Mark Dvorzhetski מרק דבורז'צקי | |
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![]() Dr Mark Dvorzhetski and others at the opening of the Ninth Conference of the Association of War Invalids against Nazism, Tel-Aviv, Beit-Tavori. Dr Dvorzhetski in the center. | |
Born | Vilnius, Lithuania, Russian Empire | 3 May 1908
Died | 15 March 1975 Israel | (aged 66)
Occupation | Social historian, physician |
Language | Hebrew Yiddish |
Citizenship | Israeli |
Notable awards | Israel Prize (1953) |
Mark Dvorzhetski ( Hebrew: מרק דבורז'צקי; 3 May 1908 – 15 March 1975) was an Israeli physician, historian and Holocaust survivor.
Mark Dvortzhetski was born in Vilnius (Vilna), Lithuania (at the time part of the Russian Empire). [1] He received his education in Vilnius (Polish: Wilno) during the interwar period, when the city was part of the Second Polish Republic. He completed a medical degree there in 1935, and received a rabbinical diploma in 1938. [1]
At the beginning of the Second World War, in September 1939, Dvorzhetski was drafted into the Polish army as a medical officer. [2] After being taken prisoner by the Germans, he escaped and returned to Vilna. [1] [2]
Under the German occupation of the city, he lived in the Vilna Ghetto (established in September 1941), working in the Jewish hospital. [2] In September 1943 he was deported with other physicians to forced labor in Estonia; his wife, Miriam, and his sister, who volunteered to go with him, perished on the journey there. [2] He worked in the Vaivara concentration camp in Estonia until the fall 1944, [2] when he was transferred to concentration camps in Germany. [1] [2] In 1945 during a death march toward Dachau, he managed to escape into the forest with other Jewish internees, and was subsequently liberated by the French army. [1] [2]
After the war, Dvorzhetski lived in Paris, before immigrating to Israel, in November 1949. [2]
He authored a number of books on the Holocaust, in particular with reference to the Baltic States and the medical profession.