Erwin Leder (doctor)

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Erwin Leder (* 1914 in Vienna ; † May 5, 1997 ) was an Austrian doctor and Wehrmacht soldier .

As a camp doctor, Leder saved the lives of numerous Jews in the German prison camp in Sluzk . In 1999 he was posthumously honored as Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Jewish Memorial .

Act

Leder was born in Vienna in 1914. After completing his studies, he was drafted into the armed forces. In 1941 and 1942 he served as an on-site doctor in Slutsk, a town around 80 km south of Minsk . He was also responsible for the prisoner-of-war camp as a senior medical officer, in which 25,000 to 30,000 prisoners were temporarily detained. From typhus and hunger, 70 to 80 people died there every day before he started work. He succeeded in reducing the death rate to three to four people a day by introducing a strict hygiene regime and improving medical care and nutrition. As a result, thousands survived. One of his collaborators was the Jewish doctor Raphael Gabovich, who disguised himself as a Ukrainian prisoner of war. However, Leder realized that Gabovich was a Jew and supported him and continued to protect his secret. Leder hid Jews and Soviet commissioners several times in the quarantine rooms of the infirmary and furnished them with papers from deceased prisoners in order to save their lives .

With several Jewish helpers, Leder and Gabovich regularly smuggled medicines, food and medical articles into the Jewish ghetto in Slutsk, and were thus able to save the lives of numerous Jews. When Leder learned of the planned murder of the Jews in the Sluzker Ghetto, he was able to warn them through Gabovich. Numerous Jews were able to flee, but more than 5000 Jews were murdered.

In 1942, two Jewish women who smuggled medicines for leather into Slutsk were caught and shot. Leder was suspected of being involved, but since the two women had been shot, nothing could be proven so that he escaped the death penalty. However, he was transferred to the Russian front in November 1942 , where he was seriously wounded in 1945. After the Second World War, Leder returned to Vienna and worked as a psychiatrist and neurologist. In 1951 his son Erwin Leder was born, who became a successful actor.

Raphael Gabovich managed to escape from the prison camp in 1944. He joined the Red Army and continued to take part in the war as a military doctor. After the war he worked as a doctor and university professor in Ukraine and emigrated to Israel in 1990.

Award

In 1992 Gabovich found Erwin Leder in Vienna and suggested that he be named Righteous Among the Nations. The award was presented posthumously to Leder in 1999.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article about leather ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website www.lettertothestars.at . Accessed July 22, 2018. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lettertothestars.at
personal data
SURNAME Leather, Erwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian doctor and Wehrmacht soldier, Righteous Among the Nations
DATE OF BIRTH 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 1997