AUGUST 2018
Artifact of the Month for August 2018
Miniature elephant in ivory
Miniature elephant in ivory
Leon «Volo» Volodarsky (1894 - 1962)
Leon "Volo" Volodarsky was born in Odessa on October 2 1894, and came to Norway as a refugee in 1916. He graduated as an intern in 1920 and received his medical diploma in 1926. After completing hospital service, he became a specialist in surgery and worked for a number of years at Innherred Hospital in Levanger. Volo fled to Sweden in November 1941 and left for England. Here he served as a doctor with the Norwegian forces. In the post-war years, he worked for UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration), first as a physician in China (Canton), then as a lung surgeon in India and finally at the Norwegian field hospital in Korea (Korean War). From 1954 he was employed as a surgeon at the Oslo Municipal Emergency Guard. Volo died in Oslo in 1962 and is buried on the Jewish cemetery at Helsfyr.
The miniature ivory elephant has belonged to Volo and was probably brought back from one of his employments in Asia. It is a gift to the museum from Thorstein Bache Harbitz. Harbitz, who knew Volo as a child, has also written a complementary biography about Volo. This will be published on our website as an addition to artifact of the month.
Link to biography: https://www.jodiskmuseumoslo.no/newpage23
The miniature ivory elephant has belonged to Volo and was probably brought back from one of his employments in Asia. It is a gift to the museum from Thorstein Bache Harbitz. Harbitz, who knew Volo as a child, has also written a complementary biography about Volo. This will be published on our website as an addition to artifact of the month.
Photo: Dr. Leon «Volo» Voladorsky, Innherred Hospital, 1940 (Levanger Fotomuseum)