, 1901 Szilágysomlyó, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | May 5, 1956 (aged 54) Oradea, Romania |
| Nationality |
 Austro-Hungarian Hungarian Romanian
|
| Known for | incarceration and forced medical work in Auschwitz concentration camp |
Miklós Nyiszli (June 17, 1901, Szilágysomlyó, Austria-Hungary – May 5, 1956, Oradea, Romania) was a Jewish prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Nyiszli, his wife, and young daughter, were transported to Auschwitz in June 1944. On arrival, Nyiszli volunteered himself as a doctor and was sent to work at number 12 barracks where he operated on and tried to help the ill with only the most basic medical supplies and tools. He was under the supervision of Josef Mengele, an SS officer and physician. Mengele decided after observing Nyiszli’s skills to move him to a specially built autopsy and operating theatre. The room had been built inside Crematorium II (Crematorium I being in Auschwitz Town camp), and Nyiszli, along with members of the 12th Sonderkommando, was housed there.
During Nyiszli’s time in the camp he witnessed many atrocities to which he refers in his book, Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account.
In the book described the Sonderkommando as enjoying a virtual feast, complete with chandeliers and candlelight, as other prisoners died of starvation. Nyiszli, an admitted collaborator who assisted Dr. Josef Mengele in his medical experiments on Auschwitz prisoners, would appear to have been in a good position to observe the Sonderkommando in action, as he had an office in Krematorium II. Historian Gideon Greif characterized Nyiszli’s writings as among the “myths and other wrong and defamatory accounts” of the Sonderkommando that flourished in the absence of first-hand testimony by surviving Sonderkommando members.
While imprisoned, Nyiszli was forced to carry out medical experiments and perform autopsies on dozens of bodies, particularly on dwarfs and twins. Mengele had done research into the causes of dwarfism and twinning, and used Nyiszli to gather more information for him. Nyiszli also carried out the autopsies of prisoners, specifically those suspected to have died from infectious diseases. Mengele was also searching for evidence supporting the "inferiority of the Jewish race". At one point Nyiszli was forced to carry out physical exams on a father-son pair and, after their deaths, to prepare their skeletons for study at the Anthropological Museum in Berlin.
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Wikipedia