ODU's Institute for Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding is sponsoring an exhibit of the hospital's history in the Learning Commons @ Perry Library. Materials are from a traveling exhibition produced by students at the University of Potsdam and the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies in Potsdam. The exhibit will be available through the end of May, 2015.
"Berlin's 250-year-old Jewish Hospital has saved lives with more than surgery, medication and treatment. When the Nazis wanted to round up its Jewish patients nearly seven decades ago, staffers painted their skin with dots to give the impression that they suffered from a terrible contagious disease. The Nazis put the hospital under quarantine, and hundreds were saved from the gas chambers. The Holocaust was an extremely painful, if relatively short, period in the history of Germany's oldest existing Jewish institution." (Source)
Professor Julius H. Schoeps and Professor Elke-Vera Kotowski from the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies were here on Monday, April 13 to shed light on the extraordinary story of the hospital and its survivors. A panel discussion, "Ethics of Healthcare During War and Trauma," followed on Tuesday, April 14. Learn more about the story of the hospital here: http://www.jewishnewsva.org/a-tale-of-survival-the-jewish-.../