Miep Gies © AFS Amsterdam /AFF Basel Reproduced by permission from the Anne Frank Trust UK.
Post on 31-Dec-2015
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‘What can one person do? You make friends, of course, and do what you can.’
DaoudHariDarfuri refugee
© Jens Umbach
Ludwig Guttmann
In 2012 London welcomed athletes & spectators from all over the world to join in the Olympics & Paralympics. They came from many communities, cultures, traditions & religions & built bridges of understanding & respect. There were many great achievements & we all have our favourites! For Ben Macintyre in the Times newspaper his favourite was a historical figure, Ludwig Guttmann ‘he was small, short sighted & tubby. He could not run fast, swim or jump. He smoked a pipe & there is no evidence that he ever participated in any form of competitive sport”
So why is he an Olympian?
•He was a pioneering neurosurgeon & he invented the Paralympics. •He was also a refugee who escaped to England from the Nazi regime. In 1933 he was sacked from his medical faculty because he was Jewish.• He went to work in a Jewish hospital & in 1939 managed to smuggle out most of his patients as the Gestapo closed in. With his wife he fled Germany & arrived at Harwich in 1939•In 1943 he was made the director of the new spinal injuries unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. It had been created in preparation to receive casualties from the war. •Over the following five years he treated hundreds of wounded & paralysed soldiers. •His aim was to reintegrate these disabled soldiers back into as full a life as possible & he placed a particular emphasis on sport.
•In 1948 he organised the first Paralympics!
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