ABSTRACT
At least 564,500 Hungarian Jews perished during the Holocaust, including many physicians. Exactly how many Jewish dermatologists were killed is not known. We have identified 62 Hungarian Jewish dermatologists from this period: 19 of these dermatologists died in concentration camps or were shot in Hungary, 3 committed suicide, and 1 died shortly after the Holocaust, exhausted by the War. Fortunately, many Hungarian Jewish dermatologists survived the Holocaust. Some had fled Europe before the Nazi takeover, as was described in Part 1 of this contribution. Two Holocaust survivors, Ferenc Földvári and Ödön Rajka, became presidents of the Hungarian Dermatologic Society and helped rebuild the profession of dermatology in Hungary after the War. This contribution provides one of the first accounts of the fate of Hungarian Jewish dermatologists during the Holocaust and serves as a remembrance of their suffering and ordeal.
Subject(s)
Dermatologists/history , Holocaust/history , Jews/history , Survivors/history , World War II , Concentration Camps/history , History, 20th Century , Humans , Hungary , Jews/legislation & jurisprudence , Prejudice/history , Suicide/historyABSTRACT
From the times of Moritz Kaposi, Hungarian Jewish physicians have significantly contributed to the development of dermatology. Part 1 of this special report highlights some of the early Jewish dermatologists in Hungary. It also tells the stories of five Hungarian Jewish dermatologists who fled anti-Semitism in Hungary, or other European countries, between 1920 and 1941: Frederick Reiss, Emery Kocsard, Stephen Rothman, Peter Flesch, and George Csonka. A sixth Hungarian dermatologist, Tibor Benedek, was persecuted by the Nazis, because he had a Jewish wife, forcing the couple to flee Germany. Part 2 will focus on the ordeal faced by Hungarian Jewish dermatologists who did not leave their homeland during World War II.
Subject(s)
Dermatology/history , Jews/history , Refugees/history , Australia , Austria , China , Germany , History, 20th Century , Hungary , Prejudice/ethnology , Prejudice/history , United Kingdom , United States , World War IISubject(s)
Astronauts , Dermatology , Space Flight , Humans , Skin/metabolism , Skin Diseases/etiology , United StatesSubject(s)
Skin Pigmentation/physiology , Skin Pigmentation/radiation effects , Ultraviolet Rays , Animals , Humans , PhotobiologySubject(s)
Cosmetics/history , Dermatology/history , Famous Persons , Egypt, Ancient , History, Ancient , HumansABSTRACT
The year 2014 marks the centennial of events that led to the First World War ("the war to end all wars") following the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire. It also marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Stephen Rothman and the 60th anniversary of the publication of his epic textbook The Physiology and Biochemistry of the Skin. In this review, we document our belief that Rothman had a seismic impact on moving investigative dermatology from a medical backwater to a scientific discipline that can hold its own with any other specialty.
