I have been pro-life my entire life, and as I grow older, I grow more and more pro-life. I understand more now what a horrific thing abortion really is, and that it needs to be stopped. The flippant killing of our unborn and our elderly show how far we have fallen.
But if I feel this way, why am I sitting here, crying as I read about a woman who performed at least 3,000 abortions? I am not in this case crying only for the babies who were killed. I am crying for the woman who did the killing. I think that she is an amazing woman, stronger than I could probably ever be. And I am amazed at the choices she managed to make.
Her name is Gisella Perl. She was a Jewish gynecologist from Hungary, who was sent, along with her family, to Auschwitz. There, she was one of the doctors handpicked by Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death” to care for the prisoners as well as she could. Gisella made due without the supplies she needed to doctor people, mending bodies as well as she could, and trying to heal people with her voice when she could do no more physically. She told the inmates stories of what the future would hold for them, giving them hope of being free and celebrating birthdays and the like with their families.
Shortly after her arrival at Auschwitz, Gisella was told to report any pregnant women to Mengele. The story was that they would be sent to another camp, where they would be given milk, and a double bread ration in order to keep them healthy for the baby. They even went so far as to drive the pregnant women away in Red Cross vans, so everyone believed the story.
But in reality, the women were sent to Mengele, who performed his sadistic experiments on them, as well as on twins and people with handicaps. His official job was to do research on human genetics in order to devise methods for eradicating inferior genes so the Germans could produce their “superior race”. Of course, he used the grants he had for his research to fund his sadism. The women were experimented on, then when he was done, they were sent to the gas chamber, or often thrown into the crematory alive.
Pregnant women who were not given to Mengele were still not safe. They were tortured by the guards, beaten, kicked in the stomach, used to bait the dogs, whatever the guards wanted to do with them. Then they were killed. Being pregnant meant death for a woman in Auschwitz. And death for her baby.
This is a quote from Dr. Perl about the fate of a pregnant woman in Auschwitz:
“They were surrounded by a group of SS men and women, who amused themselves by giving these helpless creatures a taste of hell, after which death was a welcome friend…They were beaten with clubs and whips, torn by dogs, dragged around by their hair and kicked in the stomach with heavy German boots. Then, when they collapsed, they were thrown into the crematory - alive.”
When Dr. Perl found this out, she determined that there would never be another pregnant woman in Auschwitz. At night, when she returned to the barracks after her day of work, she performed abortions on any women who needed them. She says that she did not have any equipment that she should have had for an abortion, but instead did them with “My own five fingers.” The estimate is that Dr. Perl performed around 3,000 abortions in her time at Auschwitz.
It is so easy to judge her. To say, “No, it is still an abortion. She was still destroying an innocent life.” David Deutschman of New York says this:
"there is no rational or moral justification for . . . wholesale slaughter of infants . . . whether it was done by the brutal Nazis, or by a sentimental and well-meaning female medical personality."
I disagree with him. In spite of my pro-life stance, I think that Dr. Perl did what she had to do under the circumstances. I do not know how she managed it. I don’t know how anyone could handle anything under those circumstances. But she did, and she is known as the “Angel of Auschwitz” because she saved the lives of so many women who would have been tortured to death without her. And many of these women survived Auschwitz and went on to have children who were able to live.
After the war, Dr. Perl did not want to be a doctor any longer. Finally though, she did go back to being a gynecologist. Each time she entered a delivery room, she would pray, “God, you owe me a life-a living baby.” And after a healthy child was born, she would shout, “A life for a life!” She had not been jaded by the abortions she had done. She even said in her biography, I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz, that she did not look at the abortions as a doctor would. She looked at the babies she was killing as a Mother would look at the babies. So to her, it felt as though she was killing her own baby over and over. But she knew that it had to be done.
You may live by the quote, “It is never right to do wrong to do right.” Meaning that, no matter the outcome, you should not do the wrong thing. But I realize more and more all the time that in many cases, there is no black and white. There are a lot of grey areas, and you cannot judge a person for what they do in those areas. Should Dr. Perl have told those women that she could do nothing for them, and they would just have to be experimented on and murdered? The baby dies either way. Dr. Perl offered life for one, instead of a horrible death for two. And I would guess that she did it at great personal risk. I doubt the “angel of death” would have taken it well, knowing that he was being deprived of pregnant women to torture.
It’s up to you what you think about Gisella Perl. I think she was strong in a situation where it would be very hard to be strong. I’ll leave you with this quote from Dr. Perl:
''It is worthwhile to live. God rewarded me. He rewards me even more now.''
But if I feel this way, why am I sitting here, crying as I read about a woman who performed at least 3,000 abortions? I am not in this case crying only for the babies who were killed. I am crying for the woman who did the killing. I think that she is an amazing woman, stronger than I could probably ever be. And I am amazed at the choices she managed to make.
Her name is Gisella Perl. She was a Jewish gynecologist from Hungary, who was sent, along with her family, to Auschwitz. There, she was one of the doctors handpicked by Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death” to care for the prisoners as well as she could. Gisella made due without the supplies she needed to doctor people, mending bodies as well as she could, and trying to heal people with her voice when she could do no more physically. She told the inmates stories of what the future would hold for them, giving them hope of being free and celebrating birthdays and the like with their families.
Shortly after her arrival at Auschwitz, Gisella was told to report any pregnant women to Mengele. The story was that they would be sent to another camp, where they would be given milk, and a double bread ration in order to keep them healthy for the baby. They even went so far as to drive the pregnant women away in Red Cross vans, so everyone believed the story.
But in reality, the women were sent to Mengele, who performed his sadistic experiments on them, as well as on twins and people with handicaps. His official job was to do research on human genetics in order to devise methods for eradicating inferior genes so the Germans could produce their “superior race”. Of course, he used the grants he had for his research to fund his sadism. The women were experimented on, then when he was done, they were sent to the gas chamber, or often thrown into the crematory alive.
Pregnant women who were not given to Mengele were still not safe. They were tortured by the guards, beaten, kicked in the stomach, used to bait the dogs, whatever the guards wanted to do with them. Then they were killed. Being pregnant meant death for a woman in Auschwitz. And death for her baby.
This is a quote from Dr. Perl about the fate of a pregnant woman in Auschwitz:
“They were surrounded by a group of SS men and women, who amused themselves by giving these helpless creatures a taste of hell, after which death was a welcome friend…They were beaten with clubs and whips, torn by dogs, dragged around by their hair and kicked in the stomach with heavy German boots. Then, when they collapsed, they were thrown into the crematory - alive.”
When Dr. Perl found this out, she determined that there would never be another pregnant woman in Auschwitz. At night, when she returned to the barracks after her day of work, she performed abortions on any women who needed them. She says that she did not have any equipment that she should have had for an abortion, but instead did them with “My own five fingers.” The estimate is that Dr. Perl performed around 3,000 abortions in her time at Auschwitz.
It is so easy to judge her. To say, “No, it is still an abortion. She was still destroying an innocent life.” David Deutschman of New York says this:
"there is no rational or moral justification for . . . wholesale slaughter of infants . . . whether it was done by the brutal Nazis, or by a sentimental and well-meaning female medical personality."
I disagree with him. In spite of my pro-life stance, I think that Dr. Perl did what she had to do under the circumstances. I do not know how she managed it. I don’t know how anyone could handle anything under those circumstances. But she did, and she is known as the “Angel of Auschwitz” because she saved the lives of so many women who would have been tortured to death without her. And many of these women survived Auschwitz and went on to have children who were able to live.
After the war, Dr. Perl did not want to be a doctor any longer. Finally though, she did go back to being a gynecologist. Each time she entered a delivery room, she would pray, “God, you owe me a life-a living baby.” And after a healthy child was born, she would shout, “A life for a life!” She had not been jaded by the abortions she had done. She even said in her biography, I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz, that she did not look at the abortions as a doctor would. She looked at the babies she was killing as a Mother would look at the babies. So to her, it felt as though she was killing her own baby over and over. But she knew that it had to be done.
You may live by the quote, “It is never right to do wrong to do right.” Meaning that, no matter the outcome, you should not do the wrong thing. But I realize more and more all the time that in many cases, there is no black and white. There are a lot of grey areas, and you cannot judge a person for what they do in those areas. Should Dr. Perl have told those women that she could do nothing for them, and they would just have to be experimented on and murdered? The baby dies either way. Dr. Perl offered life for one, instead of a horrible death for two. And I would guess that she did it at great personal risk. I doubt the “angel of death” would have taken it well, knowing that he was being deprived of pregnant women to torture.
It’s up to you what you think about Gisella Perl. I think she was strong in a situation where it would be very hard to be strong. I’ll leave you with this quote from Dr. Perl:
''It is worthwhile to live. God rewarded me. He rewards me even more now.''
It is difficult to realize the amount of strength this woman had. Too many people judge from behind the safety of history without realizing that this woman was committing acts of mercy. Who has the right to say that someone should be tortured to the point of welcoming death, instead of receiving an abortion. While it is terrible that she was put in the position of having to perform 3000 abortions, it is impossible to Judge or Hate Gisella Perl. While forced to help the "angel of death" she was nothing less than an Angel of Mercy trapped in a living hell.
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