Dr. Karoly Mozes

Honorary Citizen of the City of Oradea

April 28, 1917- October 25, 2005

I N   M E M O R I A M

Karoly Mozes was born in Oradea on April 28, 1917. A prominent physician, educator, author, and intellectual, Dr. Mozes was noted for his contributions as an Honorary Citizen of the City of Oradea in 2003. He died in Israel on October 25, 2005.

Dr. Mozes graduated from the Oradea's Jewish High School, The Dr. Lipot Kecskemeti School, and received his medical degree from the Medical School of the University of Cluj, in 1941. He started his career as a doctor in Budapest, at the Adel Brodi Jewish Hospital.

From 1942 to 1945, Dr. Mozes served in the forced labor battalions, as company physician for Unit 110/17, in the Ukraine, White Russia, Poland, and Slovakia. Performing under the most extreme conditions, with no conventional medical tools or therapies, he was able to provide comfort and solace to many of the sick and dying among his comrades. Among the survivors, many sought him out after liberation to express their gratitude.

In 1945, Dr. Mozes returned to Oradea, where he was appointed Department Head at the Hospital of Contagious Diseases, a post he held for fifty-five years. He continued working at the hospital on a regular basis until 1996 and then as volunteer medical consultant, until the age of 83.

Throughout his life, Dr. Mozes was involved in many other activities related to healing and teaching, including the creation in 1948 of a school for training medical assistants. The school became the Institute for Medical Technicians, known to this day in Oradea and throughout Romania as the Mozes Academy. In addition, he wrote and published several books and many articles. Among his books, "Techniques for Caring for the Sick" is still considered by nurses as "the bible" and it has been reissued eight times. More recently, Dr. Mozes authored "The History of Medical Education in Oradea," published in 2003.

Warm and direct, a true humanitarian, Dr. Mozes was loved and respected by family, friends, and patients. An exemplary and loving husband, he was married to Terez Klarmann, of Oradea, the well-known historian and author, for fifty-nine years, since shortly after both were liberated. Dr. Mozes was the beloved father of Anna and Gabor, and loving grandfather of five grandchildren.

Although Dr. Karoly Mozes spent the last years of his life dividing his time between Oradea and Israel, he was through and through an Oradean. Family, friends, and the many people whose lives he touched in Oradea and abroad will miss him greatly.

Posted: November 10, 2005