Melita Švob (german: Schwob; born 17 July 1931 in Zagreb, former Kingdom of Yugoslavia, now Croatia) is a

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

Jewish 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 ...

biologist, scientist, and historian.

Early life

Švob was born in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

to a middle class Jewish family. As a child she survived the horror of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

and the

NDH The Independent State of Croatia ( sh, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; german: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; it, Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It was established in p ...

regime under a false identity. After the war, she attended a Gymnasium in Zagreb. Having completed her secondary education, she studied biology at the University of Zagreb from where she graduated successfully.

Later life and career

In 1956 she moved from Zagreb to

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

, where she worked at the

oncological Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...

hospital. After four years she moved with her husband, Tvrtko Švob, to

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, where she worked at the Faculty of Medicine as an assistant in the field of

histology Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology which studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at larger structures vis ...

and

embryology Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, '' -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos and ...

. In 1964 she finished her doctoral thesis. From 1964 until 1979 Švob worked at the Institute for Skin and Venereal Diseases where she establish histopathological laboratory. Švob worked on many scientific projects, and has published books and articles regarding Jews, World War II and other scientific issues. In 1977 she moved to

Tuzla Tuzla (, ) is the third-largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative center of Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 110,979 inhabitants. Tuzla is the economic, cultural, ed ...

where she helped in establishment of Faculty of Medicine, and was elected as professor of histology and embryology. Švob returned to Zagreb with her family in 1979. From 1979 to 1999 she worked as a higher scientific associate (and president of the scientific council) in the Institute for Migration and Nationalities in Zagreb. In the Jewish community of Zagreb in 2000 she founded the Research and Documentation Centre Cendo. As a scientist Švob studied the Jewish population in Croatia; as a result of that study she published the book ''"Židovska populacija u Hrvatskoj i Zagrebu"''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Svob, Melita 1931 births Living people Scientists from Zagreb Croatian Jews Historians of Jews and Judaism Croatian women historians 21st-century Croatian historians Jewish historians Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb alumni Croatian histologists 20th-century Croatian historians University of Sarajevo alumni Academic staff of the University of Tuzla