Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: World War II

  • Russia’s “Great Patriotic War” and its generals

    When Germany launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941, its forces advanced with a ferocity that shattered Soviet defenses. Hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. By the winter of 1941, the Wehrmacht stood at the gates of Moscow and of Leningrad. In occupied territories, Nazi racial ideology translated…

  • Hiroshima: Are its lessons fading?

    Barry PerlmanNew York, New York, United States For much of my eighty-one years, the threat of nuclear war remained a subliminal fear. Recently, its possibility has roared back into my consciousness. The commemoration of the eightieth anniversary of the first, and we pray last, uses of the atomic bombs in war, along with bold headlines…

  • The nursing school in the Warsaw Ghetto

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Despite extreme hardship and abject terror, the nursing school in the Warsaw Ghetto continued to provide the highest level of nursing education possible.”1 The Warsaw Jewish Nursing School was established in 1923 as part of the Czyste (“clean” in Polish) Jewish Hospital. The school received support from the Warsaw city government and…

  • Can a nurse ensure a legacy?

    Karen EgenesCentennial, Colorado, United States The value of nurses is recognized most often during times of crisis, such as a pandemic or natural disaster. At other times, the work of nurses is unknown to the general public. Nurses who served in World War II describe their work in battle zones, then add the comment that…

  • Sulfonamides: The first synthetic antibacterial agents

    Few discoveries in medicine have a more interesting history than the introduction of the sulfonamides into clinical medicine.1 I feel somehow part of this process only because, having suffered from some febrile illness as a little boy, I distinctly remember being given a medicine that went by the name of “rubiazol” and turned the urine…

  • They made their own insulin: The story of Eva and Viktor Saxl

    Ellen DavisChapel Hill, North Carolina, United States Eva Saxl not only saved her own life by making insulin during World War II, but together with her husband Viktor, saved the lives of over 400 people with diabetes in war-torn Shanghai. Her life story has remained relatively obscure—I had first seen Eva’s photo in 1991 on the…

  • A tale of two physicians and Albert Göring

    Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Hermann Epenstein Ritter von Mauternburg (1850–1934) was a physician and merchant who played a significant role in the lives of anti-Nazi activist Albert Göring and his family. He was their family doctor, a close friend, and godfather to Albert and his older brother, Hermann. The brothers spent many holidays with him…

  • A WWII artist remembered

    Luciano FiumeCanzo, Italy When Hitler launched his invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, he prevailed on his ally Benito Mussolini to contribute soldiers to sustain his war effort. Three Italian divisions were sent initially and two more in 1942, integrated into the German army fighting in Ukraine and at one stage besieging Odessa. During…

  • Winnie Ille Pu and Dr. Alexander Lenard

    Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Sandor (Alexander) Lenard1 was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1910 and died in Dona Irma, Santa Catarina, Brazil in 1972. He was a Jewish poet, author, physician, painter, musician, translator, language teacher, philosopher, and polyglot. A short outline of Lenard’s life events could be summarized as follows: Hungary, medical studies in…

  • Learning the vocabulary of medicine (and other foreign languages)

    Edward TaborBethesda, Maryland, United States Both of my parents were physicians, and their discussions were often medical. One weekend when I was about four years old, I listened to one such conversation at lunch and interrupted to ask, “When I grow up, will I be able to speak the language you speak?” They paused to…