Denied Under Nazis, 102-Year-Old Jewish Woman Gets Doctorate
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BERLIN — Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport wasn't allowed to defend her doctoral thesis in 1938 under the Nazis because she was part-Jewish. Nearly eight decades later, she became Germany's oldest recipient of a doctorate at age 102 on Tuesday.

The neonatologist, a specialist in caring for newborns, cleared the final hurdle last month by passing an oral exam. She received her doctorate in a celebratory ceremony at the University of Hamburg.

"After almost 80 years, it was possible to restore some extent of justice," Burkhard Goeke, the medical director of the university's hospital, said in his speech. "We cannot undo injustices that have been committed, but our insights into the past shape our perspective for the future."

Syllm-Rapoport stressed in her acceptance speech that she went through all the efforts of getting the degree at her advanced age not for herself, but for all the others who suffered from injustice during 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," Syllm-Rapoport told German public television station NDR.

After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, they gradually disenfranchised Jews, expelling them from universities, schools and many professions, before eventually deporting and killing them in death camps across Europe.

When Syllm-Rapoport handed in her doctorate thesis, her supervisor at the time, Rudolf Degkwitz, wrote in a letter in 1938 that he would have accepted her work on diphtheria if it hadn't been for the Nazis' race laws which, he said, "make it impossible to allow Miss Syllm's admission for the doctorate."

Syllm-Rapoport emigrated to the United States in 1938 without a degree. After applying to several American universities, she eventually finished her degree in Philadelphia and worked as a pediatrician, before moving with her husband, a socialist like herself, to East Berlin in 1952. The mother of four was the first head of the neonatology department at Berlin's Charite hospital.

Asked about how Syllm-Rapoport did in her oral exam last month — which was on the topic of diphtheria, just like her original Ph.D. thesis — Uwe Koch-Gromus, the university's dean of the medical faculty said, "She was brilliant, and not only for her age."

"We were impressed with her intellectual alertness, and left speechless by her expertise — also with regard to modern medicine," Koch-Gromus said.

Almost 80 years after Syllm-Rapoport had to flee from the Nazis' terror, she concluded her studies with the overall grade of magna cum laude.

77年前納粹作梗 她102歲登博士

102歲的瑞波波特（Ingeborg Rapoport）當年因納粹迫害而拿不到博士學位，德國漢堡大學九日特別頒給她遲了近80年的博士學位，寫下世上最年長獲得博士學位紀錄。

瑞波波特早在1938年希特勒上台五年後，便已在漢堡大學提交有關白喉疾病的博士論文，卻因為母親是猶太人，依當時希特勒的反猶太規定，無法參加論文口試。

漢堡大學後來跟她確認，若非當時的反猶太法律，瑞波波特應該已拿到早該獲得的博士學位；上個月，漢堡大學醫學院三位教授前往瑞波波特家中，對她進行「口試」，事後對她表現都感到滿意，漢堡大學因此舉辦了特別儀式，頒給她遲來77年的博士學位。

瑞波波特說，到了102歲還接受論文口試，不是為了她個人，是為了原則，是為了遭納粹迫害者。

瑞波波特在1938年離開德國逃往美國，取得醫師資格，但與在美國認識的猶太裔丈夫因都懷抱左派思想，與當時美國因反共而瀰漫的麥卡錫主義格格不入，兩人因而回到共產主義下的東德。

瑞波波特後來在東德成為著名兒科教授，還曾因大幅降低嬰兒死亡率而獲頒東德國家獎章。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/06/09/world/europe/ap-eu-germany-phd-nazis.html

2015-06-11．聯合報．A13．國際．布魯塞爾記者蕭白雪