Doctor of Stalingrad [antikvár]

FOREWORD A FEW years ago, a certain German medical officer returned after years as a P.O.W. in the Soviet Union, and something quite exceptional occurred. A man who had always maintained silence about himself, who had no other desire than to resume medical practice in his own country, suddenly became a name on everybody's lips. For years reports had forced aieir way over a distance of three thousand kilometres, through the zone of silence and across the Iron Curtain into Germany, of an Army doctor who was daily sacrificing himself for his comrades in captivity; a man whose identity had, until that time, remained a mystery. Now he had returned. This is the man, people said, who, out of an unparalleled sense of duty to himianity and medicine, worked tirelessly for his comrades. This is the man who helped, in addition, through the skill of his almost incredible operations, thousands of others whom he was never to meet, but who, nevertheless, were given the strength, by his example, to find again the faith and the hope needed to face privation and loneliness in the depths of Russia. His example acted not only upon those in need of his help but upon other doctors too, who were spurred on by the deep impression made on them by what they had heard of him. This book about *the Doctor of Stalingrad' lays no claim to be the biography of that man. It has been written,however,not in a vacuum, but out of the almost inexhaustible flow of material which was placed before the author in the reports and descriptions of numerous repatriates. This has been condensed and freely adapted if the author has not been in the position to draw upon tiie life and work of that doctor, who knew nothing of the intention to write this book, nevertheless his example and spirit have ii^pired the writer's pen. Out of consideration for persons still living, names have been altered or freely invented. Possible similarity of names, places, experiences, and events is coincidental and unintended. Munich» 1956.