Placentas, peccaries, and pathologists: reminiscences of Kurt Benirschke on his career: an interview with Rebecca N. Baergen.

Dr. Baergen: Where did you grow up and what was your childhood like? Dr. Benirschke: I was born on May 26, 1924 in Glueckstadt, north of Hamburg, where the Holstein cows come from. I grew up there, in this very small town of about 5000 people. It was a farming community—one doctor in town, one dentist—and my father was employed as an organic chemist in a large paper factory. He originally came from what is now the Czech republic and had finished his chemical degree in East Prussia, which is now part of Russia. I had a wonderful childhood with my two sisters and comfortable surroundings. My father ultimately quit his job and started a laundry. My sisters and I worked every weekend in the laundry just to make ends meet. When the war broke out my father, having been one of the few businessmen in town who knew anything about chemistry, was asked to start a laboratory that could examine possible poisonous gas attacks. So he started a laboratory, which I was made to run and so I did a lot of organic chemistry as a kid in high school. Dr. Baergen: How did the decision to go to medical school come about? Dr. Benirschke: Actually, I wanted to study organic chemistry like my father but my sister’s husband dissuaded me. He said, “You know, you’ll never be able to go the University now if you become an organic chemist. If you go and study medicine then there is a chance you might be accepted. ” And so in 1942, I began medical school in Hamburg and did one semester before I was drafted into the Air Force. Dr. Baergen: What was your experience in the Air Force? Dr. Benirschke: I was in the parachute division and, after a year, they sent me back to medical school in Wuerzburg, in Bavaria, to become a medic in the Air Force. We were sent to the northeastern front, East Prussia, and then to what is now Alsace Lorraine and eventually to the Battle of the Bulge. That’s where I contracted acute hepatitis. I was sent to the hospital and was supposed to go back to the front but I contracted diphtheria. There was no more anti-serum in Germany so I was given sulfonamides, which didn’t jive with my liver too well, and so I was again in the hospital. When the war was over, the hospital closed and I just went home. I was discharged later on by the British Army, which occupied that area. I was able to go back to medical school in September 1945 and finished medical school in Hamburg in 1948. Dr. Baergen: What did you do after completing medical school? Dr. Benirschke: The currency reform had just hit Germany and the medical schools were all somewhat disorganized, and there was no way I was going to get an internship. So I volunteered in the University of Hamburg Hospital in the bone marrow pavilion. I did lots of bone marrow, spleen, and liver biopsies for about half a year, which helped me a lot later. Dr. Baergen: How did you come to immigrate to the United States? Dr. Benirschke: My father had died during the war and I had told my mother that I was not a businessman and was not going to run the business. I had planned on emigrating and I got to know a girl who worked in the American Embassy. One day she told me, “on Monday morning there will be an open emigration to America and if you want to stand in line you can register. ” So I stood in line for 4 hours and became number 435 or something like that. It turned out that only 50 visas were going to be given and because I knew her, she struck out the number “4”; I became number 35 and got a visa to immigrate to America. Dr. Baergen: Tell me about your first few months in New York. Dr. Benirschke: At that time, you had to have a sponsor in America and know English. I had found a sponsor From the Department of Pathology, Weill Medial College of Cornell University, New York, New York. Address correspondence to Rebecca Baergen, M.D., New York Presbyterian Hospital–Weill Cornell Medical Center Department of Pathology, ST-1002, 525 East 68th Street, New York, NY 10021. International Journal of Gynecological Pathology 21:289–300, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore © 2002 International Society of Gynecological Pathologists