Alfred Pasternak, obstetrician and gynecologist, passed away in Los Angeles on the morning of February 22, 2023, at the age of 92. He was an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and a founding member of the Friends of Hungary Foundation (the publisher of our newsportal). He immigrated to the USA in 1957. Prof. Pasternak is a child survivor of Auschwitz, author of the book Inhuman Research: Medical Experiments in German Concentration Camps. He was clinical professor at the School of Medicine of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).
Alfred Pasternak was born on September 28th, 1930, in Tállya, Hungary. He survived the Holocaust, the Stalinist regime of Communist leader Mátyás Rákosi, experienced the anti-communist revolution of 1956, and had a successful career as a doctor in the United States.
“My father had everything taken away from him, first by the Nazis, then by the Communists”,
recalled Professor Pasternak in an earlier interview given to our news portal. Naturally, his parents had no desire to live his life under a communist system, which is why, in 1956, they took the dangerous path of crossing the border to Austria with smugglers. He arrived in Vienna with 4 other members of his family, and was subsequently taken to Spain, from where they finally arrived in Los Angeles, United States in 1957.
He became an obstetrician and gynecologist in America, later becoming an associate in a private practice in Beverly Hills.
His most important awards include the Honorable Citation by the U.S. House of Representatives (1976, 1978), the California Assembly (1976), the Humanitarian Award by the City of Los Angeles (1976). He has been awarded the ‘Flame of Truth Award’ from Israel for the professional support he provided (1988). Alfred Pasternak was an Honorary Member of the Hungarian Gynecologist Society, owner of the Semmelweis commemorative coin, Honorary Doctor of the Imre Haynal University of Health Sciences. Professor Pasternak was awarded the civilian Officer’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit, and was a member of the Republican National Committee.
