Description
Book SynopsisAn annotated English translation of the autobiography of Polish microbiologist Ludwik Hirszfeld (1884-1954), with a focus on his contributions to international public health. Ludwik Hirszfeld (1884-1954), one of the most prominent serologists of the twentieth century, discovered the inheritance and established the nomenclature of blood groups and opened the field of human population genetics. He also carried out groundbreaking research in the genetics of disease and immunology. Following World War II, he founded Poland's first Institute of Immunology in Wroclaw, which now bears his name. His autobiographical memoir, The Story of One Life, first published in Poland in 1946, immediately became a bestseller and has been reedited several times since. It is an outstanding account of a Holocaust survivor and a writer capable of depicting the uniqueness and the tragedy of countless individuals caught up in the nightmare of 1939-45. He recollects his time as a physician in the Serbian army in 1915 and his satisfaction as a scientist who helped rebuild Poland after the Treaty ofVersailles; in so doing the contrast between the world before and the world after World War II could not be starker. Hirszfeld wrote this book while in hiding after he escaped from the Warsaw ghetto in 1943; he buried the manuscript and retrieved it only after the war. Drawing on interviews with Hirszfeld's former students and family, as well as unpublished documents, this translation is annotated and has an introduction written by two scholars with unique qualifications to understand both the immediate setting in which Hirszfeld lived his life, and the broader implications of his work to the history of medicine. Marta A. Balinska is a writer and an international consultant in public health. William H. Schneider is professor of history at Indiana University.
Trade ReviewBalinska and Schneider should be applauded. . . today's readers will find it an intriguing piece of cutting-edge experimental science, an example of the relation between political context and individual fate, while the contemporary story makes for a fascinating read. . . a major achievement. * COMPTES RENDUS *
A thoughtful and highly historical read that belongs in any biography collection. * MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW *
Fascinating on many accounts. . . The University of Rochester Press's Studies in Medical History series has just attained new heights. * FORWARD.COM *
Table of ContentsForeword by Arthur E. Mourant Introduction by Marta A. Balinska and William H. Schneider Foreword by Ludwik Hirszfeld to the original 1946 edition University Years Assistantship in Heidelberg Sojourn in Zurich The Great War Armée d'Orient Home Again Life in Warsaw Life within the Institute Scientific Activities Scientific Meetings International Congress of Anthropologists in Amsterdam; Opening of Schools of Hygiene in Budapest and Zagreb The 1935 Blood Transfusion Congress in Rome The 1937 International Congress in Paris The 1937 International Cancer Congress in Brussels The 1939 General Pathology Congress in Rome Medical Academy in Paris; French Youth A Home in the Sun The Autumn Draws On Before the Storm The Siege of Warsaw Ousted The City of Death Lectures and Courses Typhus in the District The Health Council In the Shadow of the Church of All Saints Race or Tradition? The Beginning of the End Leap into the Unknown The Life of an Obscure Man My Evening Song My Greatest Defeat The Origins of This Book Extermination Camps The Last Upsurge of a Perishing Nation A Chased Animal The Turning Point for the Jewish Nation The Great Guilt Afterword Appendix: Biographical Annex of Frequently Cited Names
