We have just finished another extended book tour, giving talks in Jewish communities, book fairs, book clubs, book shops, libraries, universities and schools. The story mesmerised diverse audiences, from mid-schoolers to the elderly. As 2005 is the 60th anniversary to the end of the war, this book is a fresh and inspiring angle to pass the legacy of the Holocaust. The book was translated  into German, Dutch, French, Korean, Hungarian and Hebrew. An American TV documentary based on the book has just been completed.  

In Our Hearts We Were Giants is a moving and inspirational story of survival, of the Lilliput Troupe, seven dwarfs with no benevolent Snow-White but a beast. It reads like a fairy tale, but moves into some of the darkest recesses of actual hell, that human beings have ever experienced.

An unsettling, never-before-told account of a Transylvanian Jewish family of entertainers, seven of whom were dwarfs, less than three feet tall, the largest recorded dwarf family in the world.  Readers bear witness to the best and worst of humanity and to the terrible irony of the Ovitz’s fate, that being burdened with dwarfism helped save their lives. They overcame their handicap and became beloved and successful entertainers in Central Europe until the Nazis shipped them off to Auschwitz-Birkenau in May of 1944 to be guinea pigs in horrible experiments conducted by the infamous Mengele- Doctor Death. Amazingly, it is the largest family to have survived the death camp: twelve members, the youngest, a baby of 18 months, the oldest, his 58 year old aunt. As Perla Ovitz explains, “If I ever wondered why I was born a dwarf, my answer would have to be that my handicap was God's only way to keep me alive.”

“Unique and unforgettable” (Publishers’ Weekly)

“A quirky, illuminating addition to Holocaust history” (Booklist)

“Often-wrenching and at times almost unbelievable account “ (Forward)

“A Holocaust fable with a happy ending” (The Jewish Week)

"Horrifying yet mesmerizing" (Kirkus Reviews)