Remembering our German Professors
Ladies and gentlemen, I am Thiettranh Tran, one of the Class Four graduates. I am honored to stand here this evening to talk about our German founding professors of the Hue School of Medicine.
I have very fond and tender memories of Professor Krainick.  For the greater part of my third year of medical school, I often went for morning rounds in the Pediatric Ward with Professor Krainick. I always enjoyed picking his brains about life and work. I admired him very much for the wisdom he shared and looked up to him as a mentor, role model and great human being.
Another memory involving Professor Krainick is quite funny to me; it was in my second year of medical school, my classmates and I were doing morning rounds in the Internal Medicine Ward with Professor Disher and his assistant Dr. Tôn Thất Hứa. Professor Krainick unexpectedly burst into the room with command and purpose and had a serious-sounding discussion in German with Professor Disher. As they talked, they kept looking over at us and then I heard a word from Professor Disher that sounded like “xoay bài!” Our hearts nearly stopped as we were all very familiar with the notorious Vietnamese idiom, “xoay bài,” which meant that the hot seat was waiting to make unprepared students sweat from the professor’s intensive quizzing. That was always a nerve-wracking experience for all of the students except for me of course. I was always prepared, (yeah, right!) 
Another person that I also have endearing memories of is Professor Eric Wulff. He was always ready and willing to help his students and answer any questions no matter how silly they were sometimes. My family was also very fortunate to have Professor Wulff as my grandfather’s physician. I remember nearly countless times I consulted with Professor Wulff regarding the treatment of my grandfather’s illnesses and the valuable insight I gained from those consultations.
As for Professor Disher, I remember him most for his compassionate care for all of his patients. I remember during a bedside visit with a delirious patient who was at his terminal phase of nephrosis, the patient, agitated, yelled and screamed curse words while Professor Disher examined him. Professor Disher only responded with love and understanding. He said to the patient in a calm and soothing tone, “I know that you’re suffering and in pain; I know... and I’m trying to help.”  I was so moved by his actions that I had tears in my eyes.
Those are some of the fond memories that I have of our German founding professors of the Hue School of Medicine. But the compassion and kindness of these wonderful doctors was cut short which led me to wonder how good people and evil people can share the same world. Most of us here today know firsthand of the horrors that happened in Viet Nam and of the evil Communist people that committed those atrocities. They may believe they had no choice but to commit those crimes, but one thing I know for sure is that we always have the freedom to choose compassion over evil. Our professors gave their lives to teach us this final lesson.
We are all here this evening because the sacrifices our teachers made allowed us to be here. It is our privilege and our duty to remember our honored teachers and celebrate their lives! They were extraordinary not just for what they did in their professions, but also for who they were:  exemplary human beings, whose boundless compassion for others, lives on in each of us as their enduring legacies.  Thank you!

Trần Thiết Tranh