Volume 192 - Issue 11
A lifetime pursuit of diabetes through chance
Author: Paul Z Zimmet
Med J Aust 2010; 192 (11): 670-671. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2010.tb03679.x
Published online: 7 June 2010
Published online: 7 June 2010
In reply: Dr Smolilo has challenged my claim that my father, the late Dr Jacob Zimmet, worked in a hospital in Tarnopol, Poland, and without salary, in the pre-World War II period.1 I am pleased to refute Smolilo’s inaccurate claims.
Smolilo argues that “. . . in Poland at that time, there was no discrimination against national minorities, and this applied to the Jewish minority as well”. I accept his statement that there was not an official policy as such. There are, however, ample historical records of discrimination against Jews in many areas.2
Smolilo questions the specific instance relating to my late father. I have a letter in Polish from the Director of the Government Hospital in Tarnopol and its 1939 official translation by the Polish Consul-General in Sydney, copies of which I have provided to the Editor of the Journal. This letter not only confirms my father’s employment from 1935 to 1938, but also the fact that he was not paid. The very fact that Smolilo could not find my father in the official records also stands as confirmation!
Clearly, there were many Jewish doctors and other professionals employed in Poland from earlier years who retained their positions during the period from 1935 to 1939. However, even before that time, a quota was imposed on Jewish students and many had to go overseas for medical training.3 On return, like my father, they were unable to find gainful employment and eventually left Poland, many emigrating to Australia. My father provided loving care to many Polish immigrants in his medical practice in South Australia.
References
- Zimmet PZ. A lifetime pursuit of diabetes through chance. Med J Aust 2009; 191: 632-636.
- Strauss HA, editor. Hostages of modernization: studies on modern antisemitism, 1870–1933/39. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1993. 0_i1091852
- Rutland SD. Take heart again. The story of a fellowship of Jewish Doctors. Sydney: Fellowship of Jewish Doctors of New South Wales, 1983. 0_i1091854