Heinz Lord (March 21, 1917 – February 4, 1961) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

- American surgeon. A survivor of the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

, Lord was elected Secretary-General of the

World Medical Association The World Medical Association (WMA) is an international and independent confederation of free professional medical associations representing physicians worldwide. WMA was formally established on September 18, 1947 and has grown to 115 national m ...

shortly before his death in 1961. Lord, a

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

vian citizen of

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and German descent, was born in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

, grew up in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

and studied in Zurich,

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

and Hamburg, receiving his first degree at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

in 1942. He was involved in the

Swing Kids The Swing Youth (german: Swingjugend) were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany formed in Hamburg in 1939. Primarily active in Hamburg and Berlin, they were composed of 14- to 21-year-old Germans, mostly middle or upper-class student ...

subculture, persecuted by Nazi authorities. For his poorly disguised anti-Nazi sentiments and for his contacts with a British Secret Service agent, Lord was arrested in 1943 and interned at

Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, t ...

, a "correctional" institution set up according to

Robert Ritter Robert Ritter (14 May 1901 – 15 April 1951) was a German racial scientist doctor of psychology and medicine, with a background in child psychiatry and the biology of criminality. In 1936, Ritter was appointed head of the Racial Hygiene and D ...

' theory of

race hygiene The term racial hygiene was used to describe an approach to eugenics in the early 20th century, which found its most extensive implementation in Nazi Germany (Nazi eugenics). It was marked by efforts to avoid miscegenation, analogous to an anima ...

.Kater 2003, pp. 159-160 In April 1945, as the Allies invaded Hamburg, Lord and thousands of other prisoners were herded by the Nazis onto several cruise ships (including the former luxury liner ''

Cap Arcona SS ''Cap Arcona'', named after Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen, was a large German ocean liner, later a ship of the German Navy, and finally a prison ship. A flagship of the Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft ("Hamburg- ...

''), sailed a few kilometers off the coast of Hamburg into a British-declared free fire zone, and were abandoned by their German guards. RAF bombers sank all the vessels. Lord was apparently on one of the smaller ships. According to cited 1961 articles in

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etc., "he was one of 28 survivors out of 800 inmates of the ship". He and the other few survivors leaped overboard before the bombers struck, and swam several miles to shore. Thousands of others were either killed by the bombing or drowned. Lord returned to Hamburg and resided there until 1954, completing his specialist degrees in surgery and

urology Urology (from Greek οὖρον ''ouron'' "urine" and '' -logia'' "study of"), also known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the urinary-tract system and the reproductive org ...

, and an internship at professor Degkwitz' clinic for the children. He was credited with reestablishment of the

Marburger Bund Marburger is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * John Marburger (1941–2011), American physicist * Manuel Marburger (born 1973), German industrial climber See also

* Marburg, town in Hesse, Germany {{surname German ...

and reintroducing American popular music to post-war Hamburg scene.Kater 2006, p. 51 In 1954 Lord emigrated to the United States. In 1957, after three years of residency at Bridgeport, Connecticut Hospital, he obtained a U.S. professional license and opened a surgical practice in

Barnesville, Ohio Barnesville is a village in Belmont County, Ohio, United States. It is located in the central portion of Warren Township in Belmont County and is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,193 at the ...

. He was a member of

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016. The AMA's stat ...

, fellow of International College of Surgeons and member of the German Urological Society. In December 1960 Lord was elected Secretary-General of the

following the retirement of its founder Louis H. Bauer. However, on February 3, 1961, he collapsed at the

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convention in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and died on the following morning. His death at the age of 43 of a heart failure was linked to chronic effects of captivity.Kater 2006, p. 49

Notes

References

* Michael H. Kater (2003). ''The impact of American popular culture'', in: :: * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lord, Heinz 1917 births 1961 deaths American surgeons Emigrants from West Germany to the United States German urologists Neuengamme concentration camp survivors University of Hamburg alumni People from Barnesville, Ohio 20th-century surgeons