J. Eingorn, 88, dentist, World War II veteran

Even before America entered World War II, Julius Eingorn enlisted in the Army, doing so as soon as possible after graduating from Temple University School of Dentistry in 1941.

And in April 1945, Maj. Eingorn was among the first wave of troops to liberate a Nazi concentration camp near the town of Ohrdruf. For years, he shared that experience with groups of schoolchildren who might have been unfamiliar with the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

In the late 1990s, said his daughter-in-law, Patricia Eingorn, he was interviewed for two days at his home by Steven Spielberg's Shoah Visual History Foundation as part of its gathering of thousands of interviews about the Holocaust.

On Wednesday, Dr. Eingorn, 88, president of the Philadelphia County Dental Society in 1990-91, died at Hahnemann University Hospital after being injured in a fall. He lived in Center City.

Though in mid-1941 this country had not yet entered the war that had been raging in Europe since 1939, Dr. Eingorn knew that he wanted to fight the Nazis. He "was adamant about joining the military right when he got out" of medical school, his daughter-in-law said.

"He failed the eye test" for the military, she said. "So he went to a friend who was an ophthalmologist and memorized the eye chart, went back, and said he's seeing much better today. Passed the test."

His first assignment was at an Army hospital at Valley Forge; she said "he started a dental service there for the military."

The Web site of the 89th Infantry Division, which liberated Ohrdruf, states that it "was a work camp, not an extermination camp, but the difference is difficult to discern."

"Prisoners were literally worked to death and disposed of by burning in incinerators, which was the most 'cost-effective method.' "

Dr. Eingorn himself, in an Inquirer interview for the May 1995 anniversary of V-E Day, said: "It's hard to remember, generally, what happened 50 years ago, but this is something you don't forget easily."

During his retirement, from six years ago "to the day he died," his daughter-in-law said, he ran the program of the Philadelphia Dental Society that delivers treatment to the homebound.

And for the last eight to 10 years, she said, he was a member of Center City Concerned Citizens.

Dr. Eingorn is survived by his wife of 33 years, Elizabeth; a son, Stephen; s daughter, Sharon Polsky; stepchildren Frederick Cogen and Emily Herold; nine grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. His first wife, Ruth, died in 1972 after 30 years of marriage.

A 12:30 p.m. funeral service is set for today at Goldsteins' Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks, 6410 N. Broad St. Burial will be in Haym Salomon Memorial Park, Frazer.