Department
History
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Abstract
Before World War II, Jewish individuals held prominent employment roles within society. It was not until Adolf Hitler and the German National Socialist Party (Nazi) party came to power in 1933 in Germany that this idea changed. Men and women quickly lost their jobs and status, even the doctors and lawyers. Three Jewish doctors, Lucie Adelsberger, Gisella Perl, and Olga Lengyel found ways to continue their professions once they went to Auschwitz. They became prison doctors, allowing them to help all of those women and children who needed medical treatment because of experiments and diseases in the camp.
Adelsberger, an immunologist in Germany before the war, continued her medical work in Auschwitz. She had to quickly learn gynecology to better serve the women and children in her care. Perl and Lengyel, both from modern day Romania studied gynecology in medical school, which helped them while working under Dr. Josef Mengele.
This thesis provides a unique narrative of these three women, their experiences during World War II, their survival of the Holocaust, and how they helped reinterpret what it meant to be a good physician during and after WWII.
Keywords
Holocaust, Jewish Prison Doctors, Auschwitz, Medicine, Holocaust Survivors
Advisor
Dr. Paul Nienkamp
Date of Award
Summer 2020
Document Type
Thesis
Recommended Citation
Honings, Jacqueline Nicole, "“Life is Still Stronger Than Death”: The Life-Saving Women Doctors of Auschwitz" (2020). Master's Theses. 3160.
DOI: 10.58809/MXXV3062
Available at:
https://scholars.fhsu.edu/theses/3160
Rights
© The Author(s)
Comments
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