GERMANY’S “REJECTS”

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1934, Page 2

GERMANY’S “REJECTS”

FIVE HUNDRED MEDICAL MEN. EDINBURGH DEGREE HOLDER. Among the arrivals at Wellington from England last week was Dr. A. B. Sternberg, recently of Berlin, who has come to settle in New Zealand. Through legislation enacted not long ago, Dr. Sternberg, in common with about 500 other medical men, found it necessary to leave Germany and continue his work in some other country. Dr. Sternberg said that of the five hundred mentioned about 100 went to some 200 to Palestine, and the rest to France, Italy and Switzerland. Some of these men were quite distinguished in their profession, and their services should be valuable to any country in which they ultimately settled. Commenting upon the settlement in Palestine of Jewish people from all parts of the world, Dr. Sternberg said that the Zionist movement was progressing satisfactorily, and pictures of the towns which had. sprung up as a result of the settlements showed a well defined spirit of modernism. The towns were well laid out, with architecture of the very latest kind. Referring particularly to the seaport, Haifa, Dr. Sternberg stated that this was quite a modern town, a good deal of the architecture of the buildings having been designed by Herr Kaufmann, one of Berlin’s most brilliant architects, who had to leave Germany because it had been ascertained that his great-grand-father was a Jew. Speaking of his own experiences when he had to leave Germany, Dr. Sternberg said he found that as he wished to practice in the British Empire he would have to have a British degree, so he went to Edinburgh in June, 1933, studied hard and gained his degree. This was necessary despite the fact that he had been the sub-chief of. the Municipal Hospital for Women’s Diseases in Berlin. It was difficult, for when he first went to England, he had next to no English at his disposal, but now he speaks the language quite freely. “About a hundred German doctors were studying at Edinburgh when I was there,” said Dr. Sternberg. “It seems that under a law some 300 years old, provision was made for taking in students from alien countries. The examinations were very hard, but eminently fair, and I left Edinburgh with great respect for its people and its degree. As I have said, there were about a hundred up for it with me. How hard it was may be conveyed by the fact that of the total number of Germans who sat for the examination forty-four failed.” Dr. Sternberg, who may settle in Wellington, is accompanied by his wife and small son.