Determination

Many Displaced Persons living in the American-occupied zone of post-war Germany finished their educations. My Mom, for example, had started medical school in Lithuania, and she completed her degree at the university at Erlangen.

DPs who graduated from Erlangen were especially proud of their accomplishment because the student body there consisted primarily of Germans. The Erlangen DPs had to keep up with the native speakers. The texts were printed in the German language. Above all, the professors conducted the final exams—oral, final exams—by testing students in groups of four. Often, a DP would land in a group in which the other three students all were Germans.

Erlangen, Germany, about 1946 or 1947. My Mom—standing at the far left in the second row—and fellow medical students gather in anatomy class.