Open Letter to Kejriwal: Ernest Sterzer Survived Holocaust in Concentration Camps with Diabetes; You too with Diabetes would Survive Incarceration by a Fascist Regime!

 by

P.S. Sahni

 

I have read that you are struggling with fluctuating levels of blood sugar which had even dropped to levels below 50 mg/dl. Please ask the jail authorities to supply you with Ernest Sterzer’s memoirs where he starts by saying:

 

“To the best of my knowledge, I am the only diabetic who survived years of imprisonment in German concentration camps,”

 

His 11- page memoirs document:

·      Ernest had to sleep on cold bare floors.

·      Following two days without medicines Ernest fell into a coma overnight and awoke two days later in a hospital.

·      Ernest had his urine checked twice a day, and his blood sugar once a day. At one point he received a dose of 110 units of insulin to bring down his very high blood sugar levels.

·      After 3 weeks at Oranienburg concentration camp in Prussia, Ernest had a constant flow of pus from his ears – he was told he had developed a mastoid. Then he developed paralysis of the soft palate in the roof of the mouth.

·      At a later stage Ernest was rescued by the Allied forces who took him in and provided medical treatment.

·      Upon arriving in Vienna, Ernest discovered his parents had died in concentration camps.

·      He went blind in 1953.

·      He went on to set up the Superior Addressing and Mailing Services in New York City with the help of his seeing-dog Sheila.

·      He died in 1973.

 

(These facts adapted from and with courtesy: Surviving the Holocaust with type 1 diabetes: The story of Ernest Sterzer)

 

Kejriwal sir, you too will be free one day. Take inspiration from the story of Ernest.