Excerpt from Female STEM Pioneers Who Survived the Holocaust by Victoria Van Orden Martínez (Pen & Sword History, 2026), launching September 28, 2026.

“Of the six women featured in this book, only Rita Levi-Montalcini and Polish Canadian chemist Halina Czajkowska have been the dedicated subjects of any published books, at least as far as I have been able to determine. In addition to the books written by Rita herself are some short biographies intended for young readers.⁴ Halina Czajkowska’s memoirs were published shortly before her death in 2021, thanks to the efforts of Canadian haematologist and medical historian Dr Jacalyn Duffin, who earlier published a series of scientific articles that brought Halina’s important contributions to science to light for the first time.⁵

“Halina Neujahr was known during her life as both a groundbreaking woman in science and a Holocaust survivor. Yet, what has been written about her consists primarily of decades-old Swedish magazine and newspaper articles and a few contemporary ones. One chapter is dedicated to German American haematologist Dr Ellen Loeb in the book Sisters in Sorrow: Voices of Care in the Holocaust by Roger A. Ritvo and Diane M. Plotkin.⁶ However, it consists only of translations of correspondence between Ellen and her family and provides little insight into her life and professional career. That said, it is thanks to Plotkin that oral histories and other materials related to Ellen Loeb are available to researchers through the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Of the other women, although each made important contributions to science and medicine in the second half of the twentieth century, their legacies are mainly recorded through their scientific publications, in a smattering of newspaper and magazine articles, or as secondary figures in books about their male colleagues. Hungarian Swedish cancer immunologist Dr Eva Klein, for instance, is as internationally renowned as her husband. However, far more has been written about him than has been about her.

“I have written this book to contribute to filling the gaps, at least concerning these six women – Dr Rita Levi-Montalcini, Dr Eva Klein, Dr Ellen Loeb, Dr Ruth Pick, Halina Czajkowska, and of course, Dr Halina Neujahr. Many more women like them are still awaiting similar recognition. In different ways, they became STEM pioneers because they shattered glass ceilings, paved the way for other women to enter STEM, and contributed to making discoveries and improvements in their respective fields that changed and/or improved the human condition. But they were pioneers in other respects, too. They broke through other barriers besides gender, including racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism. They turned traumatic experiences of persecution, genocide, and the destruction of their homes and families into life-affirming professional and personal ethics and practice.”

Excerpted from “Introduction,” pp. xii-xiii

Female STEM Pioneers Who Survived the Holocaust will be available in Europe late September 2026 and in North America late November 2026, and can be pre-ordered directly through the Pen & Sword website or on Amazon and other retailers.