(Jewish Group) The Jewish doctor who escaped the Nazis, became a medical pioneer and founded the Par

[Behind the Aegis]

The Jewish doctor who escaped the Nazis, became a medical pioneer and founded the Paralympics



The 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games open on Tuesday. Much like the Olympic Games in the Japanese capital, there are plenty of Jewish athletes to support, like emerging track and field star Ezra Frech and veteran swimmer Matt Levy.

But unlike the Olympic Games, the Paralympics have an inspiring Jewish origin story — thanks to its founder, Ludwig Guttmann.

Guttmann was born on July 3, 1899, in Tost, Germany (now Toszek, Poland), to a German-Jewish family. In 1917, while working as a volunteer at a hospital for coal miners, Guttmann encountered a patient with a spinal injury and paraplegia. At the time, paraplegia was effectively a death sentence; unfortunately this proved true for the young coal miner. However, the memory of this patient had a deep impact on Guttmann.

Just a year later, Guttmann began training in medicine at the University of Breslau before transferring to the University of Freiburg in 1919, where he graduated with his medical degree in 1924. At Freiburg, Guttmann became an active member of a Jewish fraternity that tried to stop the spread of antisemitism in universities. Eventually the fraternity also became a center for physical activity and fitness, so that “nobody needed to be ashamed of being a Jew.”

more...

[AllaN01Bear]

1. eggscllent but id like the paraolympians march in with the main olympic teams .

[JudyM]

2. Wonderful contribution to society.

Another expression of the heartbeat of Judaism.