Documentary Tells the Story of Auschwitz Prisoner Who Saved Twins From Nazi Experiments

A new documentary, premiering on June 6, recounts the story of a 29-year-old prisoner at Auschwitz, the Nazi German concentration camp, who helped young twins subjected to horrific medical experiments. This act of kindness offered hope in an otherwise bleak situation, eighty years after the camp’s liberation.

The Last Twins, narrated by , will be shown starting June 6 at the in Manhattan. This documentary, which commemorates a dark period in history, coincides with the 81st anniversary of , a pivotal event that led to the Allied victory.

The film highlights the experiences of survivors who credit Erno “Zvi” Spiegel, a Hungarian Jewish prisoner assigned to care for them, as their savior. Spiegel’s daughter, Judith Richter, also shares her insights on the continuing relevance of her father’s bravery.

Here’s what we know regarding the medical experiments carried out on twins at Auschwitz and how The Last Twins portrays Zvi’s experiences.

Why did Auschwitz conduct experiments on twins?

Josef Mengele, known as “the angel of death,” is described by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as “the most notorious of the Nazi doctors.” He specifically sought out twins upon their arrival at Auschwitz to use them in medical experiments. Spiegel, himself a twin separated from his sister Magda, was tasked by Mengele with supervising a group of male twins and escorting them to Mengele’s office for experiments.

The exact nature of these experiments remains unclear. According to David Marwell, author of Mengele: Unmasking the Angel of Death, “There’s very little evidence of exactly what was done.” Marwell was not involved in the documentary. The survivors featured in The Last Twins represent some of the few remaining, as many twins who endured the experiments did not survive. These experiments were conducted without the consent of the twin prisoners and lacked any scientific rigor. If one twin died during an experiment, Mengele would have the surviving twin killed for comparative autopsies. While being a twin may have spared them from the gas chamber, many who survived the experiments suffered permanent disabilities.

Ephraim Reichenberg, a survivor interviewed in the documentary, recounts how he and his brother were given injections in their necks. His brother, who had a beautiful singing voice unlike Ephraim, became the focus of the camp’s experiments on their necks. A year after the war, his brother died a painful death, and in 1967, Ephraim had his throat and gullet removed. He speaks in the documentary using a voice amplifier. He recalls that Spiegel “gathered all of the young children around him and took care of them, taught them, and watched over them.”

How Spiegel helped the twins

Although Spiegel couldn’t stop the experiments, he tried to keep the boys alive. In a place where prisoners were identified by numbers tattooed on their arms, he insisted that the boys call each other by their names. If a boy found some food, he would ensure that he shared it with the others. He even taught them math, history, and geography in the barracks. Survivor Tom Simon said, “He was a father figure to us. We had no father there.”

The documentary also tells the story of Gyorgy Kun, who Spiegel managed to sneak in as a twin in order to save their lives. Gyorgy and his brother, who weren’t twins, were sent to the twin medical experiments. Spiegel altered their birthdates to make it appear that they were born on the same day, saving them from the gas chambers.

Mengele was never tried for his crimes, always fearing capture. Marwell stated that he found no evidence of remorse.

Mengele fled to Brazil after the war. TIME’s 1985 obituary called him “the most hated man in the world.”

After Auschwitz was liberated, Spiegel relocated to Karlovy Vary, a city in the Czech Republic, and lived close to his twin sister Magda, another Auschwitz survivor. He married, had a child, and moved to Israel in 1949. LIFE magazine featured him in a 1981 article about Mengele, and surviving twins began contacting him. He always answered their calls. He passed away in 1993 at the age of 78.

Richter said that her father often told his children that while Nazis “could take away your family, your house, everything, but they would never be able to take what you have learned and your knowledge.” She credits Spiegel for her decision to pursue a career in academia and create a program that teaches young people the fundamentals of medicine. Currently, she is the co-founder and active chairperson of Medinol, a medical device company that prioritizes ethical medical treatment, a stark contrast to the unethical treatment her father witnessed at Auschwitz.

She hopes that viewers will be inspired to take action and support others. “One person matters,” she said, adding that she hopes her father’s story will encourage people to be brave during difficult times. “This film is not just a Holocaust film. It’s a universal story about the human spirit triumphing over evil. It’s a story of resilience…not just of surviving, but protecting others.”

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