Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport, 102, finally awarded Ph.D. that Nazis denied her
When Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport first submitted her doctoral thesis on diphtheria in 1938, she was barred from completing her oral defense under Hitler’s Nuremberg Race Laws, which disenfranchised citizens with Jewish ancestry.
The retired, 102-year-old neonatologist got another chance when officials at the University Clinic in Hamburg-Eppendorf learned of the discriminatory case and formally invited her to finish her Ph.D.
Syllm-Rapoport, whose vision is now declining, worked with friends to mine online research and prepare for the examination.
