--- description: A 102-year-old defended her doctoral thesis on Wednesday, 77 years after the Nazi regime denied her the opportunity. title: Refugee of Nazis, 102, Is Oldest Doctorate Recipient image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90dbc9599ccc31bb/6987efbb524fc00e3edf0b3e/ingeborg-rapoport.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 102-Year-Old Who Fled Nazis to Become Oldest Doctorate Recipient  by [Noah Rayman](/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 14, 2015 3:29 PM CUT  German pediatrician Ingeborg Rapoport, 97, speaks during an interview in her house in Berlin on July 3, 2009. German pediatrician Ingeborg Rapoport, 97, speaks during an interview in her house in Berlin on July 3, 2009.Thomas Peter—Reuters  by [Noah Rayman](/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 14, 2015 3:29 PM CUT A 102-year-old retired neonatologist successfully [defended her doctoral thesis](http://www.wsj.com/articles/from-nazi-germany-a-tale-of-redemption-1431576062 "undefined") on Wednesday, 77 years after the Nazi regime denied her the opportunity. Ingeborg Rapoport will become the oldest person to receive a doctoral degree at a ceremony at the University of Hamburg next month, the _Wall Street Journal_ reports. Her thesis, which she submitted in 1938, focused on diphtheria, an infectious disease that was the leading cause of death among children in Europe at the time. Rapoport was raised a Protestant but her mother was Jewish, leading officials at the time to deem her ineligible for academic advancement. She emigrated to the United States in 1938 and eventually received an M.D. from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. _Read more at the_ [_Wall Street Journal_](http://www.wsj.com/articles/from-nazi-germany-a-tale-of-redemption-1431576062 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3858703/102-doctorate-nazi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3858703/102-doctorate-nazi/"},"headline":"102-Year-Old Who Fled Nazis to Become Oldest Doctorate Recipient","datePublished":"2015-05-14T15:29:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:12:25.223Z","description":"Ingeborg Rapoport was refused an opportunity to defend her thesis in Nazi Germany.","url":"https://time.com/3858703/102-doctorate-nazi/","keywords":["History","Germany","Nazis","Research","health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90dbc9599ccc31bb/6987efbb524fc00e3edf0b3e/ingeborg-rapoport.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90dbc9599ccc31bb/6987efbb524fc00e3edf0b3e/ingeborg-rapoport.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"German pediatrician Ingeborg Rapoport, 97, speaks during an interview in her house in Berlin","caption":"German pediatrician Ingeborg Rapoport, 97, speaks during an interview in her house in Berlin","creditText":"Thomas Peter—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3858703/102-doctorate-nazi/","name":"102-Year-Old Who Fled Nazis to Become Oldest Doctorate Recipient"}}]}] ```