In Our Hearts We Were Giants by Eilat Negev
This remarkable, never-before-told account of the Ovitz family, seven of whose ten members were dwarfs, bears witness to the best and worst of humanity and to the terrible irony of the Ovitzes' fate: being burdened with dwarfism helped them endure the Holocaust. Through dogged research and interviews with Perla, the youngest Ovitz daughter and last surviving sibling, and other relatives, authors Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev weave the tale of a beloved and successful family of performers who were popular entertainers in Central Europe until the Nazis deported them to Auschwitz in May 1944. Descending from the transport train into the hell of the concentration camp, the Ovitz family,known widely as the Lilliput Troupe,was separated from other Jewish victims. When Dr. Josef Mengele was then notified of their arrival, he assigned them to sequestered quarters. His horrific "research" on twins and other genetically unique individuals already under way, Mengele had special plans for the Ovitzes. The authors chronicle Mengele's loathsome experiments upon the family members, the disturbing fondness he developed for these small people, and their interminable will to make it out alive. Dozens of telling photographs are included in this horrifying yet remarkable tale of survival.
Eilat Negevi is the senior literary correspondent for Yedioth Achronot, the major Israeli daily newspaper. She has published two books in Hebrew-- Intimate Conversations (1995) and Private Lives (2001)--both of them collections of her interviews with authors, and a similar collection in English, Close Encounters . Most recently she coauthored In Our Hearts We Were Giants with Yehuda Koren, with whom she lives in Jerusalem.
Yehuda Koren is a freelance journalist. He writes features for the British, Israeli, and German press, including the London Times, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, and Die Welt . A frequent traveler to Europe, he has interviewed many prominent academics and writers, among them George Steiner, Theodor Zeldin, Martin Amis, Roddy Doyle, and Eri de Luca. In 1994 Koren published his first book A Straight Line in the Circle of Life: The Biography of an Israeli General . His second book was In Our Hearts We Were Giants, which he coauthored with Eilat Negev.
Both Koren and Negev receive frequent invitations to speak about their experience as authors and journalists at writing conferences and book events in the United States and the UK. They participated in the International Miami Book Fair in 2004, and they took part in numerous programs during Jewish Book Month. They have spoken about and read from their work at bookshops, book clubs, libraries, schools, and universities, before audiences of all types and ages.
Their expertise on the subjects of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, as well as Assia Wevill, took Koren and Negev to Indiana University in October 2002, where they were the keynote speakers at Plath's 70th anniversary symposium--an event attended by an international audience of the foremost Plath scholars and ardent students of her poetry. Three years later, in October 2005, before a similarly discerning audience, they delivered the closing lecture of the Hughes International Conference at Emory University.
Yehuda Koren is a freelance journalist. He writes features for the British, Israeli, and German press, including the London Times, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, and Die Welt . A frequent traveler to Europe, he has interviewed many prominent academics and writers, among them George Steiner, Theodor Zeldin, Martin Amis, Roddy Doyle, and Eri de Luca. In 1994 Koren published his first book A Straight Line in the Circle of Life: The Biography of an Israeli General . His second book was In Our Hearts We Were Giants, which he coauthored with Eilat Negev.
Both Koren and Negev receive frequent invitations to speak about their experience as authors and journalists at writing conferences and book events in the United States and the UK. They participated in the International Miami Book Fair in 2004, and they took part in numerous programs during Jewish Book Month. They have spoken about and read from their work at bookshops, book clubs, libraries, schools, and universities, before audiences of all types and ages.
Their expertise on the subjects of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, as well as Assia Wevill, took Koren and Negev to Indiana University in October 2002, where they were the keynote speakers at Plath's 70th anniversary symposium--an event attended by an international audience of the foremost Plath scholars and ardent students of her poetry. Three years later, in October 2005, before a similarly discerning audience, they delivered the closing lecture of the Hughes International Conference at Emory University.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780786715558 |
| ISBN 10 | 0786715553 |
| Title | In Our Hearts We Were Giants |
| Author | Eilat Negev |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc |
| Year published | 2005-06-30 |
| Number of pages | 320 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |