“I’ve never been so happy” 102 year old woman finally receives her doctorate nearly 80 years after Nazi’s prevent her from sitting exam – TheLiberal.ie – Our News, Your Views

“I’ve never been so happy” 102 year old woman finally receives her doctorate nearly 80 years after Nazi’s prevent her from sitting exam




doctorate

 

102 year old Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport received her doctorate from German University, nearly 80 years after Nazi’z prevented her from sitting her final exam.

Ingeborg who lives in Berlin, was presented with her PhD by the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf.

Ingeborg studied medicine and worked in Israelite Hospital from 1937 to 1938, when she wrote her dissertation. She completed her thesis on diphtheriain 1938.

At that time, Hitler had imposed racially motivated legal restrictions which barred Ingeborg from sitting her oral exam, because of her Jewish descent.

Ingeborg’s professor in 1938 had issued a statement saying that he would have passed her thesis if it had have been legally possible to do so at the time.

Ingeborg finally sat her oral exam last month. In a statement from Hamburg, they said she had been successful. It also said that she was probably the oldest person in the world to receive a doctorate.

Mr Koch Gromus, of the medical faculty, said that Ingeborg’s exam was “simply brilliant”.

In a statement her said: “We were impressed by her intellectual alertness, and left speechless over her expert knowledge, even in modern medicine”.

“I’ve never been so happy” she said.

 

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