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A Ph.D Thesis Defense Delayed By Injustice 77 Years
Taco Cowboy writes: A story about a 102-year old lady doing her PhD thesis defense is not that common, but when the thesis defense was delayed by a whopping 77 years, that gotta raise some eyebrows. Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport studied diphtheria at the University of Hamburg in Germany and in 1938, the 25-year old Protestant-raised, German-born Ingeborg submitted for her doctorate thesis defense. She was denied her chance for her defense because her mother was of the Jewish ancestry, making her an official "cross-breed". As such the Nazi regime forbid the university from proceeding with her defense, for "racial reasons".
She became one of the thousands of scholars and researchers banished from German academe, which at the time included many of the world's most prestigious research institutions, because of Jewish ancestry or opposition to Nazi policies. Many of them ended up suffering or dying in concentration camps. Rudolf Degkwitz, Syllm's professor, was imprisoned for objecting to euthanizing children. Syllm, however, was able to reach the United States and earned her medical degree from the old Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Eventually she married a fellow physician named Samuel Mitja Rapoport, had a family, and moved back to Germany in the 1950s, where she achieved prominence in neonatology. Syllm-Rapoport, who is now 102 years old, might have remained just a doctor (if a very accomplished one) had not the present dean of the Hamburg medical school, Uwe Koch-Gromus, heard her story from a colleague of her son, Tom Rapoport, a Harvard cell biologist.
Determined to do what he could to mitigate this wrong, Koch-Gromus arranged Syllm-Rapoport's long-delayed defense. Despite failing eyesight, she brushed up on decades of developments in diphtheria research with the help of friends and the Internet. Koch-Gromus called the 45-minute oral exam given by him and two colleagues on 13 May in her Berlin living room "a very good test. Frau Rapoport has gathered notable knowledge about what's happened since then. Particularly given her age, she was brilliant."
She became one of the thousands of scholars and researchers banished from German academe, which at the time included many of the world's most prestigious research institutions, because of Jewish ancestry or opposition to Nazi policies. Many of them ended up suffering or dying in concentration camps. Rudolf Degkwitz, Syllm's professor, was imprisoned for objecting to euthanizing children. Syllm, however, was able to reach the United States and earned her medical degree from the old Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Eventually she married a fellow physician named Samuel Mitja Rapoport, had a family, and moved back to Germany in the 1950s, where she achieved prominence in neonatology. Syllm-Rapoport, who is now 102 years old, might have remained just a doctor (if a very accomplished one) had not the present dean of the Hamburg medical school, Uwe Koch-Gromus, heard her story from a colleague of her son, Tom Rapoport, a Harvard cell biologist.
Determined to do what he could to mitigate this wrong, Koch-Gromus arranged Syllm-Rapoport's long-delayed defense. Despite failing eyesight, she brushed up on decades of developments in diphtheria research with the help of friends and the Internet. Koch-Gromus called the 45-minute oral exam given by him and two colleagues on 13 May in her Berlin living room "a very good test. Frau Rapoport has gathered notable knowledge about what's happened since then. Particularly given her age, she was brilliant."
That's not a Godwin.
You have to accuse someone of being a nazi to Godwin. If the story is explicitly about nazis, that's different.
for arranging this. It might be largely symbolic, but I heartily approve of what he has done. Something bright & positive, better than the trials of ancient concentration camp officials.
what are you, some sort of comment nazi?
She might have remained just a doctor, but now she's... a doctor doctor!
( huh? )
But seriously, this is awesome.
Also, WTF slashdot... how about linking to the primary source ( Wall Street Journal )
Can you imagine if it had been on Small Pox?
Hmmm...we actually cured that in the mean time, so... how would they handle that? Brushing up on the new research could be fairly quick.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Her defense wasn't delayed by injustice; it was delayed by assholes. Injustice is a thing, a concept, one not entirely tied to reality; it is an abstract aligned to our moral beliefs. We don't consider the vicious treatment of pedophiles in America injustice because we hate them, even though empirically we can make some arguments about mental health and the fermentation of social pressures forcing people with an internal sickness into hiding, stress, and then the shape of something they could have avoided with proper social support. We consider victimization of Jews injustice because we've started this moral narrative about how hating on Jews is bad.
The fact of the matter is it's people who made decisions about their regards toward and actions about race that delayed this Ph.D. defense. It's assholes. It's people who decided to bar this from being heard. Injustice is a diffuse thing, like the injustice of a court system which executes more blacks than whites on similar evidence; it lifts blame off the participants and onto the mode of society or of misfortune. We pretend these actors don't exist, or at least that they aren't directly responsible for their actions, even though the victims are directly burdened by them. That nebulous ideal is immaterial to the consequences of society; the fact that people went along with it instead of using their human reason and empathy to decide against these happenings is squarely the fault of those people, not the fault of the speculation about what those people did.
What happened wasn't wrong; *you* were wrong for doing it.
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This was all over the Tubes 2 days ago.
forbid forbade forbidden. It's forbade.
that gotta raise some eyebrows.
And you gotta learn how to use apostrophes. And not write "gotta."
As such the Nazi regime forbid
Forbade, or possibly forbad. If you don't know the correct tense of the verb you want to use, either look it up or think of another one.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Nah, they're just a Godwin Nazi. :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Thanks for posting this.
Godwin right there in the summary - how often do you see that
My God, this is a great story - too bad we don't have some racist and sexist Slashdoter to claim that, even five years after Hitler was in power, a Jewish women could study in a university, while today a White men is denied even to enter because some Black women replace him thanks to racism and sexism...
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
All I have to say.
Actually, I believe you simply have to compare someone to a Nazi, or an idea to a Nazi idea to invoke Godwin, you Nazi.
Sieg Heil!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
In the 50's I would have to see a white man who would apply to go to the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
- too bad we don't have some racist and sexist Slashdoter to claim that, even five years after Hitler was in power, a Jewish women could study in a university, while today a White men is denied even to enter because some Black women replace him thanks to racism and sexism...
I...I think we just did have such a person.
Here's the final sentence from the article that didn't make it into TFS:
At a ceremony on 9 June, Syllm-Rapoport will officially become an M.D.-Ph.D. and, without doubt, the oldest new graduate of this or any other academic year.
even five years after Hitler was in power, a Jewish women could study in a university, while today a White men is denied even to enter because some Black women replace him thanks to racism and sexism...
The discrimination is bad enough for Whites, but Asians actually have it even worse.
I...I think we just did have such a person.
No, that was a racist and sexist Slashdoter claiming that claiming reverse discrimination isn't discrimination is racist and sexist.
even five years after Hitler was in power, a Jewish women could study in a university, while today a White men is denied even to enter because some Black women replace him thanks to racism and sexism...
The discrimination is bad enough for Whites, but Asians actually have it even worse.
Yes, i agree, (eastern) Asians have it worse in USA, but i am from Europe, where not so many (eastern) Asians exist, so... White Europeans have this "privilige"!
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
I just really enjoyed grad school too much to want to finish, and they eventually made it clear to me that I'd better defend soon or they'd kick me out. Of course, I also wasn't accomplishing nearly as much in the interim as the article's subject.
It's an inspiring story. All the same, my dissertation defense is something that I'm just as happy I won't have the opportunity to tackle later in life...
I still have this nightmare.
I'm back in school 50 years later and have to finish some schoolwork I'd forgotten.
The only variable is whether I'm naked or just in my underwear.
My PhD thesis defense was delayed for three years, but for a different reason:
https://youtu.be/WeYsTmIzjkw
You are welcome on my lawn.
- too bad we don't have some racist and sexist Slashdoter to claim that, even five years after Hitler was in power, a Jewish women could study in a university, while today a White men is denied even to enter because some Black women replace him thanks to racism and sexism...
I...I think we just did have such a person.
Really? That's great! Who is he? Let's make Godwin proud...
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
What do we call it when Godwin gets Godwin'd?
Godwin right there in the summary - how often do you see that
Godwin? No. Gidwin? Maybe...what's a Gidwin?
(this post brought to you by the letter ' o ' and the letter ' i ')
What's missing from TFA is that she wasn't just a "normal doctor" but became the first professor for neonatalogy ever worlwide - in the German Democratic Republic (i.e. the socialist part of Germany at the time), where she had moved to from the US, being a socialist and afraid of persecution during the McCarthy period.
She'll be at least 150 years old by the time she's paid off the student loans.
Nullius in verba
"earned her medical degree from the old Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "
102 years old? Wow. But she wasn't so old when she earned her degree in the 'Old Women's Medical College'.
This is what 2-3 weeks old on reddit. News for nerds that don't actually look for a place with a vibrant community where everyone can submit, comment and vote.
Well up until today? Never. As of today? Still never.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
While the injustice was definitely egregious, the original injustice was not the reason for all 77 years of the 'delay'.
Abject nonsense, you scared little man.
Abject nonsense, you scared little man.
You have a problem with shy retarded midgets?
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
[...] you simply have to compare someone to a Nazi, or an idea to a Nazi idea [...]
You know, that is actually something Joseph Goebbels used to do a lot.
Please post mandatory XKCD too accompanied by an anecdote of how miserable your life is.
STFU n' quit cryin: Face the music here http://linux.slashdot.org/comm...
Godlost?
A German judge had his Ph.D. revoked because the results of his research on Auschwitz were politically undesirable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_St%C3%A4glich
I'm a heterosexual male.
http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png
hate all religions equally?
Not something happening now. at all.