The Unrecognized Academic Role of the Jewish Hospitals and Their Staff during the Nazi Era

After the Nazi regime seized power, the only place where Jewish medical students were allowed to conduct their practicum in Germany were the Jewish hospitals.

To identify the Jewish students who, during summer 1933 and later, conducted their practicum and wrote their medical dissertations in the Jewish hospitals, and to identify their tutors.

We examined the dissertations at the medical faculty of Berlin that were conducted from the summer of 1933 until the autumn 1937, identifying the students who did their practicum at Jewish hospitals and stood for the MD examination.

In total, 29 Jewish students finished their medical practicum and wrote their dissertations either in the Jewish hospitals of Berlin or in other Jewish hospitals outside the capital city after April 1933. Only five of those studies were presented to the MD examination signed by their Jewish tutors. The remaining 24 works were submitted and signed by an Aryan professor. In 10 of those last studies, the names of the Jewish tutors could be uncovered.

The Jewish hospitals of Berlin continued their academic activity even after being ejected from Berlin hospital's medical faculty body in April 1933. At that time most of the studies dealt with surgery and gynecology. In most cases the studies were submitted for the MD examination by proxy and signed by an Aryan professor.