09/13/2024
Just a gentle reminder that Round Lake Books will be closing our doors after Apple Fest. Our owner, Dianne Clifford DuPont, will be retiring. Thank you for seventeen wonderful years thank you for your support over the years. Book shelves and the like will be available for purchase. Come in and wish Dianne well in retirement.
Ingeborg Rapoport became the world's oldest person to receive a doctorate degree nearly 80 years after she was denied her PhD at the University of Hamburg for "racial reasons" due to her Jewish heritage. In 2015, the then 102-year-old Rapoport at long last had the opportunity to defend her doctoral thesis on diphtheria before an academic committee, 77 years after she completed it. After she aced her oral exam, her PhD was approved and she was awarded her degree at a special ceremony in Hamburg.
Rapoport was 25 years old when she submitted her thesis on diphtheria, an infectious disease that was a leading cause of death among children at the time. Her professor praised her work but, as Rapoport told The Wall Street Journal, "I was told I wasn’t permitted to take the oral examination." Although she was raised as a Protestant, Rapoport's mother was Jewish which, according to the N***s, made her “a first-degree crossbreed” and ineligible for academic advancement. “My medical existence was turned to rubble,” she recalled. “It was a shame for science and a shame for Germany."
That year, she emigrated penniless to the US where she did several internships at hospitals and eventually received her M.D. from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. After working for several years in the US and starting a family, she returned to Europe and founded the first neonatology clinic in Germany at Berlin’s Charité Hospital. Reflecting on her journey, she said, "I have never felt bitterness. I’ve been shockingly lucky in all this. For me it all came out well: I had my best teachers in the U.S., I found my husband, I had my children.” But, over time, she began to wonder about the possibility of receiving her long-denied degree.
A Hamburg colleague of her son learned about her story and presented her case to the current dean of the medical school, Dr. Uwe Koch-Gromus. Koch-Gromus was determined that Rapoport should complete her degree -- and that she should earn it, not be granted an honorary PhD, even though the university’s legal department said that was the simplest solution. Koch-Gromus arranged for Rapoport to do an oral examination on diphtheria, the subject of her original paper, and she began studying up on the past 70 years of diphtheria research. After her exam, Koch-Gromus said, “Frau Rapoport has gathered notable knowledge about what’s happened since then. Particularly given her age, she was brilliant.”
Rapoport, who passed away in 2017 at the age of 104, was thrilled to receive her degree and pleased that the university amended this injustice at long last. Koch-Gramus, she said, “has made a great effort to show that things are now different in Germany.” Most importantly to Rapoport, however, was the chance to remember those who lost their lives many years ago: "I am happy and proud, but this is not about me. This is in commemoration of those who did not make it this far."
For books about girls and women who, like Dr. Rapoport, were forced to flee during WWII due to persecution, we recommend "Hold On to Your Music" for ages 5 to 8 (https://www.amightygirl.com/hold-on-to-your-music), "The Whispering Town" for ages 6 to 9 (https://www.amightygirl.com/the-whispering-town), "When Hi**er Stole Pink Rabbit" for ages 8 to 12 (https://www.amightygirl.com/when-hitler-stole-pink-rabbit), and "The Girl in the Green Sweater" for ages 14 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/the-girl-in-the-green-sweater)
To cultivate kids' ability to persevere over challenges of all kinds, we recommend "The Grit Workbook for Kids" for ages 6 to 12 (https://www.amightygirl.com/grit-workbook-kids), "The Grit Guide for Teens" for ages 13 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/the-grit-guide-for-teens), and "Sometimes You Win — Sometimes You Learn for Teens" for ages 13 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/sometimes-you-learn-teens)
For more books to introduce children and teens to this challenging chapter of history, visit our blog post, "60 Mighty Girl Books About The Holocaust" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=11586
For books to encourage Mighty Girls of all ages to bravely pursue their dreams, visit our blog post "50 Books to Inspire Your Mighty Girl in 2024" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog/?p=10834
