Alfred Pasternak, a founding member of the Friends of Hungary Foundation, received the civilian Officer’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit at a ceremony on June 2nd in Los Angeles.
The award was presented by Tamás Szeles, Los Angeles Consul General of the Republic of Hungary. Dr. Pasternak, a world-famous gynecologist, received this distinction due to his work fostering Hungarian-American relations, as well as his efforts to popularize Hungary in the United States.
Alfred Pasternak is an obstetrician-gynecologist (OBGYN), and an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He emigrated to the United States in 1956, following the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution. Dr. Pasternak survived Auschwitz as a child, and is the author of the widely-read book Inhuman Research: Medical Experiments in German Concentration Camps. He is a clinical professor in the medical faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
This is far from Dr. Pasternak’s first such distinction: he has received awards from the United States Congress (on two separate occasions), the state of California, and the city of Los Angeles. For his support of higher education, he received the “Flame of Truth Award” from the State of Israel. Dr. Pasternak is an honorary member of the Hungarian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the recipient of the Semmelweis Memorial Medal, and an honorary doctor of the Imre Haynal Medical University. He is a member of the Republican National Committee.
The Friends of Hungary Foundation is the parent organization of Hungary Today and its German-language sister-site Ungarn Heute.
Via friendsofhungary.hu
Image via Heti Válasz