“Ein bisschen Salonantisemitismus, etwas politische and religiöse Gegnerschaft, Ablehnung des politisch Andersdenkenden, an sich ein harmloses Gemengsel, bis ein Wahnsinniger kommt und daraus Dynamit fabriziert. Man muss diese Synthese begreifen, wenn Dinge, wie sie in Auschwitz geschehen sind, in Zukunft verhütet werden sollen. Wenn Hass und Verleumdung leise keimen, dann, schon dann, heißt es wach und bereit zu sein. Das ist das Vermächtnis derer von Auschwitz.” (Lucie Adelsberger)
“Some intellectual anti-semitism, some political or religious enmity, rejection of political dissenters, by itself an innocent mix, until there is a maniac who makes dynamite from that. One need to comprehend this synthesis, if events like those happened in Auschwitz, will have to be prevented in the future. Where hate and defamation grow silently, then, already at then, is a need to be alert and ready. This is the testimony of those in Auschwitz”. (authors’ translation).
Dr. Lucie Adelsberger (1895-1971) was a well known allergy specialist in pre-war Berlin. She was running a private practice but held also a position at Robert-Koch-Institute. Her life changed forever when she was selected for “relocation” and sent to Auschwitz. Her report in the Lancet 1946 and her book on Auschwitz 1954 became famous but were only recently rediscovered for a larger audience. After Auschwitz she never published on allergy and never came back to Germany. These pages are devoted to her life and person and will be expanded over the next years.
Biography
Lucie Adelsberger was born in Nuremberg on April 12, 1895, as the first daughter of the Jewish merchant Isidor Adelsbeger and his wife Rosa Lehmann Her father sold wine in the Albrecht-Dürer-Strasse; he died in 1906, while the widow continued to live in the Gostenhofer Hauptstrasse 48/0. Lucie had two younger siblings, a sister and a brother. She attended 9 years the “Städtische Höhere Töchterschule”, followed by 4 years at the Privat-Real-Gynmnasium Dr. Uhlemayr”. Starting in 1914 she studied medicine at University of Nuremberg until 1919 when she completed the state examination as a physician.
Already in the same year, she began the 1 year period as medical assistant at the Cnopf`sche Kinderspital where she worked at the newborn ward and completed her thesis on the leukocytes of the newborn. Breastfeeding is immediately followed by leukopenia while feeding with cow milk leads to an increase of white blood cells. Looking into the composition of various gut bacteria, enzymes, protein and salt content she tested the association with white blood cell count. Although done in a painstaking fashion, results were not so clear – it was only in 1923 when she delivered the manuscript as a M.D. thesis in Erlangen.
In 1921, Lucie Adelsberger went to Berlin at the municipal hospital Friedrichshain where she worked (probably at the same time) at the pediatric and internal department II. Here she received a postgraduate diploma first in internal medicine (1925) and in pediatrics (1926). At that time her scientific interests had already started, continuing with questions related mainly to allergy.
[to be continued]
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Links
- Auschwitz-A Doctor’s Story, by Lucie Adelsberger, Northeastern University Press, 150 pages, $19.95. The German edition 2001 by Eduard Seidler has 139 footnotes, 16 figures and two biographical sketches 1895-1943 and 1945-1971.
- a comment on her book by Deutsche Ärzteblatt
- an interview Tagesspiegel talks to her longterm friend Dr. Ursula Bohn
- an English article Jewish Pediatricians in Nazi Germany: Victims of persecution
- 3 letters of Lucie Adelsberger in The Benedikt Kautsky papers
- new book in 2020 Lucie Adelsberger: Ärztin – Wissenschaftlerin – Chronistin von Auschwitz / Benjamin Kuntz