January 1957 marked my second month at the prison. With severe weather, the prisoners seldom exercised outside and were usually in their cells during my visits. Each cell was about 3m by 2.7m, with a bed, chair, small table, and open cupboard. A small window high on the wall provided limited light. The dark cells and darker corridors depressed me, and I became convinced that some better solution for detention should be found. But I found none. Walter Funk, Hitler’s economic adviser, had increased Nazi Party funds through industrialist contacts. The Nuremberg judgment described him as ‘never a dominant figure.’ At 66, he appeared old for his years: anxious, neurotic, occasionally capable of wit or amusement despite his persistent jaundice and poorly controlled diabetes. At the end-of-month handover meeting, I disagreed with the Russians over my description of Funk as ‘very depressed.’ A er much discussion, we agreed to amend the minutes to ‘markedly depressed.’ A few months later, on 11 May 1957, I heard on my car radio that Funk had been released on medical grounds. Just before the end of January, I received an early morning call from the prison: Prisoner No 7 (Hess) refused to get out of bed or eat breakfast, demanding to see the medical o icer. The duty warden, a large cigar-smoking American who told me that his previous job had been at Alcatraz, explained: ‘Don’t you know, doc, this is Nazi Party Day, and on Party Day, No 7 don’t eat.’ A er making his protest, Hess was placed briefly in the brightly painted ‘solitary room’ and then returned to his normal state of co-operation. Before leaving Berlin at the start of April, we had a series of farewell dinners at the hospital mess. The Russian director also hosted a superb lunch at the prison – more caviar than I had ever seen before or since, ending with Georgian champagne. We didn’t quite smash our glasses into the fireplace, but we were close. On 2 April, my wife and six-month-old son le by car for Hanover and then home to England. I followed two days later by train. Dr Hillas Smith Medical Research Award for Trinity Undergraduates As a proud graduate, Dr Hillas Smith has been a regular donor over the years to the School of Medicine and to Trinity Library and Trinity Access. In 2024 he endowed a significant gi to establish the annual Dr Hillas Smith Medical Research Award to enable Trinity medical undergraduates to undertake a supervised research project. The inaugural winner of the Dr Hillas Smith Medical Research Award is fourth year medical student, Rohit Upadhyay, who is using the Award to support his summer elective research project titled Investigating immune aging and infection vulnerability in socially excluded populations through lymphocyte profiling and cytokine analysis . Says Rohit: ‘In this study, I am working with blood samples from people without homes, alongside controls, to explore how immune function changes in vulnerable groups, who o en experience accelerated biological aging and poorer infection outcomes. I hope this project will eventually inform interventions to improve their health outcomes. This award motivates me greatly. It shows that others see value in the questions I am asking and the work I am doing, which drives me to continue pursuing research-integrated clinical practice in the future. I’m hugely grateful to Dr Smith for his generosity in supporting medical students like myself to grow as both scientists and future doctors.’ If you would like to learn more about Trinity’s Endowment Fund, please get in touch with Courtenay Pollard, Associate Director, T: +353 (0)86 830 4795 E: pollardc@tcd.ie
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