Born Breslau, May 26, 1924. Died Liverpool, January 8, 2009, aged 84.
March 19, 2009 11:44A much loved and highly regarded member of the Liverpool Jewish community, Dr Ellen Shiffman was a devoted GP to her patients in a tough area of the city.
Born Ellen Rosenthal in Breslau in Germany (now Wroclaw in Poland), she was 14 when she came to England in 1938 with her mother. Her father, Felix, had come over in 1936 and her brother, David, in 1935.
She came from a distinguished family. Her great-uncle, David Kaufmann, was a well-known scholar. Her grandfather, Ferdinand Rosenthal, was rabbi of Breslau, her uncle was Chief Rabbi Margulies of Florence. Her father had been appointed head of the Jewish Hospital in Hamburg in 1930.
Her mother Else was a Jarislowsky, a notable banking family in Germany. Ellen wore her rabbinical, medical and financial genealogy lightly and worked with self-effacing kindness.
Moving from Breslau to Hamburg with her father’s new job, Ellen was forced out of school on Hitler’s accession to power in 1933, and went to the Jewish Girls’ School in 1933, where she made lifetime friendships.
Her new life in England, attending school in Leicester, was interrupted at 16 when she was interned without her parents on the Isle of Man. While being marched there, ironically through the streets of Liverpool where she eventually made her home, she was pelted with insults and rubbish.
One of the first women to be released from internment, she studied medicine at Edinburgh University and married Ken Shiffman, a fellow medical student, in 1949.
She balanced her full-time work as a family doctor with bringing up her three children and looking after her mother-in-law. She was a strong swimmer, excellent golfer and enjoyed bridge.
She took a keen interest in politics, and was entertainingly scathing about politicians’ humbug and what she saw happening to the NHS and education.
Renowned for the empathy she brought to her patients’ care, she was elected a fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1980.
Her quiet, unobtrusive but constant concern for others knew no bounds. Her Judaism was practical rather than spiritual, reflected in her Friday night dinners and wonderful Seders.
A member of the local branch of the Association of Jewish Refugees, she guided visitors round the Anne Frank Exhibition during Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2008.
She is survived by her husband, Ken; two sons, David and Ian; a daughter, Susie; and eight grandchildren.