Peter Somogyi learned of Simon Wiesenthal from his reputation as a postwar hunter of Nazi war criminals. He first heard of him when Wiesenthal captured an important Nazi perpetrator. Wiesenthal was committed to bringing as many of those individuals to trial as he could. Somogyi was totally in favor of his efforts. It was the right thing to do. Somogyi only heard bits and pieces about the Eichmann trial which occurred during those times. [Annotator's Note: Adolf Eichmann was a high ranking officer in the German SS. He was on the forefront of planning and executing the Final Solution or mass murder of European Jews. Eichmann was brought to trial in Israel in 1961 and convicted. He was executed in 1962.]. Somogyi was so wrapped up with his work and family, he could not diligently follow the Eichmann proceedings. He was not too busy; however, to not constantly worry about what happened to Dr. Mengele. That concern was ramped up when Eva Kor formed the surviving Holocaust twins' organization. [Annotator's Note: Dr. Josef Mengele was a sadistic Nazi physician who performed cruel experiments on twins at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Eva Kor was a surviving twin, as was Somogyi and his brother. Kor formed "Candles" to symbolize her forgiveness of her perpetrators and the resulting healing and hope that created for her and others.]. That brought the memories back about Mengele. Until then, he had shut it out of his mind and never talked with his loved ones about his experiences. The trial of Eichmann also brought forth desires to find out what happened to his old nemesis. Somogyi came to find out that Mengele had made his way to Paraguay and Brazil. He was optimistic that Mengele would be captured but unfortunately that never happened. There were legal restrictions preventing the Nazi from being extradited. He could not be touched. Eva Kor got Somogyi involved with other twins in America through "Candles." He became involved in it and spoke at the university in Terra Haute, Indiana. Other survivors gave testimony during that event. She started getting surviving twins together and may have been the organizer of the mock trial for Mengele in Israel [Annotator's Note: in 1985]. The latter event even brought the survivors closer together. It was her idea to bring the most important people together for that mock trial. People like Telford Taylor [Annotator's Note: Taylor was the chief United States military counsel for the Nuremburg Trials for Nazi war criminals], Simon Wiesenthal and the chief prosecutor at the Eichmann trial, Gideon Hauser, along with two others headed the Mengele mock trial proceedings. Eva Kor had managed to get the whole thing together.

Peter Somogyi was contacted by Eva Kor and met other twins in the United States. [Annotator's Note: Dr. Josef Mengele was a sadistic Nazi physician who performed cruel experiments on twins at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration/death camp. Eva Kor was a surviving twin, as were Somogyi and his brother. Kor formed "Candles" to symbolize her forgiveness of her perpetrators and the resulting healing and hope that created for her and others.] There were only a few living twins residing close by. Irene [Annotator's Note: Renate Guttmann Hisme], Réne [Annotator's Note: Réne Guttman Slotkin] and Berkowitz [Annotator's Note: Marc Berkowitz] and another man lived nearby. After meeting, many more joined in with them to talk about their experiences. They compared the things to which they were exposed. The girls and the young Rene had little in common with Somogyi because they were not located with him at the concentration camp. They were on the other side of the railroad tracks [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz-Birkenau was divided by the rail track that brought Jews into the camp]. Somogyi was interviewed together with Berkowitz by CBS at one time. Somogyi did not know who had managed to survive out of the twins that Zvi Spiegel had brought back. [Annotator's Note: Zvi Spiegel was the oldest of the male twins and was the Nazi appointed block boss for the younger boys in Somogyi's barrack at Auschwitz-Birkenau. After liberation, Spiegel aided many boys in finding their way back to their original hometowns.]. After Spiegel got the boys to northern Hungary, they dispersed. There were no records of where the survivors ultimately settled. One of the Kun brothers went to Texas and the other died. The Brichta pair stayed in Israel and then went to Switzerland where they were diplomats. Somogyi only saw them one more time. The first time Somogyi met Zvi was in 1982. That started the whole thing. His wife saw a picture in Life magazine of Zvi along with Somogyi and his brother in Hungary following their liberation. Somogyi saw the picture of Zvi and immediately sought further information from Life magazine about him. Nothing could be found. He next went through the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. and asked for information about Zvi Spiegel. He was presented with the addresses of four people with the same name in Tel Aviv. Letters with a photocopy of the Life article were sent to the addresses they were provided. Finally, the real Zvi Spiegel got in touch with Somogyi. He was planning to come to America for his son's wedding. Somogyi set a rendezvous for them to meet. When Somogyi arrived at the given location, there were already newsmen there to capture the story. It was a nice reunion. Spiegel's wife and daughter started crying. They were thankful for Somogyi finally getting Spiegel to talk about his experiences for the first time. He had never talked to either of them before about his past. Both of the survivors started talking about it. It was a nice reunion and both men were elated. The happy feeling was mutual. It had been since March or April 1945 that they had last seen each other. It was then 1982. It had been a long time without any contact or being able to get in touch. Spiegel had returned the boys to Munkatsh in Hungary before he went on to Israel. They had lost touch with each other until the magazine article enabled them to meet.

Peter Somogyi and his brother attended the mock trial held for Dr. Mengele. [Annotator's Note: Dr. Josef Mengele was a sadistic Nazi physician who performed cruel experiments on twins such as Somogyi and his brother and other victims at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration/death camp. The mock trial was held in Israel in February 1985. Unbeknownst to those in attendance, Mengele had actually died by drowning in 1979 thus avoiding justice.] Somogyi's brother talked about his death camp experiences for the first time. He had never discussed the topic with his Canadian wife before. The brothers never discussed any of the details beforehand but opened up during the group discussions that were held. They seldom talk about it today. The gathering for the trial was a healing process. Unfortunately, there were not too many twins attending. There had not been many survivors. Plus some did not know about the event or did not want to be there to remember what had happened. The victim who had his vocal cords cut and spoke with special equipment was there. [Annotator's Note: Somogyi is referring to Ephraim Reichenberg. Ephraim and his brother Menashe were experimented on by Dr. Josef Mengele who gave the boys injections in their necks then provided them with a German made device to aid in speaking.] Somogyi and his son took a trip around Israel prior to the start of the trial. They went to the Kibbutz Matzuva [Annotator's Note: the location where Somogyi and his brother first settled when they arrived in Israel in 1949] and other places. Somogyi's brother had arrived prior to them and likewise toured some of Israel. Somogyi's son was happy to travel with him. Somogyi's son knew some of what had happened during the Holocaust and was very interested. The mock trial had no visible defendant. There were a lot of stories told. Somogyi had not heard all of them before. One particularly compelling story dealt with a woman who gave birth while under the control of Mengele. The doctor decided to restrict her breasts such that she could not feed her baby. The experiment was intended to discover how long a baby could survive without nourishment. There were other terrible stories previously unheard by Somogyi. The mock trial was set in a large auditorium which had seating for distinguished attendees such as Taylor, Wiesenthal and Gideon Hauser [Annotator's Note: Telford Taylor was the chief United States military counsel for the Nuremburg Trials for Nazi war criminals, Simon Wiesenthal was a noted postwar hunter of Nazi war criminals, and Gideon Hauser had been the chief prosecutor at the Adolf Eichmann war crimes trial]. There were also locations for the former captives of Mengele to speak. Somogyi sat within the audience and did not give his testimony. There was extensive media coverage. Because the Somogyi brothers were not identical twins, they were not recognized as victims of Mengele. Somogyi did not want to testify because of his lack of confidence in his speaking ability. There was no discussion about who would speak. He was just not ready to speak. In the crowd were some survivors but many attendees were from the Israeli Army. They wanted the young soldiers to hear about what went on during those days. There were other young people among those listening to the proceedings. The trial lasted three or four days. A special dinner was held for the survivors and twins on the last day. There was no time to speak to the tribunal panel. They left quickly after the closure of the event. Some of the stories were especially surprising such as the heartbreaking story of the woman who had given birth and ultimately killed her baby. That story was very sad. Mengele performed nasty experiments on people other than just twins. Somogyi's son was affected by some of the stories. The father and son could not bring themselves to discuss the testimony. After a whole day of listening to the survivors, the Somogyis would go sightseeing and then go for a nice dinner. The days were hard enough without carrying on the topics after recess for the day. The mock trial brought some sense of closure to Somogyi, but ultimately, the final closure did not happen since Mengele was not there. It was good to see the other survivors although recognition was not easy. Faces could not be put with a name. The others did not recognize him either. It had been 40 years since they had last seen each other. He was only 11 years old at the time of liberation.

Peter Somogyi talks to school children. He feels it is important for them to hear the testimony of survivors. What he experienced should never happen again. Schools teach about the Holocaust and request survivors tell their stories. Somogyi could not believe it when the world found out about Mengele's death. [Annotator's Note: Dr. Josef Mengele was a sadistic Nazi physician who performed cruel experiments on twins such as Somogyi and his brother at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration/death camp. A mock trial to bring him to justice was held in Israel in February 1985. Unbeknownst to those in attendance, Mengele had actually died by drowning in 1979, thus avoiding justice.]. Somogyi was immediately requested by NBC [Annotator's Note: National Broadcasting Company] to provide his thoughts on the news. He did not know any details and could not add much to the developing story. He could not remember much at that time. There was uncertainty about Mengele's actual death. It was only later that his body was exhumed. It was unfortunate that Mengele escaped trial and punishment. Many survivors felt bad about that. The mock trial brought the United States government into the search for Mengele. That was the only thing that came out of the mock trial. Mengele had disappeared from the news until the mock trial. Eichmann was found, but they had to stop looking for Mengele because of international problems. [Annotator's Note: SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann was captured in San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina and taken to Israel for trial and execution in 1961 and 1962, respectively. Efforts to capture Mengele were stonewalled by local governments in South America thus preventing his extradition to Israel.] Until then, they nearly found Mengele. It would have been unlawful to hijack a person from a sovereign country for transport to Israel [Annotator's Note: as was accomplished with Eichmann in 1960]. Mengele's transfer would have been good for Somogyi, but not for the transferee, Mengele. That put an end to the search for him. The mock trial resulted in a reunion of the survivors. It was good to see the common friends among the few who survived. As for Mengele, the experiments with twins and others were useless. There was no apparent reason for them. Mengele did not save Somogyi's life. He only kept the young boy alive for the purposes of his experiments. No one can really explain any rationale for Mengele's nasty and often fatal experiments.

Peter Somogyi survived the gas chambers twice. That unique survival resulted from him being a twin. [Annotator's Note: Somogyi and his fraternal twin brother were selected by Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz-Birkenau to be part of his experiments. As a result, he was destined twice for execution in the gas chambers but narrowly escaped death.] As a youthful 11 year old child, Somogyi was in the camp in 1944 after most of the nasty experiments had ended. Some of the twins who had arrived prior to him had horrible things happen to them. Few survived. Luckily, neither Somogyi nor his brother suffered any long-term medical problems as a result of being abused by Mengele. Both Somogyi's wife and later his daughter were nervous about becoming pregnant for fear of some long-lasting effects. Somogyi was even worried about residual problems. Luckily, everything went fine. During the mock trial, Zvi Spiegel was asked how many children he helped. When they all stood up, there was applause [Annotator's Note: The mock trial of Dr. Josef Mengele was held with him in absentia in February 1985 in Israel. Zvi Spiegel was at the trial. Spiegel was the oldest of the male twins and was the Nazi appointed block boss for the younger boys in Somogyi's barrack at Auschwitz-Birkenau. After liberation, Spiegel aided many boys in finding their way back to their original hometowns.] The applause for Spiegel was a highlight of the mock trial. He not only saved their lives a couple of times, but he really took care of the younger boys. Spiegel's daughter had a special commemoration of her father a year before Somogyi's interview. It was a nice reunion. During the mock trial, there were memorable testimonies of the woman who lost her child and the man who had lost his vocal cords [Annotator's Note: both these individuals suffered horribly as a consequence of Mengele's misguided experiments].