(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)March 11, 2019

MAHWAH, N.J. – Dr. Victor Borden, a retired obstetrician and gynecologist from Bergen County, will recount how his parents escaped the Holocaust in a presentation titled, “Flight from German Oppression: Lodz, Arkhangelsk, Teheran, Tel-Aviv, & Paterson.”  The program is on Thursday, April 25 at noon in the H-Wing Auditorium at Ramapo College of New Jersey. It will be presented under the auspices of the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and is free and open to the public.

With only approximately 10 percent of Polish Jews having survived the Holocaust (around 330,000 people), the vast majority did so by escaping to the Soviet Union. The U.S.S.R. provided a refuge that may have been inadvertent and involuntary, and conditions were extremely harsh for those who endured them. For example, by deporting Dr. Borden’s parents and other members of his family to a slave labor camp near Arkhangelsk in the Russian frozen north, the Soviet authorities saved their lives. How they fared in captivity and eventually ended up in Iran and pre-independence Israel forms the rest of Borden’s remarkable story of survival.

After graduating with a B.A. from Temple University in 1965, Dr. Borden attended Philadelphia’s Hahnemann Medical College (today the Drexel University Medical College), where he received an M.D. in 1969. He continued his training as a physician at the Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, where he completed his residency and chief residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1973. Following a stint as a major in the U.S. Air Force from 1973 to 1975, Dr. Borden was in private practice until 2013 in Bergen County, in addition to holding various positions at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center and other local institutions. From 2014 to 2017, he was a physician at the Bergen Volunteer Medical Institute. A frequent presenter on medical conferences relating to his specialty, Dr. Borden was a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 1977 to 2013 and, since 2014, a Life Fellow.

The demise of his own parents and the survivor generation has impelled Dr. Borden to take up where they left off in transmitting their story and its lessons to young people. To that end, he has already spoken at Stockton University and several local high schools.

For information or to request disability-related accommodations for this event, please contact holgen@ramapo.edu or call 201-684-7409.

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About Ramapo College

Ramapo College of New Jersey is the state’s premier public liberal arts college and is committed to academic excellence through interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and international and intercultural understanding. The comprehensive college is situated among the beautiful Ramapo Mountains, is within commuting distance to New York City, was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America by CondeNast Traveler, and boasts the best on-campus housing in New Jersey per Niche.com. Established in 1969, Ramapo College offers bachelor’s degrees in the arts, business, data science, humanities, social sciences and the sciences, as well as in professional studies, which include business, education, nursing and social work. In addition, the College offers courses leading to teacher certification at the elementary and secondary levels, and offers graduate programs leading to master’s degrees in Accounting, Applied Mathematics, Business Administration, Contemporary Instructional Design, Computer Science, Creative Music Technology, Data Science, Educational Leadership, Nursing, Social Work and Special Education, as well as a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

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