Wilhelm F. Rosenblatt oral history collection
Collection
Identifier: HHC 68
Scope and Content
The interview with Dr. Wilhelm F. Rosenblatt (1913-2004) of Corrales, New Mexico, surveys his life and career. The interview establishes a general chronology of his particularly interesting and eventful life, but focuses its attention on his quarter century service as a physician in New Mexico. Dr. Rosenblatt, an internist specializing in pulmonary disease, tuberculosis in particular, arrived in New Mexico in 1960 to work at the Fort Stanton Tuberculosis Sanatorium. Over the ensuing twenty-five years, until his semi-retirement in 1985, he was centrally involved in the campaign against tuberculosis and chronic disease within New Mexico. He was a staff physician and administrator at the Santa Fe central offices of the New Mexico Department of Public Health. The interview discusses the general campaign against tuberculosis in New Mexico through the 1960s and 1970s and Dr. Rosenblatt's role in it.
Dates
- 1991
Language of Materials
English
Access Restrictions
The collection is open to the public and available for research.
Copy Restrictions
Limited duplication of print materials allowed for research purposes. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Biography or History
Wilhelm Friedrich Rosenblatt (1913-2004) was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1913. Although his father and an uncle were physicians, it was not until late in his high school years that Dr. Rosenblatt thought of becoming a doctor. He received his medical degree at the University of Leipzig in 1936. In 1937, Dr. Rosenblatt passed the state boards and then completed a one year internship. However, he was not allowed to get a medical license because he was half Jewish and Germany was in the throes of Nazism. He spent a year in the German Luftwaffe, but was dismissed for being Jewish. For the next four years, he tutored medical students privately until he was incarcerated in a German forced-labor camp, part of Organisation Todt, where he was a physician for foreign laborers. In 1945, Dr. Rosenblatt became a prisoner of war of the United States Army in France. In March, 1946, he was repatriated and went to Marburg an der Lahn, West Germany to enter an internal medicine residency. After three years he became a specialist according to German regulations and began working for the German Veterans' Administration as an internist. Dr. Rosenblatt emigrated to the United States in 1953.
After arriving in the United States with his oldest daughter, Dr. Rosenblatt first took a job as staff physician at a hospital in Ossining, New York. He sent for his other three children and his wife and took a new position at the Hopemont Sanatorium, a state tuberculosis sanatorium in West Virginia, where he would receive room and board. After five years, he moved to Decatur, Alabama to another state TB sanatorium. While on vacation in the western United States, Dr. Rosenblatt, with the encouragement of his children, visited the New Mexico State Health Department to check for job openings. In 1966, having received his institutional license to practice in New Mexico, he settled his family in Fort Stanton, where he had been appointed an attending physician with the Department of Hospitals and Institutions at Fort Stanton Tuberculosis Sanatorium. When the Fort Stanton sanatorium was closed in 1966, Dr. Rosenblatt became medical director of Fort Bayard Tuberculosis Hospital (New Mexico). He transferred to Albuquerque, and later to Santa Fe, as chief of the Chronic Disease Control Bureau of the Public Health Division of the New Mexico Department of Health. Dr. Rosenblatt retired in 1983 after fifteen years working with various state departments and moved to Corrales, New Mexico.
After retirement, Dr. Rosenblatt continued to be involved with tuberculosis and public health by becoming an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and as an advocate for public health improvement and universal access to free, quality medical care. He also was an active member of the United States-Mexico Border Health Association and the Physicians for Social Responsibility. Dr. Rosenblatt died in 2004.
After arriving in the United States with his oldest daughter, Dr. Rosenblatt first took a job as staff physician at a hospital in Ossining, New York. He sent for his other three children and his wife and took a new position at the Hopemont Sanatorium, a state tuberculosis sanatorium in West Virginia, where he would receive room and board. After five years, he moved to Decatur, Alabama to another state TB sanatorium. While on vacation in the western United States, Dr. Rosenblatt, with the encouragement of his children, visited the New Mexico State Health Department to check for job openings. In 1966, having received his institutional license to practice in New Mexico, he settled his family in Fort Stanton, where he had been appointed an attending physician with the Department of Hospitals and Institutions at Fort Stanton Tuberculosis Sanatorium. When the Fort Stanton sanatorium was closed in 1966, Dr. Rosenblatt became medical director of Fort Bayard Tuberculosis Hospital (New Mexico). He transferred to Albuquerque, and later to Santa Fe, as chief of the Chronic Disease Control Bureau of the Public Health Division of the New Mexico Department of Health. Dr. Rosenblatt retired in 1983 after fifteen years working with various state departments and moved to Corrales, New Mexico.
After retirement, Dr. Rosenblatt continued to be involved with tuberculosis and public health by becoming an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and as an advocate for public health improvement and universal access to free, quality medical care. He also was an active member of the United States-Mexico Border Health Association and the Physicians for Social Responsibility. Dr. Rosenblatt died in 2004.
Extent
1 oversized folder, 2 audiocassette tapes
Abstract
This collection of materials relating to Wilhelm F. Rosenblatt (1913-2004), a doctor and public health physician in New Mexico, contains an oral history transcript, two audio tapes, copies of articles by Dr. Rosenblatt, and miscellaneous newspaper clippings.
Separated Material
Audio tapes are stored in the Special Collection Annex.
A color of Dr. Rosenblatt has been moved to the Photograph Collection in the Special Collection Annex.
A color of Dr. Rosenblatt has been moved to the Photograph Collection in the Special Collection Annex.
General
Contact Information
- UNM Health Sciences Center
- Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center, MSC09 5100, 1 University of New Mexico
- New Mexico Health Historical Collection
- Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
- Phone: (505) 272-8873
- Fax:
- Email: archivist@salud.unm.edu
- URL: http://hsc.unm.edu/library/archives/
General
Processing Information
Materials were originally processed by Janet Johnson.
- Title
- Inventory of the Wilhelm F. Rosenblatt Oral History Collection, 1991
- Status
- Approved
- Author
- Processed by Peggy McBride
- Date
- ©2006
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is in English
Revision Statements
- Monday, 20210524: Attribute normal is missing or blank.
Repository Details
Part of the UNM Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center Repository
Contact:
MSC 09 5100
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque New Mexico 87131 United States
505-272-2311
hsc-archivist@salud.unm.edu
MSC 09 5100
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque New Mexico 87131 United States
505-272-2311
hsc-archivist@salud.unm.edu