Petach Tikva, Israel – Dr. Mengele’s [Ym’s] Victim: Auschwitz Survivor Avoided Doctors for 65 Years

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    Yitzhak Ganon survived Auschwitz SS doctor Josef Mengele's medical experiments -- and swore never to set foot in a hospital again.Photo: Christoph SchultPetach Tikva, Israel – Sixty-five years ago, infamous Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele removed Yitzhak Ganon’s kidney without anesthesia. The Greek-born Jew swore never to see a doctor again — until a heart attack last month brought his horrific tale into the open.

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    He is a thin man. His wine-red cardigan is a little too big, and his legs are like matchsticks in his brown pants. Yitzhak Ganon takes care of himself. He’s freshly shaven, his white mustache neatly trimmed. The 85-year-old sits on a gray sofa, with a cushion supporting his back. He is too weak to stand by himself, but he still greets a guest in German: “Guten Tag.”

    Speaking is hard for him. “Slowly, Abba,” his daughter Iris says, and brings him a glass of water. Her father has never in his life complained of any pain, she says.

    A month ago he came back from his morning walk and lay down. “Are you sick, Papa?” Iris asked. “No, just a little tired,” Yitzhak Ganon answered, before going to sleep. But after a few hours he was still tired. “I don’t need a doctor,” he told his daughter.

    The next morning things were even worse. Ganon’s wife and daughter called a doctor, who diagnosed a viral infection and told him to go to the hospital. Ganon resisted, but finally realized his life was in danger. At some point he stopped fighting the doctor’s orders.

    ‘Just One Kidney’

    His family brought him to the hospital in his home town of Petach Tikva near Tel Aviv. He had hardly been admitted when he lost consciousness. Heart attack, the doctor said. The blood clots were cleared with the help of tiny balloons, and the doctors put five stents in him. “We thought he wouldn’t survive the operation,” said Eli Lev, the doctor. “Especially since he had just one kidney.”

    When Yitzhak Ganon came to, he told the doctors where he lost the other kidney — and why he had avoided doctors for 65 years. A reporter from the Israeli paper Maariv heard about the story. And now, weeks after the operation, Ganon is ready to tell his story to a German reporter for the first time.

    He stretches his back and looks at a photo on the living room wall. It shows the Acropolis in Athens. “I come from Arta, a small city in northern Greece. It happened on Saturday, March 25, 1944. We had just lit the candles to celebrate the Sabbath when an SS officer and a Greek policeman burst into the house. They told us we should get ourselves ready for a big trip.”

    The 85-year-old slides the sleeve of his shirt up and uncovers his left forearm. The number 182558 is tattooed there in dark-blue ink.

    Tied Down

    The transport to Auschwitz took two weeks. His sick father died on the journey. Upon arrival, they had to strip and submit to an inspection. Ganon’s mother and five sisters were then sent to the gas chambers.

    Yitzhak Ganon was taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau hospital, where Josef Mengele, the so-called “Angel of Death,” conducted grisly experiments on Jewish prisoners.

    Ganon had to lie down on a table and was tied down. Without any anesthetics, Mengele cut him open and removed his kidney. “I saw the kidney pulsing in his hand and cried like a crazy man,” Ganon says. “I screamed the ‘Shema Yisrael.’ I begged for death, to stop the suffering.”

    After the “operation,” he had to work in the Auschwitz sewing room without painkillers. Among other things, he had to clean bloody medical instruments. Once, he had to spend the whole night in a bath of ice-cold water because Mengele wanted to “test” his lung function. Altogether, Ganon spent six and a half months in the concentration camp’s hospital.

    ‘Just Fatigue’

    When they had no more use for him, the Nazis sent him to the gas chamber. He survived only by chance: The gas chamber held only 200 people. Ganon was number 201.

    On January 27, 1945, Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops. Yitzhak Ganon made it back to Greece and found his surviving siblings — a brother and a sister — and emigrated to Israel in 1949. He got married. And he swore never to go to a doctor again. “Whenever he was sick, even when it was really bad,” his wife Ahuva says, “he told me it was just fatigue.”

    But now Ganon is happy he finally went to the hospital after his heart attack. One week later, he had another heart attack, and was given a pacemaker. “If the doctors hadn’t been there,” he says, smiling for the first time, “I would be dead now.” Yitzhak Ganon has survived, again.


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    21 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Wow 65 years after the war we still have victims who feel the war daily, who knows how many more oe this we have god should take revenge on their blood.

    anonymous
    anonymous
    14 years ago

    This man went through gehinnom in this world. I was 4 years in concentration camp but not in Auschwitz and Greek Jews for some reason were a special target of Mengele and Brunner ymach shmo. Tell him that the Neturei Karta on its website states that the “Zionisten” have no claim to any part of Eretz Yisroel. I guess we hand it over to Hisbollah or Hamas. This would be a parsima nissim

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Wwwaaawwwww heart moving

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Stunning. Clearly HaShem wasn’t ready for him yet. May he live the rest of his life in peace and comfort, waiting for his much-deserved share in Olam HaBa.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Benjamin Netanyahu should have brought him to the U.N when he spoke.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    i am crying as i type

    Wow
    Wow
    14 years ago

    I have read many book detailing the horrific events that took place inside Auschwitz, but to read a personal story and to look into the eyes of this precious Jew, rips at your heart strings…how can one not feel his pain…may the light of this years Channukah bring an end to all forms of darkness and evil…”Umocho Hashem Dima Me’al Kol Ponim”

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    My father, born in Romania, was in Auschwitz and other camps. He tells me that the Greek Jews were the ones who could be counted on to help fellow Yiddin, regardless of nationality. He credits several of them with saving his life in different circumstances.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    refuah shleimoh! chayim aruchim ad 120!

    formelly
    formelly
    14 years ago

    he is a very brave man, to go and make a life after what he went through.

    Cyndi
    Cyndi
    14 years ago

    This is so heart wrenching.. How can you not cry when you read this? May he have many many more years, be”H, together with his family. Thank VIN for such a touching story.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    listening to this man tell this heartwrenching story , ones blood boils and freezes simultaneously.
    it happened not long ago, and if some have their way it will happen all over again.

    and then,…. one is inspired, the man accepted his “hell” not one complaint ever since. just content happy and satisfied that he is alive with his family.

    wow. !!!

    Moriya
    Moriya
    14 years ago

    Makes me wonder about those urging us to donate a kidney to those who need it.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Please remove Dr. from his title. He was murderer and nothing more!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    ‘ When they had no more use for him, the Nazis sent him to the gas chamber. He survived only by chance: The gas chamber held only 200 people. Ganon was number 201. ‘

    Tipycal Isreali. Evreything is ‘only by chance’ . No Hashgacha Protis.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    This man experienced the loss of practically his entire family, survived the torture and hell of Auschwitz and made aliyah and lives his life as a Jew.
    Tell me something.
    Should we not be going to someone like him for a brocho?

    Andreas
    Andreas
    14 years ago

    Wow, I cannot believe you are all eating this up. Do you all honestly think that is how his kidney was really removed? I guarantee if your kidney is removed while awake, you are going to go into shock. If a kidney even pulsates when outside the body (doubt it does), you’d never notice it if it was just removed from you. Also keep in mind, he would have been on his back when this operation occurred. What are the odds he was on the right side to see it pulsating?

    Some people will believe everything they read.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Jews went through Gehinnom in this world and will be spared any punishment in Shamayim. What the nations have put the yidden through for centuries is what the Ribbono Shel Olam will not forgive. Yet, there are yidden that don’t think going back to Germany to live is a bad thing. Go understand mentalities like that. It seems the galut yehudi learns very little! These are special and yet frightening times, chevlai Moshiach, and it’s time that the yidden wake up and with emunah shleimah, pray for the Geulah Shleima, to come immediately!