Children of the Flames: Dr.Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz - Softcover

Sheila Cohn Dekel Lucette Matalon Lagnado

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330322575 ISBN 13: 9780330322577

Publisher: Pan Books, 1992

Synopsis

During World War II, Nazi doctor Josef Mengele subjected some 3,000 twins to medical experiments of unspeakable horror; only 160 survived. In this remarkable narrative, the life of Auschwitz's Angel of Death is told in counterpoint to the lives of the survivors, who until now have kept silent about their heinous death-camp ordeals.

About this title

About the Author:

Lucette Matalon Lagnado was born in Cairo, Egypt. She is the 2008 recipient of the $100,000 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, the largest cash award in the Jewish book world. As an investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, she has covered health care for a decade. She has been a finalist or received prizes from, among others, Columbia Journalism School, the University of Missouri, and the University of Southern California.

Sheila Cohn Dekel is the widow of Alex Dekel, an Auschwitz survivor.

From Publishers Weekly:

Mengele was in charge of the "selection process" at the death camp Auschwitz, but he was also a genetic scientist with a special interest in twins. During the war he subjected some 3000 twins, mostly young, to experiments of unspeakable horror. Only 160 of them were alive when the Russians liberated Auschwitz in 1945. The authors have interviewed several of the surviving twins and here present their stories, including details of their postwar lives. One especially disturbing aspect of the book is the fact that some of the victims remember Mengele as a charming father-substitute in whom they yearned to place their trust. There are glimpses of Mengele joking with the children, taking them on outings, hugging them. One survivor insists he was gentle; another flatly states that he "loved little children." Woven skillfully into the narrative is a formal and engrossing biography of Mengele himself, his family background, his wartime career, his escape to South America, his years in hiding. None of the surviving twins believes that the remains found in Brazil in 1985 are those of the death-camp doctor; according to the authors, they are certain that Mengele has succeeded in "tricking the world yet another time." An important addition to the literature of the Holocaust. Lagnado is a freelance writer, Dekel is the widow of an Auschwitz twin. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pan Books
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0330322575
• ISBN 13: 9780330322577
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320