102-yr old woman gets doctorate degree

A 102-year-old German woman Ingeborg Rapoport (nee Syllm) will be the older person ever to receive a doctorate when she gets awarded today, Tuesday June 9, 2015.

Rapoport was denied by the Nazis from sitting for her final exam almost 80 years ago. Because of the Nazis and their anti-Semitic belief she was stopped from finishing her medical studies and her thesis on diphtheria. Ingeborg Rapoport's mother was a Jewish pianist.

She couldn't defend her thesis. Back then she wrote for a confirmation from Hamburg University, but was told that "if the applicable laws did not prohibit Ms Syllm's admission to the doctoral exam due to her ancestry."

The University has now made amends. Three professors from Hamburg University's medical faculty visited Rapoport in east Berlin to find out if she was still knowledgeable about her work.

After their session, the professors said she will be awarded with her PhD today, June 9, 2015. It will take place at the Hamburg University Medical Centre.

"It was about the principle," she said. "I didn't want to defend my thesis for my own sake. After all, at the age of 102 all of this wasn't exactly easy for me. I did it for the victims [of the Nazis]. The university wanted to correct an injustice. They were very patient with me. And for that I'm grateful," she told Der Tagesspiegel newspaper" said Rapoport.