Leo Eitinger (12 December 1912 – 15 October 1996) was a Norwegian

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

, author and educator. He was a Holocaust survivor who studied the late-onset

psychological trauma Psychological trauma, mental trauma or psychotrauma is an emotional response to a distressing event or series of events, such as accidents, rape, or natural disasters. Reactions such as psychological shock and psychological denial are typical. ...

experienced by people who went through separation and psychological pain early in life only to show traumatic experience decades later. He devoted a long period studying

posttraumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...

among

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no unive ...

, which had led Holocaust survivors including

Paul Celan Paul Celan (; ; 23 November 1920 – c. 20 April 1970) was a Romanian-born German-language poet and translator. He was born as Paul Antschel to a Jewish family in Cernăuți (German: Czernowitz), in the then Kingdom of Romania (now Chernivtsi, U ...

(1920–1970),

Primo Levi Primo Michele Levi (; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was an Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and Jewish Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works ...

(1919–1987) and many others to commit

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

several decades after the experience. Eitinger was a pioneer of research into psychological trauma among

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s, and also laid the foundation for Norwegian military psychiatry research with emphasis on psychological trauma among soldiers.

Early life

Leo Eitinger was born in Lomnice,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(today

South Moravian Region The South Moravian Region ( cs, Jihomoravský kraj; , ; sk, Juhomoravský kraj) is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia (an exception is Jobova Lhota which trad ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

). He grew up as the youngest of six siblings in a Jewish middle class home as the son of Salomon Eitinger (1877–1942) and Helene Kurz (1885–1936). He studied medicine at the

Masaryk University Masaryk University (MU) ( cs, Masarykova univerzita; la, Universitas Masarykiana Brunensis) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno as the seco ...

of Brno, graduating in 1937. He fled

Nazi persecution of Jews The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

and came to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

as a refugee with the help of a Nansen passport (''

Nansenhjelpen Nansenhjelpen (formally called Nansen Hjelp, variously called the Nansen Relief in English and Nansenhilfe in German) was a Norwegian humanitarian organization founded by Odd Nansen in 1936 to provide safe haven and assistance in Norway for Jewish ...

'') after the German occupation of the

Czechoslovak Republic Czechoslovak Republic (Czech and Slovak: ''Československá republika, ČSR''), was the official name of Czechoslovakia between 1918 and 1939 and between 1945 and 1960. See: *First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938) *Second Czechoslovak Republic ...

in March 1939. Upon arriving in Norway, he arranged for Jewish children to escape from Czechoslovakia to settle in the

Jewish orphanage in Oslo The Jewish Children's Home in Oslo was established in 1939 under the auspices of Nansenhjelpen, the Nansen Aid, a humanitarian organization established in 1936 by Odd Nansen, the son of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen. It was intended as ...

. He was given permission to work as a resident in psychiatry in Norway in

Bodø Bodø (; smj, Bådåddjo, sv, Bodö) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Bodø (which is also the capital of Nordland count ...

, but the permission was revoked by the Nazis after the

German invasion of Norway 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 **G ...

in 1940.

During World War II

He stayed underground from January 1941 until he was arrested in March 1942. He was imprisoned in various places throughout Norway and was

deported Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...

on 24 February 1943, arriving at the

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

Concentration Camp 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 simply ...

. At Auschwitz, Eitinger served in the camp hospital. Towards the end of his confinement he was marched to

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

. Of the 762

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

deported from Norway to German concentration camps, only 23 survived, Leo Eitinger being one of them.

Holocaust psychiatrist

After the liberation of Norway at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he resumed his medical practice in Norway, specializing in

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...

. He was assistant physician at Rønvik Hospital in

1946-48. In 1950, he became associated with the psychiatric clinic of the University of Oslo in the neighborhood of

Vinderen Vinderen is a neighbourhood in the Vestre Aker borough of Oslo, Norway. It was a separate borough until 1 January 2004, when it was incorporated into the newly established borough of Vestre Aker. Its amenities include Vinderen station. The prosp ...

Vestre Aker Vestre Aker (Western Aker) is a borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. It has a population of 50,157 as of 2020. The previous Aker Municipality was merged into the city of Oslo in 1948. The borough of Vestre Aker was organized as part of the 1 Ja ...

. In 1966 Leo Eitinger was appointed professor of psychiatry at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

and became Head of the University Psychiatric Clinic. Leo Eitinger allocated all his time and efforts to the study of human suffering with emphasis on clinical psychiatry, in particular victimology and disaster psychiatry. He conducted several landmark studies about the long-term psychological and physical effects of extreme stress and also about being a refugee. His work confirmed that the rate of mental illness among refugees appeared much more frequently than in the general population. He published a number of works on the same subject. Eitinger was a board member and served a chairman of the Norwegian Psychiatric Association (''Norsk Psykiatrisk Forening'') from 1963 to 1967. He served as chairman of the Psychiatric Section of the Forensic Commission and was President of the Nordic Psychiatry Congresse (''Nordiske psykiaterkongresser'') in 1962 and 1987. He was elected member of the

Norwegian Academy of Sciences The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Univer ...

in 1971 and was a member of several foreign scientific and psychiatric associations. He received a number of Norwegian and foreign honors including the

Fritt Ord Award Fritt Ord Award consists of two prizes awarded by the Fritt Ord Foundation (''Stiftelsen Fritt Ord''). Two prizes are awarded in support of freedom of speech and freedom of expression; the Fritt Ord Award ( no, Fritt Ords pris) and the Fritt O ...

(''Fritt Ords pris'') in 1988. In 1978, he was appointed Commander in the Order of St. Olav.

Personal life

In 1946 he married Elisabeth (“Lisl”) Kohn (1914–1999). Leo and Lisl Eitinger devoted their lives to the promotion of human rights and the fight against injustice and racism. Leo Eitinger died in 1996. Lisl Eitinger died during 1999. In their honor, the University of Oslo established "The Lisl and Leo Eitinger Prize". The award has been granted annually since 1986 in recognition of commitment to human rights issues or performance of outstanding research in psychiatry.

Selected works

*''Psykiatriske undersøkelser blant flyktninger i Norge'', (1958) *''Alkoholisme og narkomani i Norge'' (1970) *''Mennesker blant mennesker'' (1985)

References

External links

About Lisl and Leo Eitinger
(University of Oslo)
Leo Eitinger
(Okrašlovací spolek pro Lomnici) {{DEFAULTSORT:Eitinger, Leo 1912 births 1996 deaths People from Lomnice (Brno-Country District) People from the Margraviate of Moravia Czechoslovak Jews Czechoslovak emigrants to Norway Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Norway Norwegian educators Norwegian medical researchers Norwegian psychiatrists The Holocaust in Norway Masaryk University alumni Academic staff of the University of Oslo Norwegian people of World War II Czechoslovak military personnel Refugees in Norway Bredtveit concentration camp survivors Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Buchenwald concentration camp survivors Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Recipients of the St. Olav's Medal