17 Facts About Alina Margolis-Edelman

Alina Margolis-Edelman was a Polish physician, Holocaust survivor, and resistance fighter during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, who was forced to flee Poland during a revival of anti-Semitism in Poland in 1968.

Alina Margolis-Edelman was the recipient of numerous awards and honors.

Alina Margolis-Edelman worked as a courier for the Resistance and continued nursing in ghetto, becoming an integral part of the rescue efforts following the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Alina Margolis-Edelman specialized in diseases of the kidney and juvenile diabetes, establishing a clinic in Rabka.

Alina Margolis-Edelman conducted research into these diseases and published her findings.

In 1951, Alina Margolis-Edelman had her son Alexander and five years later, gave birth to the couples' daughter, Anna.

Alina Margolis-Edelman worked in the Maternal-Infant Protection Service in Seine-Saint-Denis, as well as serving the communes of Aubervilliers and La Courneuve.

When Bernard Kouchner left the organization, he and Alina Margolis-Edelman co-founded Doctors of the World.

Alina Margolis-Edelman participated in medical missions to such places as Afghanistan, Chad, El Salvador, Guatemala, Lebanon, and Nicaragua.

Alina Margolis-Edelman organized internships abroad for Polish doctors, helped those who could not obtain treatment in Poland, and sent drugs and supplies to Polish hospitals, which were unable to obtain them at the time.

Alina Margolis-Edelman helped found the Franco-Polish association "SOS Aide aux Malades Polonais", to assist Poles in obtaining treatment in France.

In 1994, Alina Margolis-Edelman wrote a memoir about her pre-war and World War II experiences, Ala z Elementarza.

The title of Alina Margolis-Edelman's memoir, referred to the earlier work's characters.

In 1997, Alina Margolis-Edelman published another memoir, entitled Je ne le repeterai pas, je ne veux pas le repeter.

Alina Margolis-Edelman was awarded the Cross of Valor for her humanitarian work and a knighthood by the Order of the Smile.

Alina Margolis-Edelman died on 23 March 2008 in Paris, and was buried in the Cimetiere parisien de Bagneux.

In 2010, a documentary, The Girl From A Reading Primer, directed by Edyta Wroblewska and produced by Studio Filmowe Kalejdoskop, detailing Alina Margolis-Edelman's life was released.