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Jewish Doctors and the Holocaust

The Anatomy of Survival in Auschwitz
  • Ross W. Halpin
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2019
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About this book

Co-publication with Magnes Press

This is the first attempt to explain how Jewish doctors survived extreme adversity in Auschwitz where death could occur at any moment. The ordinary Jewish slave labourer survived an average of fifteen weeks. Ross Halpin discovers that Jewish doctors survived an average of twenty months, many under the same horrendous conditions as ordinary prisoners. Despite their status as privileged prisoners Jewish doctors starved, froze, were beaten to death and executed. Many Holocaust survivors attest that luck, God and miracles were their saviors. The author suggests that surviving Auschwitz was far more complex. Interweaving the stories of Jewish doctors before and during the Holocaust Halpin develops a model that explains the anatomy of survival. According to his model the genesis of survival of extreme adversity is the will to live which must be accompanied by the necessities of life, specific personal traits and defence mechanisms. For survival all four must co-exist.

Author / Editor information

Ross W. Halpin, University of Sydney, Australia

Reviews

“This is a ‘must read’ book in medical and allied health professional schools.”

Avi Ohry, MD Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel

“After meticulous research, Ross Halpin presents a pioneering study that intertwines fragments of testimonial accounts, documentary archival evidence and conceptual frameworks. What emerges is a compelling model of description and interpretation of the limited chances of survival of Jewish doctors in Auschwitz, one of the epicentres of the Holocaust.”

Konrad Kwiet, Emeritus Professor, Resident Historian, Sydney Jewish Museum, Sydney, Australia

“The author’s description of Auschwitz’s medical world is an illuminating and brilliant synthesis and his final chapter, ‘Anatomy of Survival’, a masterpiece where one can see his own contribution to research at its best.”

Etienne Lepicard, Bet Hagat and the Israeli National Council for Bioethics, Jerusalem, Israel

“This is a powerful, compelling and important work.”

Garry Walter, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Sydney Medical School and Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University, Sydney, Australia


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Part II: Parallel Lives: Drs Sima Vaisman, Gisella Perl and Louis Micheels

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Part III: Jewish Physicians and the Hospital System

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Part IV: Survival

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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 14, 2019
eBook ISBN:
9783110598216
Hardcover published on:
January 14, 2019
Hardcover ISBN:
9783110596045
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Front matter:
16
Main content:
233
Illustrations:
30
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