Biografia

Miklos Nyiszli

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Data di nascita
17 giugno 1901 · Szilágysomlyó, Austria-Hungary [now Simleu Silvaniei, Romania]
Data di morte
5 maggio 1956 · Oradea, Romania

Biografia

Quiz

Dr. Miklos Nyiszli's memoirs were the first publication on the unknown subject of the 'Sonderkommando' prisoners and shed new light on the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp when it was first published in March 1946. For many years Nyiszli's book was also the only source on the 'Sonderkommandos' and on the 'medical experiments' carried out by the infamous SS-physician Dr. med. et Dr. phil. Josef Mengele. The importance of the book has not diminished despite the presence of some factual mistakes, that were corrected by historians in new, annotated editions. The perspective is unique because of the duality of the author's duties in Auschwitz-Birkenau: Nyiszli simultaneously worked as a pathologist for Mengele and as a physician for the SS staff and the Sonderkommando-prisoners.
Dr. Nyiszli's memoirs were first published as a book in March 1946 under the title "Dr Mengele boncolóorvosa voltam az Auschwitz-i krematóriumban" ("I was Dr Mengele's autopsy doctor at the Auschwitz crematorium") and in a serialised form in the Hungarian newspaper "Világ" ("The World"). Fragments from the 1946 Hungarian edition of the memoirs were first published in Jean-Paul Sartre's monthly review, "Les Temps Modernes", in 1951, which was followed immediately by an English translation in the avant-garde journal "Merlin" under the title "SS Obersturmführer Doktor Mengele." The same translator produced a full English version of the memoirs in 1960 under the title "Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account" [with a preface by psychoanalyst Dr. Bruno Bettelheim which has been included in most reprints]. When re-edited in 1986 the book was published under the title "Auschwitz: An Eyewitness Account of Mengele's Infamous Death Camp". The first French edition, published in 1961, was entitled "Médecin à Auschwitz: Souvenirs d'un médecin déporté". The standard Hungarian edition was published in Bucharest in 1964 under the title "Orvos volt am Auschwitzban" ("I was a Doctor in Auschwitz"). Since then translations appeared in Italian, Romanian, Polish and so on. The first German version was published in 1992 by Karl Dietz Verlag Berlin. An new edition with many scientific remarks and notes, including corrections of mistakes in Nyiszli's text, was prepared by German historian Andreas Kilian and published in 2005. Israeli historian Gideon Greif hailed Kilian's annotated edition as important. The latest English edition, published in 2012 by Penguin, is entitled "Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account" with a new preface by acclaimed British historian Dr. Richard John Evans.
His memoirs "Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account" inspired later (in part) the feature films La zona grigia (2001) and Il figlio di Saul (2015). His character appears in both films.
Dr. Nyiszli was born into a Hungarian-speaking Jewish family living in Transylvania with Austro-Hungarian citizenship. After WWI and the Treaty of Trianon (4 June 1920) Transylvania officially became part of Romania. While he was born in Austria-Hungary, Nyiszli then had Romanian citizenship. On the final page of his dissertation, published in 1930, he writes himself: "I am a Romanian citizen.".

Citazioni

...the years I had spent in pre-war Germany furnished plenty of material for discussion. They were much impressed by the fact that I spoke their own language better; or at least in a more cultured manner, than they did. I soon realised that there were certain expressions they did not understand, although they carefully refrained from letting me know it. ["Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account", 1946]
I began the dissection of one set of twins and recorded each phase of my work. I removed the brain pan. Together with the cerebellum I extracted the brain and examined them. Then followed the opening of the thorax and the removal of the sternum. Next I separated the tongue by means of an incision made beneath the chin. With the tongue came the oesophagus, with the respiratory tracts came both lungs. I washed the organs in order to examine them more thoroughly. The tiniest spot or the slightest difference in colour could furnish valuable information. I made a transverse incision across the pericardium and removed the fluid. Next I took out the heart and washed it. I turned it over and over in my hand to examine it. ["Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account", 1946]
I took it all in, paralysed with fright. As soon as I had come through the main gate I had realised that I was on death's path. A slow death, opening its maddening depths before me. I felt I was lost. Now I understood why I had been given civilian clothes. This was the uniform of the Sonderkommando - the kommando of the living-dead. ["Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account", 1946]
I felt it my duty to my people and to the entire world to be able to give an accurate account of what I had seen if ever, by some miraculous whim of fate, I should escape. ["Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account", 1946]
Dr. Mengele ordered all doctors to step forward; he then approached the new group, composed of some fifty doctors, and asked those who had studied in a German university, who had a thorough knowledge of pathology and practiced forensic medicine, to step forward. "Be very careful," he added. "You must be equal to the task; for if you're not..." and his menacing gesture left little to the imagination. I glanced at my companions. Perhaps they were intimated. What did it matter! My mind was already made up. I broke ranks and presented myself. ["Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account", 1946]