Louis Micheels

Louis J. Micheels (6 June 1917 – 6 June 2008) was a Dutch Jewish physician[1] (psychoanalyst), and survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Born in Amsterdam,[2] Micheels became an inmate of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942, together with his fiancée.[3] Then a medical student, he worked as a nurse in the men's ward.[3] According to his own testimony, he was involved in acts of resistance in the camp, such as concealing case records and hiding prisoners who would otherwise be selected for execution due to poor health.[3]

He was one of the prisoners assisted by the SS physician there, Hans Münch.[4] One of Münch's last acts before the camp was abandoned was to provide him with a revolver to assist his escape.[4] It was the testimony of prisoners like Micheels that resulted in Münch's acquittal by the Supreme National Tribunal at Auschwitz trials in Kraków in 1947.[4] Münch was the only person acquitted by that tribunal.[4]

After the war Micheels moved to the United States.[2] He became a psychoanalyst, a member and president of the Western New England Psychoanalytic Institute and Society, practiced psychiatry and psychoanalysis in Westport, Connecticut, and was an associate clinical professor at the School of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.[2][5][6] He also wrote a memoir about his experiences in Auschwitz, Dr. 117641: A Holocaust Memoir, published by the Yale University Press and translated into at least three languages.[2][5]

Designed by Paul Rudolph, his house in Westport has gained recognition as a valuable example of Modernist architecture.[7]

Micheels died on his 91st birthday in 2008 in his home in Newton, Massachusetts.[2]

Works
  • Micheels, Louis J. (1989). Doctor #117641: A Holocaust Memoir. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-04398-3. Retrieved 30 March 2013.

References
  1. Rubinstein, W.D. (22 January 2002). The Myth of Rescue: Why the Democracies Could Not Have Saved More Jews from the Nazis. Routledge. pp. 16–. ISBN 978-0-203-02641-0. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  2. Hay, David (15 June 2008). "Dr. Louis J. Micheels Obituary". Legacy.com. New York Times. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  3. Brush, Barbara L (1999). Lynaugh, Joan E. (ed.). "Refuge and rescue. Jewish nurse refugees and the International Council of Nurses, 1947-1965". Nursing History Review. Springer Publishing Company. 7: 113–25. doi:10.1891/1062-8061.7.1.113. ISBN 978-0-8261-9698-9. PMID 10063369. S2CID 37375504. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  4. "Hans Münch". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. 27 January 1995. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  5. Caruth, Cathy (24 May 1995). Trauma. JHU Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-8018-5007-3. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  6. Caruth, Cathy (24 May 1995). Trauma. JHU Press. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-8018-5007-3. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  7. Plan to Raze Home Prompts Belated Outcry, New York Times, 17 December 2006

Further reading
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