Execrated – Expatriated – Eradicated

Neurosurgery developed a good 100 years ago, the offspring of surgery and neurology. The specialty was in the process of establishing itself as a separate discipline when the Nazis seized power in Germany in 1933. Of the 69 brain surgeons active at that time, 13 were persecuted on racial grounds. Among their number were some of the most experienced German neurosurgeons. Virtually all of them fled their native land and never returned. Even today, a deafening silence reigns over the lives and achievements of these neurosurgeons. After emigrating from Germany, only the youngest of them were able to gain a foothold in neurosurgery. This book is dedicated to the scientific contributions made by the expellees, traces their exodus from Germany and explores their lives in exile.