In Memory of Igor Klatzo, 1916–2007

Abstract

Igor Klatzo, retired Chief of the Laboratory of Neuropathology and Neuroanatomical Sciences at the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, passed away on the 5th of May 2007 in Montgomery Village, Maryland. This remarkable and colorful man was born on October 9th, 1916 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He grew up and was educated in Vilnius, Poland (now Lithuania). Igor Klatzo was a notable scientist and a gregarious individual whose life reflected his background. He studied medicine at the King Stefan Batory University in Vilnius from 1934 to 1939. As a medical student, he was inspired by Prof. Maximilian Rose, a prominent psychiatrist and neurologist, and developed an interest in brain function. World War II interrupted his medical education, but he served as a physician at the Psychiatric Hospital in Vilnius and in the Polish Underground Army or Armia Krajowa (Home Army) under the direct leadership of the Polish Government in-exile in London. After the war, Igor was appointed as a medical doctor in the Polish Red Cross mission in Germany. He was responsible for assessing the health condition of Polish citizens who were former German forced laborers, prior to their repatriation. In 1945, he visited his …