Tape number 7, an interview with Ms. Noemi Makower is being conducted by Joanna Wróblewska.
I would like to go back to the post-war period and ask you how you were able to continue your scientific career after the war.
At first, when I was admitted to the Medical Academy in 1946, I was an assistant professor.
There were only three of us working at the time. It was a lot of work, several dozen patients a day. It was just the beginning, everyone had some teeth problems.
Later, when the specialised departments were established, I was assigned to the dental prosthetics department.
My boss was Prof. Gorczyński from Lviv.
Prof. Gorczyński was a very good and decent man, but not very deep when it came to science.
I started my work there, it was a stable job, I knew that I would not be transferred.
I started to look for a job related to general medicine.
I started to work on the dental prosthetics.
I have a lot of work in this field, more than a hundred. I have over 15 doctorates in this field, two doctorates in habilitation.
My work was successful, because I introduced the purification of drinking water in Wrocław and other Polish cities, mainly in the territory of the Wrocław Voivodeship.
I also got in touch with technical engineers, who were involved in the process of purifying water.
At the same time, we were doing research, and that's why we had a lot of research works.
A lot of my assistants could later become adjuncts after their doctorates.
I have a lot of friends among these people. Some of them became teachers.
My assistant in the dental prosthetics was my teacher, who is now a professor.
I will tell you about my work.
My work was related not only to the dental prosthetics, but also to other fields of dentistry.
It was mainly about preventing tooth decay, which is a very common symptom in people with nervous disorders.
Thanks to the fact that I could manage with foreign languages, I introduced special plates, which are also used in Stockholm.
My scientific path was relatively simple.
However, I had some obstacles, mainly because I was a Jew.
A group of my party colleagues, a very strict group, invited me to a meeting.
- What year was it? - The year when all Jews were exiled.
- In the 1960s? - Yes, in 1967.
At that time my son had left for Stockholm.
- What did they say to you at the meeting? - I remember that I had a short, but very eloquent speech.
It was a group of my colleagues from our school, but not from the dental school.
I said that the ashes of my ancestors were buried with yours.
I said that I had nothing to be ashamed of, because I was working as efficiently as I could.
My work and the promotion of my assistants proved that.
They fired me right away. I had no regrets.
At that time there was a Jewish academic youth protest.
My son spent some time in a closed polytechnic, because they were protesting.
Then he decided to leave as a Jew.
He decided to leave without my consent or my advice.
He went to Warsaw to take care of it.
He left as a person who was going to Israel as an emigrant.
Just like everyone else.
After arriving in Stockholm, he was welcomed by the whole group.
It was one of the first groups.
First he was in Stockholm, then he passed the exam.
He was only two years old.
He did it for the third year.
Then he passed the exam in Sweden.
Just like everyone else.
- Did it have any negative impact on your work in Poland?
- Yes, it was a promotion. I was doing my papers.
When I got a positive opinion, a promotion for a lecturer,
they put the papers aside.
The papers were there for a couple of years.
I didn't know why.
Later my friends told me that my son had said something in the Ministry of Health.
I don't think he said anything, he doesn't remember it at all.
The result was that I was a lecturer twice.
I was a lecturer and not in Wrocław, but in Łódź.
In Wrocław there was a Jewish professor from Łódź who didn't bother me.
He thought it was too ambitious and that a young person shouldn't do it.
I was a lecturer in Łódź,
which is still present in Germany since the Jews were expelled from the Łódź cathedrals.
So I was a lecturer and before that I applied for a degree in science in Wrocław.
This is what was done in Russia, which wasn't done in Poland later.
So it was twice.
A doctorate, a doctorate, a doctorate, and then I had to go to the professor for a public exam.
There were a lot of professors in Łódź.
So they were looking at me, literally at my legs, my head, what I was wearing and why I came to Łódź.
Yes, I was a lecturer.
It was necessary, everyone had it.
I got three subjects and I had to prepare myself for all three, because I didn't know what I would get.
I remember that I was sitting on the line from Wrocław to Warsaw in Puszczyków
and I was preparing for this lecture.
So I didn't have any obstacles.
One obstacle was that they didn't give me a diploma, which I deserved.
So I was lying on the shelf for a few years.
And the second obstacle was that personal professor, a Jew, of a Christian origin, a professor from Łódź.
When did you find yourself in Sweden?
I found myself in Sweden 10 years ago.
Exactly in 1986.
In 1983 I got my papers in a very funny way, I can say.
Before that I used to come here only from time to time to visit my children and grandchildren.
First to visit my children and then to visit my grandchildren.
Namely, I came to the Swedish embassy as it was necessary.
I was directed upstairs to a man who was in charge of the service there.
He was Swedish.
And I had a letter from Józef, who wrote to me in Swedish.
From your son?
Yes, from my son.
Why and how?
Very briefly.
And he told me that he would get a message in Wrocław.
I didn't have time to go downstairs, as I had a phone call from upstairs.
I went upstairs and he told me, in English,
"You are lucky, because a representative from Stockholm came, read your son's letter and agreed right away.
So you have a permission."
And that's how it was.
I was luckier than Józef.
We'll finish this tape here.
It ends well.
The end.