Jerzy George Hildebrand (1936–2013)

Excerpt

Jerzy George Hildebrand, a former President of the European Neurological Society and renowned neurooncologist, died on 11 February 2013 in Brussels. He was 77. Born in Ukraine, which was part of Poland at that time, he spent his childhood in Siberia where he had been deported with his mother by the Soviets in 1940 at the time of the Germano-Soviet pact. By deporting them to Siberia a few months before the attack of the Soviet Union by the Nazis, the Soviets saved their lives. His father was among the many Polish officers slaughtered by the Soviets in Katyn. After the war his mother was able to flee Siberia, then to Poland with him, finally reaching Belgium some time later. In a recent book dedicated to his mother Wanda, Hildebrand details his hectic life and peregrination until he finally entered a secondary school in Belgium where he learned French. He then started his medical studies at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and specialized in Neurology. He worked on neuromuscular disorders first gaining clinical experience and doing research. Then he became Chief of Neurology at the University Hospital Erasme in Brussels. He subsequently became interested in Neurooncology and contributed several important papers and books to the field. …