A Doctor of the World and a Human without Frontiers
Alina Margolis-Edelman
FAMILY AND HOME
Alina Margolis-Edelman was born in Łódź on 18 April 1922, in a family of socially engaged doctors, a background which would surely have a bearing on her life choices.
Her paternal grandfather, Israel Margolis, was a doctor, who came to Łódź from Suwałki and practiced among the lower classes of manual laborers. His two sons also became doctors: Ignacy was an ophthalmologist, while Aleksander, Alina’s father, specialized in digestive diseases. Because of the numerus clausus regulations in place, which imposed limits on the number of Jewish students, he studied medicine in Berlin, Heidelberg, and Munich, graduating in Strasbourg in 1912. During the First World War, he worked at the infectious diseases ward of the Municipal Hospital in Radogoszcz, becoming its director in the interwar period. He was a top activist of the Bund socialist party, ran for the national parliament, and was elected a member of the Łódź Municipal Council in 1919. In the 1930s, he headed the Department of Health and was involved in various projects whose aim was to improve the standard of local healthcare by battling some of the most common diseases, such as trachoma (an eye disease) and tuberculosis. He was also an active member of the Society for Combating Illiteracy.
Alina’s mother – Anna nee Markson – was born in Warsaw, in a family of merchants. Her parents, too, gave a lot of weight to proper education of their children, and all four Markson girls earned university degrees: Anna and Maria, her younger sister, became doctors, Hela was a chemistry graduate, while Eugenia, the youngest girl, became a violinist. Aleksander, their only brother, was an engineer and settled in France.
Anna studied in Moscow, Berlin, and Petersburg, and graduated from the medical university in Bonn, where she was one of only two female students. During the lectures, both were hiding behind the backs of male students, because at that time, professors believed that women should not study at universities. Now a certified pediatrician, Anna took up a position at the Anna Maria Hospital in Łódź (currently the Janusz Korczak Hospital). Two doctors-brothers fell in love with her, and out of them, she chose Aleksander.
The couple’s wedding took place in 1921 in Katowice, where they were able to get married in a registry office. Alina was born the following year, and Olek, her brother, six years later. Both parents were very busy working, professionally and on behalf of the community, and could not spend much time with their children (who were raised by nannies), but they made sure that both Alina and Olek would receive all-round education, stressing the importance of foreign languages and reading. When Alina was in her teens, they would send her on vacation abroad. She wanted to be a teacher, but she became a doctor – a Doctor of the World.
Mum was the doctor-activist type, regardless of the circumstances she happened to face: she worked at the hospital, at school, at a clinic for poor children, she also saw patients at home. At the same time, she lived to the hilt, she partied all night long, danced, played the piano, and invited guests.
It is no surprise, then, that she didn’t see us too often. Sometimes, my brother would peek through the window and ask, ‘Do you think mommy will come see us today?’
Our dad did not attend to us at all either, but I think there was a sensitive side to him: I was told that when I was very little, he cuddled me in his arms night after night so I would stop crying; he always addressed my brother with a diminutive, and whenever he was home, he would sit us on his daybed, and even though he would fall asleep moments later, we still liked it a lot.
My father was a handsome man. He was tall, had black hair and light blue eyes. He was a doctor and the director of a large hospital in Radogoszcz in Łódź. He saw his patients at home, and although he didn’t know a single word in Jewish, he was a member of the Bund, a Jewish socialist party.
He read a lot, and every couple of days, he sent me to the library to get him another book. When he had an evening off, he played the piano, with a musical score always lying handy. Sometimes, he played in duet with mum. He liked opera, and in particular Wagner – he listened to it on the radio, always studying the musical notation in the process. He was a member of the prewar intelligentsia, boasting comprehensive knowledge and interests outside the field of his professional expertise.
Photo caption: Ala, aged seven, and her little brother Olek, whom their father fondly called Olutek. The early practice of a future pediatrician.
Photo caption: Anna Margolis with little Ala
Photo caption: Olek, Alina’s brother, with their father, Aleksander Margolis
Photo caption: A resolute Ala, aged four.
Photo caption: Anna Markson with her university friend, Berlin, 1912.
Photo caption: Ala with her parents and grandma
Photo caption: Ala (wearing a huge knot), aged three, on vacations, Brodnia near Łódź, 1924
WHAT DO YOU THINK? How would you describe Alina Margolis’ family home? How important is children’s education today, and how important was it in the early 20th century? How would you feel if you were barred from classes only because you are a woman? Look for the definition of the phrase numerus clausus.