Gisella Perl

Gisella Perl was a Jewish gynecologist who lived in Sighet, Hungary until 1944 when the Nazis invaded Hungary and deported its Jewish population.

She was deported along with her family to Auschwitz concentration camp where she lost both her husband and only son, as well as her extended family and parents. She was given the task of working as a doctor within the camp, helping the inmates through their disease and discomfort, which she had to do without the bare necessities: antiseptic, clean wipes, even running water. She is most famous, however, for saving the lives of hundreds of mothers by aborting their pregnancies, as pregnant mothers were often beaten and killed or used by Dr. Josef Mengele for vivisections.

After leaving Bergen-Belsen, her final destination, she found out both her husband and son had died. She tried to poison herself and was sent to recuperate in a convent in France until 1947. Upon her arrival in New York (March 1947), she was interrogated upon suspicion of being of assistance to the Nazi doctors of Auschwitz in carrying out human rights abuses. She was finally granted citizenship in 1951. She began work as a gynecologist in New York's Mount Sinai Hospital and delivered around 3000 babies in New York alone, becoming an expert in infetility treatments.

In June 1948, she published the story of her life in Auschwitz, detailing the horrors she encountered there (being an inmate doctor). She was later reunited with her daughter, Gabriella Krauss Blattman, who she managed to hide during the war, and they both moved to live in Herzliya, Israel.

Publications
Dr. Perl was sole author or coauthor of nine papers dealing with vaginal infections published between 1955 and 1972.

In June 1948, she published the story of her life in Auschwitz, detailing the horrors she encountered there as an inmate doctor).
 * Perl, Dr. Gisella I was a doctor in Auschwitz ISBN: 0405123000

In 2003, a film Out of the Ashes was released based upon the story of her life starring Christine Lahti as Dr. Perl.