a human guinea pig

Although Margot was born in Berlin, her family moved to Holland in 1932. Through Margot’s involvement in the Zionist movement, she met Lodewyk Meyer, her husband to be. They both hoped to someday immigrate to Israel and raise a family there.

When the Germans invaded Holland in 1940, life for the Jews became very dangerous. Margot worked with the underground, producing forged ID papers. In 1942 she and her husband were ready to leave for Switzerland, but instead were sent to Auschwitz.

Upon arrival, Margot immediately went through the selection process. As a young married woman, Dr. Mengele chose her for a special hospital unit. She didn’t know that this unit was providing human specimens for the Nazi sterilization experiments. These experiments were to develop a method suitable for sterilizing millions of people. Margot survived her interment in Auschwitz, but her husband died there.

For many years Margot didn’t speak about her experiences, but with the rise of Holocaust denial, she knew her story had to be told. “It doesn’t make any difference what you look like, on the inside we are all the same.”