After World War I, it was not easy to become a doctor. The young generation (a cohort born at the turn of the 19th century and starting their medical studies at Charles University’s Medical School in the fall of 1920) did not let anyone to deprive them of their ideals, which they transformed into a unique ethos, which was later put to a test by two totalitarian regimes. They experienced the 20th century as classmates, colleagues, friends, fellow fighters in the trenches and fellow prisoners. Together they were also rejected as an outdated model of the doctor, for whom there was no place in socialism.
This monograph is written in the form of prosopography, a collective history of this generation of medical students and doctors. Using large data sources, the book’s author follows her “heroes” to lecture halls and autopsy rooms, hospitals and medical offices, concentration camps, exile and execution grounds.