Gerson Family collection

Portrait of Adele Gerson in her nursing uniform. A nurse in the Imperial Germany Army in the First World War, Adele Gerson continued her career in Berlin after the war until the increasing persecution of the Jewish people led her to escape Germany for employment at the Royal Cancer Hospital in London. She emigrated to Melbourne, Australia in March 1947, was reunited with her brother Siegfried and his family and was granted citizenship in November 1948. Bringing her nursing skills and expertise in the treatment of cancer to Australia, she became one of the founding nurses of the Cancer Institute, now known as the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Adele remained in Melbourne until her death on 26 November 1956. Her sisters, Selma, Herta and Berta were unable to evade deportation from Berlin and died in the Holocaust.