Victor Gomoiu | |
|---|---|
 Gomoiu, ca. 1920 | |
| Born | April 18, 1882 |
| Died | February 6, 1960 (aged 77) |
| Resting place | Bellu Cemetery, Bucharest |
| Nationality | Romanian |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
Victor Gomoiu (April 18, 1882 – February 6, 1960) was a Romanian surgeon, anatomist, folklorist and medical historian, who served as Minister of Health and Social Protection in 1940. Noted before 1910 for his work in descriptive surgery and pathology, focusing on the treatment of tuberculosis, genital diseases and tumors, he soon became one of the main contributors to medical historiography and bibliography. He founded several hospitals and edited medical journals, setting up a collection of medical instruments which became the basis of a national museum in Craiova. He became a professor at the University of Bucharest, an expert for the League of Nations, and, after distinguished service in World War I, a recipient of the Legion of Honor; additionally, he served for 22 years as president of the International Society for the History of Medicine, of which his wife Viorica was also an active member.
A protégé of Queen Helen and administrator of her Brâncovenesc Hospital, Gomoiu fell out with King Carol II, and was arrested in 1934 for protesting against his rule. He returned to serve in two consecutive far-right governments, but, during World War II, emerged as a protector of the Romanian Jews, denouncing the policy of deportations to Transnistria. Despite this stance and his international profile, Gomoiu was arrested by the postwar communist regime, and spent time in confinement at Sighet and Aiud prisons. He had been posthumously rehabilitated by the 1980s, but his work was only fully recovered after the Romanian Revolution of 1989.