Against the Odds

friday, december 2, 2022

Holocaust survivor, and academic pediatrician Michael Katz makes an emotional connection as he shares his survival experience. Born in Lwow in Eastern Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine), Michael lost his family to the Nazis in the summer of 1942. As a fourteen-year-old, he was able to procure false identification as an “Aryan”, and made his way to Warsaw, where he supported himself working odd jobs while “hiding in plain sight.” He ultimately connected with the Armia Krajowa (National Army), and took part in both the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) and in the Warsaw City Uprising (1944). He was able to make his way to the US in 1946.

He is Carpentier Professor of Pediatrics, emeritus at Columbia University, where he was for 17 years Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics and Pediatrician-in-Chief at Presbyterian Hospital. He subsequently served for 25 years as Senior Vice-President for Research and Global Programs at the March of Dimes Foundation. He lives in New York City and is now an Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University and President of the Institute of Maternal and Perinatal Health at University of Oxford in England.