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Charlotte Chaney

October 15, 1921–August 5, 2011

by JWA Staff
Our work to expand the Encyclopedia is ongoing. We are providing this brief biography for Charlotte Chaney until we are able to commission a full entry.

Lt. Charlotte Ellner Cahney (far right) was one of the first Army nurses to arrive to assist the survivors of Dachau.

Lieutenant Charlotte Ellner Chaney was permanently changed by her work as one of the first army nurses to help survivors of Dachau recover from their ordeal. Chaney volunteered for the Army Air Corps in 1944 and was sent to Europe with the Red Cross in 1945 to help save concentration camp survivors who were near death from TB and malnutrition. For three months, she worked around the clock, trying to strengthen women and children who had been starved for so long that their bodies could no longer tolerate food. Despite her efforts, she still lost hundreds of patients who were too far gone to save. After the war, Chaney worked as a nurse at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Miami, and later with children suffering from cystic fibrosis. She also volunteered with a number of Jewish organizations, including the Holocaust Center in Miami.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Charlotte Chaney." (Viewed on March 18, 2024) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/chaney-charlotte>.