DR. HERCBERG-GRODECKI

Dr. Hercberg-Grodecki - Gallant Physician of Polish Ghettos tells the fascinating true story of a young Jewish physician and an avid Polish patriot who during World War II saved the lives of hundreds of patients incarcerated in Polish Ghettos. The book describes how the 28-year-old Dr. Hercberg-Grodecki served as the physician in charge in two ghettos, and provided effectively, by himself, medical care to more than 20,000 incarcerated people; how he established by himself makeshift hospitals in those ghettos; and how he saved the lives of hundreds of Typhus patients from the Nazis. The book details how Dr. Hercberg-Grodecki challenged attempts by the Nazis to lure him into collaboration; how he ignored constant threats; and how he persisted in his efforts to heal and help the sick, regardless of ethnicity, religion and nationality, throughout the war, despite surmountable hardship and personal abuse. For the outstanding persistent efforts of using his medical skills in resisting and fighting Nazism, at the end of World War II Dr. Hercberg-Grodecki, then a Captain in the Polish Free Army, was awarded the highest Polish military decoration to war veterans, the Medal of Victory and Freedom.

George Israel Gorodeski, MD, MSc, PhD is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Physiology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA; author of more than 200 scientific papers, and the published book (in 2023), Lives Lived - Genealogy and History of My Family.