| Born: | 02-21-1912 |
| Faculty: | Philosophical School |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Alexander STOCK (né Chajmowicz), born on February 21st, 1912 in Vienna/Austro-Hungarian Empire [Austria] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria) as the son of Julius Stock (né Chaskel Juda Chajmowicz, 1881-1944, merchant, owner of a perfumery until 1937) and Marie Chajmowicz Stock, née Lebelang (1882-1941), lived in Vienna's 2nd district, Josefinengasse 1/9. He had attended the Bundesgymnasium in Vienna's 2nd district and successfully passed the high school graduation (Matura) there on June 26th, 1930, and was subsequently enrolled at the Philosophical School from the fall term of 1930/31 to the spring term of 1934, taking courses in zoology and chemistry. He worked on his dissertation under Hans Przibram at the Zoological Department of the Biological Experimental Station ("Vivarium") of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna from 1933.
He was thus no longer enrolled at the Philosophical School in 1938, but was at the stage of final examinations. He had already registered for the viva voce in zoology on October 25th, 1937, and had passed the first viva on November 13th, 1937.
Under National Socialism, after the Anschluss, he was initially forced for racist reasons to abandon his studies respectivly to suspend the examinations and to leave the University of Vienna, as well as the Biological Research Institute. However, he was able to submit his dissertation on July 11th, 1938 (title: "Homeosis and regeneration speed in Dixippus morosus Br. et Redt. and other insects", supervisors: Versluys, Ehrenberg), which was approved on July 6th, 1938. On July 12th, 1938, he had also passed the second viva. Thus, after a long period of uncertainty, he was able to complete his studies after all and to obtain his doctorate on July 21st, 1938, amidst numerous symbolic discriminations in the context of a "non-Aryan doctorate," while at the same time being banned from working in the entire German Reich.
He had to flee Austria and was able to emigrate to Great Britain in time in 1938. Together with his future wife Selma, he was able to emigrate to Scotland, where, thanks to a Carnegie Research Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh, he was able to continue his studies with James Ritchie and submit another dissertation in 1940: "Changes in weight, volume and oxygen consumption during reorganization and regeneration in Sabella pavonina Sav." and in parallel taught practical exercises for students of natural sciences and medicine. From 1941 to 1943 he worked as a lecturer at Bedford College of the University of London, from 1943 at the Medical College of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and was active in the exile organization Free Austrian Movement (FAM), the Council of Austrians in Great Britain, and the Association of Austrians in Cambridge.
His younger brother Emil Stock (1914-1944), who had studied Oriental Studies and Philosophy at the University of Vienna, was also forced to abandon his studies after the Anschluss, leave the University of Vienna and was unable to graduate. He was arrested after the November pogrom and deported to the Dachau concentration camp, from where he was only released on April 14th, 1939 with the condition that he leave the Third Reich within 14 days. At the beginning of May 1939, he managed to emigrate to his brother Alexander in Edinburgh. He died in 1944 as a soldier in the Royal Army.
His father Julius was able to escape from Austria to Holland in time, but was later arrested in the German-occupied Netherlands, interned in the Westerbork collection camp and deported from there to Theresienstadt [Terezín/Czech Republic] in the German-occupied Czechoslovakian Republic and from there to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp [Oświęcim/Poland] on May 16th, 1944, where he was murdered shortly afterwards on May 31st, 1944. Alexander's mother Maria was unable to emigrate and died destitute in Vienna in 1941.
In 1948 Alexander and Selma Stock were naturalized and became British citizens and emigrated within the Commonwealth to Australia in 1949, where he taught at the University of New England in Armidale, from 1956 as Associate Professor and from 1965 as Full Professor (1958-1960 Dean of the Faculty of Science). His wife Selma Stock was involved in the Armidale Association for the Assimilation of Aborigines.
Alexander Stock died on August 31st, 1975 in Australia.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1930-1938, final examination registry and file ("Rigorosenprotokoll und -akt") PHIL No. 13805, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") PHIL 1931-1941 No. 2844; ROEDER 1983, 1131; POSCH 2009, 367; Yad Vashem | Shoah Victims' Names; DOeW|Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance, database Austrian Victims of the Holocaust; Memorial Book ÖAW.
Herbert Posch
