Degree at 102, finally

Nieuws | de redactie
15 juni 2015 | Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport deserves her degree, but even more the historic sigificance of her academic achievement. The Nazis barred her from her studies, although her doctoral thesis on diphtheria was ready. Now, at 102 she has defended her work to the examination board in Hamburg. "Brilliant" she was, leaving the examiners "speechless at her expertise."

A beaming Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport accepted her doctorate to loud applause at the University of Hamburg on Tuesday, almost eight decades after the Nazis forced her to abandon her studies, the Deutsche Welle writes. The pediatrician had written a doctoral thesis on diphtheria as a 25-year-old student at the university’s medical school in 1938, but because her mother was Jewish she was never allowed to take the final step of defending her work before a board of examiners.

Some sense of justice

“After almost 80 years, it was possible to restore some extent of justice,” Burkhard Göke, the medical director of the university’s hospital, said in his speech at Tuesday’s award ceremony. “We cannot undo injustices that have been committed, but our insights into the past shape our perspective for the future.”

In 1938, Syllm-Rapoport migrated to the United States where she met her future husband, Samuel Mitja Rapoport (1912-2004). After the war they returned to Germany, to East Berlin, where Syllm-Rapoport became a renowned professor of neonatology at the Charité hospital.

After learning of Syllm-Rapoport’s unfinished degree, the Hamburg medical school last month convened a board of examiners to give her the chance to defend her thesis. According to the faculty dean, Uwe Koch-Gromus, she was “brilliant,” leaving the examiners “speechless at her expertise.”

In her acceptance speech on Tuesday, Syllm-Rapoport said she had completed the degree on behalf of all those who had suffered under Hitler and the Third Reich. “For me personally, the degree didn’t mean anything, but to support the great goal of coming to terms with history – I wanted to be part of that.”


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