Berlin – Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport, who became Germany’s oldest recipient of a doctorate almost 80 years after fleeing the Nazis, has died. She was 104.
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A specialist in newborn care, Syllm-Rapoport was widely cheered when she passed her oral exam at the University of Hamburg with flying colors at the age of 102 in 2015.
Syllm-Rapoport, who was part-Jewish, moved to the United States in 1938 after being prevented from defending her doctoral thesis by the Nazis’ race laws.
She finished her degree in Philadelphia and returned to Berlin in 1952, becoming the first head of neonatology at East Germany’s prestigious Charite hospital.
Tom Rapoport said Monday his mother died Thursday in Berlin. She is survived by four children, nine grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
A funeral is planned in Berlin on May 12.