Crossing to the New World: Queen's University

AID FOR REFUGEE SCHOLARS AND PHYSICIANSIn parallel with formation of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL) in England, in response to the academic displacements in Germany resulting from the March law to purify the German Civil Service, organizations to aid scholars and professionals who had to flee Germany were formed in the United States as well. The Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars was formed when Dr. Alfred E. Cohn, a distinguished scientist at the Rockefeller Institute, sought advice from the Institute of International Education, an organization that already had experience in placing foreign students. Dr. Stephen Duggan, Director of that Institute, responded by joining the new effort.1 He and Dr. Cohn, along with philanthropists Bernard Flexner and Fred M. Stein, then recruited officers and a General Committee, with 23 university representatives, was formed by mid-June 1933. The Committee, with funds from Jewish philanthropists, including Mr. Flexner, Mr. Stein, and Felix Warburg, and from the New York Foundation, eventually helped to place 335 scholars (from among 6,000 who appealed to the Committee) in many fields of learning, by providing funds to universities and foundations for temporary fellowships. It focused mainly on the humanities, leaving aid for physicians and lawyers to other organizations. During its operation from 1933 to 1945, this Committee for Displaced Scholars played an important role in saving the lives and, in the best circumstances, recreating the careers of experts in language and language teaching, art historians, archaeologists, philosophers, musicians and musicologists, economists, social scientists, and some natural scientists. Gerhard was on the list of those who did not receive a grant from this Committee; and so was the eminent physician scientist, Dr.Siegfried Thannhauser, who would nevertheless come to America and play an important role in Gerhard's life and career.A second and related effort, which did find a place for Gerhard, was the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Physicians. Growing out of the original Committee for Scholars, again at the initiative of Dr. Alfred E. Cohn, it was formed in November 1933, with Dr. Bernard Sachs as Chairman and Dr. George Baehr as Secretary. It encountered significant problems trying to place clinicians during the time of the Great Depression. Practicing doctors, especially in the cities where refugees were growing in number, objected to the idea of helping potential competitors establish new practices during these economically difficult times. Barriers were set for certification and entry of refugees into clinical positions. The Committee, therefore, emphasized placement of research physicians, such as Gerhard, into academic positions and tried to draw clinicians to places outside New York. The Committee for Displaced Physicians sent notices to universities across the continent and announced its mission in the Journal of the American Medical Association,2 seeking positions for which it or the Carnegie Corporation would provide temporary fellowship grants-to the institutions-to support salaries of refugee physician scientists. The Committee funds were, like those of the Committee for Displaced Scholars, obtained from philanthropists and the New York Foundation. As some of the Carnegie Corporation funds were available on the condition that they would be spent in the British Dominions and Colonies, Canadian universities were invited to participate.These notices led to a May 10, 1934, response from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, saying, We can provide [research] facilities for a biochemist, and should welcome here one of several refugees whose work would be of great advantage to a very important department in which we are at present weak. After an exchange of letters among the Principal of the University, the Emergency Committee, and the Carnegie Corporation, a fellowship grant was approved by late May, with half of the money to come from the Committee funds and half from the Carnegie Corporation. …

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.