Rapoport studied medicine in Hamburg in Nazi Germany, but was denied a medical degree because her mother was of Jewish ancestry.

In the early 1950s, as a result of an investigation of her and her husband for un-American activities, she left the United States and eventually, after staying in Vienna for a year, moved to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

[2] In 2015, the Faculty of Medicine of Hamburg University corrected the injustice of the Nazi regime and awarded her a medical degree after an oral examination.

[6] Ingeborg Syllm studied medicine at the University of Hamburg and passed the state examination as a physician in 1937.

[5] Because she was categorized as a "Mischling" (i.e. someone with both Jewish and "Aryan" ancestry) by the Nazis, she was not permitted to defend her thesis and was denied the medical degree.

She completed her graduate education at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (absorbed by Drexel University) in Philadelphia and received an M.D.

[8] While in Vienna, they looked for work in several west European countries including England, France, and Scandinavia who were reluctant to take communist immigrants seeking political asylum.

[12] She described the critical depiction of East Germany in German media and scholarship and inquiries into the crimes of the Stasi as "slander.

In particular, she praised the healthcare system of East Germany for guaranteeing everybody the same treatment, irrespective of social background or wealth.

[5] Rapoport claimed that even modern society can learn from East Germany and said that "I'm nostalgic for certain aspects of the GDR.

In 2015, the Faculty of Medicine of Hamburg University corrected the injustice of Nazi Germany to deny Rapoport the defense of her doctoral thesis.

First the dean of the faculty of medicine suggested a honorary doctorate, but Rapoport persisted in a full oral examination of her thesis written 77 years earlier including new research advances in the field.