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20.03.2020

Julian Aleksandrowicz (1908-1988)

An eminent doctor, an ecologist, a man for whom social matters were of utmost importance, a man who viewed life in all its complexity, the forefather of practices which we now take for granted, a person who managed to escape from the getto in Kraków, a soldier of the Home Army - "Doctor Twardy [Tough]".


Aleksandrowicz is one of the most outstanding figures of Polish science and medicine. He came from a Jewish family, he was a graduate of the medical faculty of the Jagiellonian University. During the Second World War he ran a hospital in the ghetto in Kraków where he was imprisoned with his family. During the liquidation of the ghetto, he made one of the most important decisions in his life - he decided to help his patients die without waiting for the Germans to kill them.


Aleksandrowicz escaped from the ghetto with his whole family, his story shows both the heroism of those Poles who hid him and the indifference of others. He was a soldier of the Home Army, awarded with the War Order of Virtuti Militari.


He specialized in hematology. He was a pioneer of research on strengthening the immune system and bone marrow transplants.

 

Aleksandrowicz favoured a holistic view of the world, he paid great attention to the impact of civilization, excessive environmental pollution and stress on the development of diseases. He  was also a precursor of ecology and a phenomenal advocate of a healthy lifestyle. His research and way of thinking were much ahead of his time.

 

  - It was this completeness that allowed him to quickly understand that combining science and heart, conscience and a sense 
of responsibility can change the world - said his student and continuator, Prof. Aleksander B. Skotnicki.

 


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