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IN OUR HEARTS WE WERE GIANTS: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF THE LILLIPUT TROUPE-A DWARF FAMILY'S SURVIVAL OF THE HOLOCAUST Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2004 pp. XIII + 306, $25.00, illustrated.
This is an informative and instructive book in general, enlightening about the lives of a segment of our fellow men and women we would hardly count upon. Dwarfs are not freaks or "mirabilia monstrorum" or monstrous wonders, but "mirabilia hominum" or human wonders. It is the story of the Ovitz family of Transylvania in Romania, consisting of ten siblings, seven of whom were dwarfs, five women and two men; three siblings were of normal height; one of the latter died in a labor camp.
The Ovitz family formed an entertainment troupe called the Lilliput Troupe that toured mostly Eastern Europe but maintained their headquarters in the village of Rozavlea in Transylvania where 20% of the population were Jews. The Ovitzes were orthodox Jews. The likelihood of an offspring of a dwarf of being of normal height is 50%. One dwarf couple is known to have had 14 children of normal height. None of the Ovitz dwarf women, however, had children. One male dwarf, Avram, had a normal height son.
In the 1930s they started their Lilliput Troupe, singing, dancing, playing instruments, and producing theatrical skits. They were very popular and successful, performing not only in Romania but also in the neighboring countries, traveling in their own bus. When the youngest dwarf girl, Perla, was 9 years old, the siblings became...