Edith Mankiewicz; doctor and researcher (GREAT)
Hyfler/Rosner
For 60 years, she was on the cutting edge of science. She
taught medicine in France and China, directed two Montreal
hospitals and published 100 papers -- all after fleeing the
Nazis in Germany
DOUGLAS MCARTHUR
Special to The Globe and Mail
TORONTO -- In the early 1930s, two women came in contact in
Leipzig, Germany. One was a young medical student, the other
a tuberculosis patient whose eyes were burning hot.
"I do not want to die, I cannot die, I have a child," the
woman cried. But the student knew there was no hope. Without
thinking of the personal risk, she mixed the patient's
sputum with her own tears and preserved them between two
slides.
"I knew then, without a doubt, that I would never forget
her, that my work as a physician would be in the laboratory,
and that one day I would work in tuberculosis," Dr. Edith
Mankiewicz was to write later in her unpublished
French-language memoirs.
Her distinguished career more than fulfilled that vow. For
nearly six decades until her retirement in 1991, Dr.
Mankiewicz was on the cutting edge of microbiology,
specializing in pulmonary diseases. She taught medicine and
conducted research in France, China and Canada, directed
laboratories at two Montreal hospitals and published more
than 100 scientific papers. Her works brought advances in
tuberculosis prevention and treatment during her lifetime
and continue to inspire international medical research.
Away from the microscope, her life story is one of danger,
tragedy, heroism and courage. Considered Jewish by the Nazi
authorities, she fled to France and then to Shanghai, only
to be exposed to bombings and privations caused by the
Japanese. She was twice hospitalized with tuberculosis
contracted in the laboratory. And she saw her son, Quebec
film director Francis Mankiewicz, die when he was 49.
Yet, throughout it all, she retained a passion for research,
enthusiasm for life, and her sense of humour. Dr. Gerald
Berry, her boss for a period when she directed the
microbiology laboratory at Lakeshore General Hospital on
Montreal's West Island, recalls "a wiry little customer" who
"smoked like a chimney" and had shortness of breath, but
worked vigorously. Her research into Bacille Calmette-Guérin
vaccine was directly applied to TB prevention in Europe, he
says.
On the other hand, little use was made of her work on
bacteriophages when it was first published, says Dr.
Hans-Wolfgang Ackermann of Laval University. But with
today's overuse of antibiotics, it is being resurrected in
the search for an alternate way to fight bacterial
infections. Prof. Andre Gorski, director of the Institute of
Immunology and Experimental Therapy in Wroclaw, Poland, says
the impetus for his current research came from a paper
published by Dr. Mankiewicz and M. Liivak in the journal
Nature in the 1960s.
The daughter of Maximilien Meyer, a doctor, and Gertrud
Kaul, a nurse, it seemed natural that young Edith and her
older sister, Margaret, would study medicine. Edith
graduated in 1933, the same year she married Harald (Rene)
Mankiewicz, at that time the youngest judge in Germany. Two
months later, the couple fled to France because of threats
resulting from the judge's sentencing of Nazi supporters.
She and her husband both redid their studies in France, with
Edith receiving her second medical degree from the
University of Lyon. From 1939 to 1941, she served as
physician-in-chief at the Children's Hospital in Tulins. She
gave birth to a daughter, Jacqueline, in 1940. But the
German occupation of France brought new danger.
In her memoirs, Dr. Mankiewicz wrote that one day, as Nazi
troops marched by, some children shouted: "The Boches are
coming," using a common French pejorative for Germans. "They
only wanted to give a warning, but the soldiers started to
shoot. I cannot wipe out of my mind the image of these
little bodies, mutilated, this slaughter of innocent
children."
Finding themselves suddenly blacklisted in France, the
couple moved to a seemingly safe destination, the French
concession in Shanghai. From 1941 to 1945, Dr. Mankiewicz
worked there as professor of microbiology at Aurore
University. She was also named "interim director" at the
city's Pasteur Institute. It was a time of urgency and hard
work. According to Dr. Véronique Porret, whose mother and
grandmother were in Shanghai at the time, Dr. Mankiewicz set
up a gynecology service for girls raped by Japanese
soldiers; established an adoption service for abandoned
children; and created a private medical laboratory to
provide work for Jewish physicians who were otherwise
confined to a ghetto. Not only that, but in 1944 she gave
birth to her son, Francis.
With the Second World War raging and Shanghai under Japanese
occupation, daily life was disrupted by bombings, blackouts
and shortages.
Jacqueline Mankiewicz Smith, Dr. Mankiewicz's daughter,
recalls: "Once the sirens had stopped, it was Mother's
duty -- as part of the medical corps -- to go out and check
the neighbourhood in order to alert the emergency personnel
and firefighters as to the location of the most injured. A
silent hero in this story was my father, who insisted on
accompanying her on those dangerous missions."
With the end of the war, the couple and their two children
moved to Montreal, where Edith's parents and her sister, Dr.
Margaret Kunstler, had already taken up residence. In
Canada, she took her medical training for the third time.
From 1947 to 1950, she worked as a research associate in
microbiology at McGill University. Then misfortune struck
again. She contracted TB and spent a year in a sanatorium
(another bout was to interrupt her work a couple of years
later).
Undiscouraged, Dr. Mankiewicz pressed on. From 1951 to 1976,
she was director of laboratories at the Royal Edward Chest
Hospital, later known as the Montreal Chest Hospital. In
1955, she made headlines for showing how yeast cells could
dramatically reduce the time required for a positive
diagnosis of tuberculosis. In other research, she identified
mycobacterial-like germs inside cancer tissue.
Then, at an age when most people retire, she became director
of the microbiology laboratory at Lakeshore General
Hospital, a position she held for 15 years. She also
lectured on microbiology at McGill from 1962 to 1979.
Over the years, her advice and support encouraged many young
people. One who credits her with shaping his career is
virologist Alain Bouillant: "She was always busy, but she
always had a few minutes for a very warm welcome."
Meanwhile, Dr. Mankiewicz's husband served for many years as
legal adviser to the International Civil Aviation
Organization, and taught law at McGill and at the University
of Montreal. He died in 1993.
Even retirement at 80 didn't slow her down. She continued to
advise students, translate scientific papers into English
and to provide sanctuary in Canada for a Shanghai woman who
had been jailed for her religious and political views. The
woman went on to become an expert in public health.
The death of her son from cancer in 1993 was a severe blow.
One of his movies, Les Bons Debarras (Good Riddance) won
eight Genie awards in 1981. Another, Les Portes Tournantes
(The Revolving Doors), drew 10 Genie nominations in 1989.
Family relationships were a central theme in his films.
In her son's memory, Dr. Mankiewicz set up the non-profit
Circle for Children Foundation that was dedicated to helping
children in foster care. Her daughter, Jacqueline Mankiewicz
Smith, a child psychologist, is program director.
Even in her 90s, Dr. Mankiewicz continued to be engaged. She
read and discussed philosophy and current events. "First
thing in the morning," says Ms. Mankiewicz Smith, "she'd
have thought up some important philosophical question during
the night and we would have to discuss it at breakfast."
During the cliffhanger 2000 U.S. election, Dr. Mankiewicz
was president of the retirement residence where she lived.
At one point, George Bush and Al Gore were reportedly
separated by 250 votes in Florida. "There are 380 people in
my manoir," Dr. Mankiewicz told her granddaughter, Dawn
Smith. "If my manoir were over there, it'd be finished."
Christal Smith, another granddaughter, says Dr. Mankiewicz
survived war, sickness and loss by remembering the beautiful
moments from her past. She was also stubborn and willing to
fight for justice. Fifty years after the Nazis took her
childhood home, Dr. Mankiewicz successfully sued the German
government for reparations. France awarded her the Cross of
Lorraine for her wartime work.
Edith Marion Mankiewicz
(nee Meyer) was born in Leipzig, Germany, on May 16, 1910.
She died of heart failure in Montreal on Sept. 21, 2006. She
was 96. She leaves a daughter,
Jacqueline Mankiewicz Smith, and five grandchildren,
Christal Smith, Dawn Smith, Vivian Ngo, Martin Mankiewicz
and Gabrielle Mankiewicz.