Student Union Yom HaShoah Ceremony Focuses on 80th Year Since Warsaw Ghetto Uprising - The Medical Uprising

As in previous years, the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine Student Union organized and led a very moving ceremony to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day.

This year, the focus was on the Warsaw Ghetto uprising that took place eighty years ago, with a focus on the valiant attempts of medical personnel to help as best they could under the circumstances, in a most selfless manner. Medical students researched, prepared and presented their findings, incorporating written primary source testimonies. The presentation was most informative and enlightening.

The presentation opened with the following declaration: "This year we chose to dedicate the ceremony to telling the story of the quiet albeit active resistance of the physicians in the ghetto. They stood true to their conscience and oath, all the while suffering themselves from exhaustion, starvation, and lack of medical supplies. They stood by their patients, smuggling supplies, performing operations and other procedures forbidden by the Nazis - while some could still have chosen to escape with their families. Most did not survive the atrocities of the Holocaust, yet some did, made Aliyah, and contributed to the founding of the Jewish State. We, the doctors of the future, see these doctors as our role models and would like to make their voices heard, and give them their due credit."

The names of physicians of the time that were mentioned and quoted included  Dr. Mark Dvorzhetski, Dr. Israel Milejkowski, Dr. Anna Braude Heller, Professor Witold Orlowski, and Dr. Marek Balin.

Special focus was placed on detailing a medical school that was established in a clandestine manner from May 11, 1941 - July 20, 1942, and included some 500 students of which approximately 50 survived. A special candle was lit in their memory.

Research that was carried out at the time in the ghetto, primarily studying severe hunger, was also presented.

Musical interludes led by the students as well as the son of a staff member, expressed the prevalent mood in the room.

The ceremony, which opened with the 2-minute national siren at 10 AM on April 18, 2023, culminated with the singing of the national anthem, Hatikva.