Lela A. Mevorah (17 January 1898 – 13 November 1972) was a Serbian librarian and head of the Central Medical Library at the

University of Belgrade Faculty of Medicine The Belgrade Faculty of Medicine (/''Medicinski fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu'') is a constituent institution of the University of Belgrade, which offers a wide range of academic courses in Serbian and English, including specialist practice wit ...

. Mevorah was born in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

to a Jewish family, the youngest of the four children and only daughter of Avram Mevorah, who worked in the Royal Currency Exchange with his father, and Esther (Koen) Mevorah, who formerly ran a wholesale store with her sister. In World War I, Lela Mevorah volunteered as a nurse at the age of sixteen. Her brothers served in the

Royal Serbian Army The Army of the Kingdom of Serbia ( sr-cyr, Војска Краљевине Србије, Vojska Kraljevine Srbije), known in English language, English as the Royal Serbian Army, was the army of the Kingdom of Serbia that existed between 1882 ...

. She completed high school in

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Mevorah's father and two of her brothers were killed by Nazis in the Holocaust. Her brother Moše, then a lieutenant colonel in the

Royal Yugoslav Army The Yugoslav Army ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Jugoslovenska vojska, JV, Југословенска војска, ЈВ), commonly the Royal Yugoslav Army, was the principal Army, ground force of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It existed from the establishment of ...

, was captured in 1941 and interned in a German POW camp, where he painted portraits of over 600 fellow prisoners. Lela Mevorah was herself captured in 1941 and interned in camps in Albania and Italy. In 1943, following

Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his overthrow in 194 ...

's death, the prisoners at

Ferramonti di Tarsia Ferramonti di Tarsia, also known as Ferramonti, was an Italian internment camp used to intern political dissidents and ethnic minorities. It was located in the municipality of Tarsia, near Cosenza, in Calabria. It was the largest of the fifteen int ...

were released, and Mevorah spent the rest of the war in

Asti Asti ( , ; ; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) of 74,348 inhabitants (1–1–2021) located in the Italy, Italian region of Piedmont, about east of Turin, in the plain of the Tanaro, Tanaro River. It is the capital of the province of Asti and ...

before returning to Serbia. In 1946 the Central Medical Library was founded by Dr.

Matija Ambrozić Matija is a South Slavic masculine given name, cognate to Matthew. Notable people with the name include: * Matija Ahacel (1779–1845), Carinthian Slovene philologist, publicist, and collector of folk songs * Matija Antun Relković (1732–1798), ...

, who ran the library alone until Mevorah joined him there in 1947. Soon, she was appointed head of the Library, a post she held until her death in 1972. The books of the

were destroyed in the April 1941 Nazi bombing of the city. Materials for the new Library initially came from books liberated from the Germans by the National Liberation Army and donors including the United Jugoslav Fund from America, the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

, the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

, the American Library in Belgrade, the embassy of France, and French scientists. By 1959 the Library had built a collection of 15,000 books and 850 journals. Mevorah was cognizant of the need and the difficulties of accumulating current medical materials in a country with limited resources. In 1962 she wrote, "Diseases do not know borders; furthermore, progress and new methods of treatment should not know them either. Innovation should be accessible at the same time to a scientist as well as a physician lost in some remote area." She created a library bulletin about future publications in order to assist libraries with purchasing current materials with limited budgets. With her language skills she was able to assist doctors and students with foreign language materials.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mevorah, Lela 1898 births 1972 deaths Serbian Jews Serbian librarians 20th-century women librarians Academic staff of the University of Belgrade Holocaust survivors People from Belgrade