“This sensitive and insightful registration of memories, glances, speeches and expressions requires a high level of competence, especially because the author is also a Jewish twin, which automatically leads her to identify herself with that group…More than a living memory of the cruelty of the Holocaust, the book is an impressive narrative and photographic testament to resistance, survival and reunion.”
— Ana Karina Santos Balinski, The General Psychologist
“Archfiend Josef Mengele escaped earthly justice for his ghoulish experiments on child twins and other Auschwitz victims, but Nancy Segal gives them a voice and lights an eternal candle in their memory. A testament to the power of love over evil.”
— Ralph Blumenthal, former New York Times reporter on Nazi crimes, and author of The Believer
“‘For us, forgetting was never an option’ observed Elie Wiesel. In this very moving and significant book of photographs, Dr. Segal has ensured the twins, who endured horrific experiments at the hands of Josef Mengele, will be remembered as Jews who had families before the war and built meaningful new lives after the war. The Germans sought to strip them of their identities and their humanity, but the Jews prevailed against all odds.”
— Dr. Alex Z. Grobman, senior resident scholar at the John C. Danforth Society
“Dr. Nancy L. Segal has done an incredible job. Looking through The Twin Children of the Holocaust, I was instantly captivated by the photographs, and also left speechless—the emotion they conveyed was overwhelming. The images of the young twins in their striped garments are shocking, even to those of us familiar with such horrific scenes. The nearly 150 photographs also include the twins’ 40th anniversary reunion events at Auschwitz-Birkenau, their public testimonies at Yad Vashem, their visit to Holocaust memorials in Warsaw, and the Inquest that examined evidence of Mengele’s death. Segal takes us on an unforgettable journey in this unique compendium.”
— Nancy Spielberg, President, Playmount Productions
“Nancy L. Segal has specialized in the psychological study of twins, identical and fraternal. So, we are fortunate that she attended the reunion of the Mengele twins and reminds us of the issues that were raised by the experimentation at Auschwitz by Josef Mengele—rightfully called the Angel of Death—and by the twins’ quest for information and justice. Her work is part scholarship, part reportage, part travelogue, but we are the beneficiaries of a lifetime of learning that led to her insights. The experience of these twins was worthy of independent study and their reunion certainly merits skilled reporting. We are grateful for all that Dr. Segal has revealed, having listened so well to the voices of these survivors and being uniquely capable of understanding them.”
— Dr. Michael Berenbaum, Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, Director, Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust, American Jewish University
“This riveting photographic accounting of their journey provides a glimpse into the 40th anniversary reunion of the twins’ release from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1985 and their ensuing trip to Israel for the Yad Vashem hearing of Mengele’s atrocities. … The book is not only a recounting of the adventure that a number of surviving twins experienced in 1985. It also serves as a testament to them and a memorial to those who were unable to be there. … This document is fascinating, upsetting, and important. It should be read as a celebration of those who survived, with a reminder to all of us that these events must not be forgotten.”
— The Jewish Press
“In this book, renowned twin researcher and author, Nancy Segal, offers a unique and photographic perspective of her journey with twins who survived the brutal medical experiments conducted at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. … The rawness of the images effectively captures the twins’ mixed emotions as they meet fellow inmates and recall the horrors of the camp. Alongside photographs of the twins before and after their liberation, Nancy’s annotations provide vital and authentic historical context. … What shines through in the book… are the twins’ personal stories of resilience and resourcefulness at the time of their captivity to the time of their reunion. … I highly recommend The Twin Children of the Holocaust for all twin researchers and for everyone who wants to know about this tragic time in human history.”
— Jeffrey M. Craig, Twin Research and Human Genetics
“What is fascinating about this book is the format of factual text, accompanied by photographs taken by Nancy Segal and with explanations. The reader feels that they meet the survivors and that they are looking through a personal photo album. … These personal stories, accompanied by photographs, remind the reader of the people who were harmed, making this a very powerful text. In addition, the individual survivors portrayed in this book demonstrate how resilience and intelligence played a role in their ability to survive the ordeals that they faced.”
— Julie Aitken Schermer, Personality and Individual Differences
“For anyone moved by the stories of the ‘Mengele twins’... the book will be worth consulting. … [T]he photographs of the twins are thought-provoking: pictures of surviving twins in 1985 juxtaposed with images of them as children… are simultaneously images of survival, loss, migration, and a whole host of other things. Photographs need a caption, however brief. Without knowing that the twins shown here are survivors of Mengele’s experiments in Auschwitz, there would be little to say about them. Seeing them with this knowledge moves the viewer to ponder on the suffering of the twins as children and the ways in which their twinhood was a source of comfort, anguish, or both to them, whether during or after their time in the camp.”
— Dan Stone, Contemporary Jewry
“When I was asked to review this book I hesitated for a moment, fearing that the content would be too gruesome. But I went ahead anyway, thinking that regardless of the emotions it would stir up, reading it was necessary to begin to understand both the depths of depravity to which we humans may sink, and the carnage that can result when research is conducted without a solid grounding in morality and ethics... Yet as I made my way through the book, I felt a surprising sense of uplift and inspiration. … The largely verbally unadorned images bring the victims to life, providing a poignant reminder of their reality and humanity. … It provides a permanent memorial to the victims, who have a right to be known and to have their experiences shared.”
— Edward Bell, Behavior Genetics
“Thanks to Dr. Segal, the history of the Mengle twins, which, for the most part, has been overlooked by many Holocaust historians, is no longer just a footnote in the history of the Shoah.”
— The Jewish Link
“The infamous twin medical experiments have been described in many other publications; this unusual book of photographs testifies to the remarkable resilience of those twins who survived.”
— Ruth O. Selig, Twinless Times
“In this new book, Nancy Segal tells the survival story of some of the people [twins] who were subjected to Josef Mengele's horrors at Auschwitz. . . She can relate what happened at that meeting because she accompanied the survivors on the trip to Auschwitz and Israel. This book will help you realize that this cannot happen again.”
— Multifamilias (translated from the Spanish)
