By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist
Why am I impressed?
I am impressed by a woman, born in Wisenfeld, German Reich as Karola Ruth Sigel, on June 4, 1928.I know her as Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
And we all know her as Dr. Ruth: celebrity sex therapist, author, professor, and Holocaust survivor. We know her as someone who has been an early advocate of open and candid discussions on sexual issues.
But who is she really?
By the time she was ten years old, the Nazis were in power. And so her parents, fearful for her safety sent her to school in Switzerland. But her family was unable to make it out of Nazi Germany in time. World War II finally ended and Ruth emigrated to British controlled Palestine.
Recently I became aware of something else about her. And this impressed me even more. At the age of seventeen, this four feet seven inch woman became a sniper.
How did this nice Jewish teenager learn how to assemble and shoot a rifle? Become an expert sniper? Throw a hand grenade? Become a scout?
It is not hard to understand why she wanted to fight, since her entire family was wiped out in Nazi concentration camps.
Ruth travelled to Jerusalem to connect with the Haganah. The Haganah was a Jewish Zionist underground paramilitary organization. It is now known as the Israel Defense Forces.
During her evaluation period, she was handed a Sten gun and told to shoot. Ruth shot. It became clear that this youngster was an excellent shooter. Ruth has commented that she has no idea why she was such an ace shooter. And so, the Haganah kept her as a sniper.
But in 1948 when she was twenty, she was wounded. Her barracks was the target of a bombing. Ruth felt she was fortunate to have survived as many of her friends were killed. In the blast, she lost a portion of one of her feet.
I am really and truly impressed with this remarkable woman. Wikipedia comments that, “When she was 90 years old, she demonstrated that she was still able to put together a Sten gun with her eyes closed”
Dr. Ruth Westheimer has said, “Though I am only four feet seven inches tall, with a gun in my hand I am the equal of a soldier who’s six feet seven –and perhaps even at a slight advantage, as
I make a smaller target.”
And as Paul Harvey would end his radio broadcasts, “And Now you know the rest of the story.”
THE PHOTO OF DR. RUTH WITH MEMBERS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES WAS TAKEN BY SHAHAN AZRAN AND PUBLISHED IN JMORE, BALTIMORE JEWISH LIVING.
(EDITOR’S NOTE BY GALAHAD, the siberian Husky who is a cousin of Dr. Curmudgeon. The good doctor had the opportunity to meet and speak with Dr. Ruth at a book fair in New York many years ago and found her to be witty, kind, sparkling and brilliant. I have no further details as I was not yet born.)
Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.
Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon
Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.
SERMO www.sermo.com
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