A hospital radiologist, who has been accused of being a member of the Hitler Youth Group in his early teens, has resigned from the staff of Albert Einstein Medical Center, Northern Division. The Jewish Defense League, which had been conducting a campaign to oust him from the hospital, took credit for his resignation.
Dr. Horst Gunter Seydel has complained that he has received a steady stream of gruesome Holocaust photographs in the mail, and has been getting harassing phone calls late at night demanding his dismissal. Since last winter the JDL has picketed his home and the Einstein Hospital. “His resignation has been greeted with a sense of outrage by the staff,” said a spokesman for the Jewish funded hospital, which has a predominantly Jewish medical staff. There is no evidence Seydel participated in any wrongdoing in his youth, according to hospital administrators.
Before Seydel joined the hospital in 1975 he was investigated by a three-member committee of physicians. “The committee found no evidence to substantiate allegations of his participation (in terror campaigns) and unanimously recommended support for his application,” said a hospital spokesman. At least two of the doctors on that committee are Jewish.
Nevertheless, Ed Ramov, executive director of the Philadelphia JDL, said, “The youths destroyed Jewish business, killed people, threw rocks at elderly Jewish men. They were murderers. They were old enough to know what they were doing.” Ramov added: “We have no proof of his direct participation but we are just saying let him work in another hospital, not a Jewish hospital. It is a desecration to the memories of six million Jews.”
Seydel’s resignation takes effect in October, which angers the JDL. “It shouldn’t take more than a month for him to get out,” Ramov said. The JDL action has been condemned by a number of Jewish organizations and the hospital administration. Seydel has refused to talk about the resignation. He came to the United States in the 1950s with a medical degree from Germany. He was on the staff of the University of Maryland. In 1967, he joined the staff of another Philadelphia hospital before going to work at Einstein.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
