Perri Peltz

Erno Spiegel was spared because he was a twin. He went on to help others at Auschwitz, as detailed in this documentary by Perri Peltz and Matthew O’Neill.The documentary “The Last Twins” tells the harrowing true story of Erno Spiegel, a Jewish man who was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, but was spared for one reason: He was a twin. Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi physician, considered twins to be the ideal subjects because they allowed him to conduct what he believed were controlled genetic studies. He made Spiegel preside over a group of around 60 twin boys — many of whose lives Spiegel would save.Directed by Perri Peltz and Matthew O’Neill, “The Last Twins” is a conventional documentary made up of talking heads, archival materials and somber narration by Liev Schreiber. The speakers are mostly Holocaust survivors — some of the very boys whom Spiegel protected by forging documents or keeping crucial information secret. After the camps were liberated, Spiegel ended up leading his group of twins on a brutal winter trek through Poland and back home to Hungary.Hearing these survivors, now well into their 90s, talk about their experiences is devastating and poignant. But a cynical part of me wonders to what extent a documentary like “The Last Twins” simply scratches the same itch, allowing viewers to indulge a kind of morbid (if sympathetic) curiosity in the Holocaust. Should every unique survival story be packaged into the same kind of storytelling blueprint?One answer might be that real heroes — in the Holocaust and other histories of genocide — are often the stuff of fiction. Here, heroism is presented less as a feat of preternatural bravery than a series of choices made by someone who simply refused to give up his humanity.The Last TwinsNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. In theaters. More