IN the years immediately after the Second World War there was a shortage of places in British medical schools, and in the intense competition for admission between recent school-leavers and returning soldiers priority was given to those who could show evidence of military service. As a result there were instances of prejudice being shown against Jewish applicants and refugees, some of whom were of Jewish origin; but it should be stressed that the antisemitism displayed by the Leeds medical school was relatively isolated, not a general occurrence, and that the refugee plight was of short duration. Several Jewish students failed to gain places at the Leeds medical school in 1945 and turned to dentistry instead, but they were reluctant to complain, fearing that there could be further repercussions for them if they were vocal about their rejection. ‘One student, however, whose qualifications were better than many who were accepted’, declared Gerald Wootliffe, a spokesman for the Leeds Jewish students who himself became a dentist,

As far as refugee students were concerned, Danuta Waydenfeld reported that her application for admission was rejected by a number of medical schools after the war and that she was unable to understand the reason for this until a professor from Manchester enlightened her. ‘Our boys are coming back from the war’, he explained; ‘you are a woman, a foreigner, you have zero chance of gaining a place.’ Her husband Stefan also failed to find a place initially, but after waiting until 1948 ‘secured an ex-serviceman's grant and a place at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin’.