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Historical records matching Leo Skurnik
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About Leo Skurnik
Leo Skurnik
Leo Skurnik was a Finnish physician, a medical officer and a Major in the Finnish Army, and one of the three Finnish Jews who were awarded the Iron Cross by the Nazi Germany during World War II.
All three refused to accept it.
Early life
Leo Skurnik was born in Helsinki, Finland, to businessman Ben-Zian Skurnik and Sarah Skurnik. He was a descendant of one of the oldest cantonist Jewish families. Skurnik graduated as a student in 1927. He then studied medicine, graduating in 1937. He married Lempi Irene Laukka in 1939 and started working as a rural doctor in Ii region.
Military service and the Iron Cross
When the Pioneer Battalion 5 (later Pioneer Battalion 15) was being formed during the Interim Peace in the Ii garrison, Skurnik, then with the rank of Medical Captain, was assigned as the battalion's doctor. Skurnik's unit was participating in the combined Finnish-German offensive from Kiestinki to Loukhi, which was one of the costliest actions in the early phase of the Continuation War. The strength of the unit was down to 800 from 2800 after the heavy fighting in August 1941. It has been estimated that the seven-doctor field hospital where Skurnik was stationed received a hundred wounded men each day.
In September 1941, Skurnik organized the evacuation of a field hospital in heavy Soviet artillery fire near Kiestinki, saving the lives of 600 wounded men, including members of the Waffen-SS. Skurnik split the evacuees into small formations and timed their departures between the artillery barrages.
The German liaison headquarters, headed by General Waldemar Erfurth, proposed awarding the Iron Cross to Skurnik for the effort deemed heroic, and the proposal was accepted in Berlin. However, Skurnik refused to accept the award and, allegedly, stated to Lieutenant General Hjalmar Siilasvuo who delivered he message, something about the medal, an ass, and the wiping of it. The Germans didn't take Skurnik's rebuttal all too well.
The two other Finnish Jews awarded with the Iron Cross, Captain Salomon Klass and nurse Dina Poljakoff, also refused the award.
Discontent with having to work with the German troops later contributed to Skurnik requesting a transfer to the Uhtua front in the summer of 1942. Later in the war, he was promoted to major and fought in the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive and finally in the Lapland War.
A Finnish military history author, Colonel Wolf H. Halsti, lauded Skurnik's loyalty as surpassing a military doctor's usual duties, as Skurnik went to rescue wounded soldiers from no man's land when nobody else had the courage to do so.
Later life
After the war, Skurnik continued working as a doctor in Ii until 1947. He divorced and married another woman, Helmi Annikki Kaisto, in 1949. Afterwards, he worked as a factory doctor for Rauma-Raahe Oy, municipal doctor for Paavola and Revonlahti between 1953 and 1961 and as a doctor for the City of Oulu from 1961 until his retirement.
He died in Oulu in 1976 and was buried near the waters he used to fish on Kirkkosaari island, Ii.
Leo Skurnik et al. in The Telegraph:
"In September 1941, a medical officer performed a deed so heroic he was awarded an Iron Cross by the German high command. With little regard for his own safety, and in the face of heavy Soviet shelling, Major Leo Skurnik, a district doctor who had once fostered ambitions of becoming a concert pianist, organised the evacuation of a field hospital on the Finnish-Russian border, saving the lives of more than 600 men, including members of the SS."
About Leo Skurnik (suomi)
Leo Skurnik oli suomalainen lääkäri ja yksi kolmesta Jatkosodan aikana rautaristillä palkituista, mutta siitä kieltäytyneistä suomenjuutalaisesta.
Leo Skurnik Seura-lehdessä, "Puuttuvat Marskin Ritarit."
Leo Skurnik et al. in The Telegraph:
"In September 1941, a medical officer performed a deed so heroic he was awarded an Iron Cross by the German high command. With little regard for his own safety, and in the face of heavy Soviet shelling, Major Leo Skurnik, a district doctor who had once fostered ambitions of becoming a concert pianist, organised the evacuation of a field hospital on the Finnish-Russian border, saving the lives of more than 600 men, including members of the SS."
Muut kaksi rautarististä kieltäytynyttä olivat Dina Perle os. Poljakoff ja Salomon Klass
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Leo Skurnik's Timeline
| 1907 |
March 28, 1907
|
Helsinki, Finland
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| 1976 |
April 12, 1976
Age 69
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Oulu, Finland
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