Martha Geiringer

Born:	08-28-1912
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Expelled student

Martha GEIRINGER, born on August 28^th, 1912 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), daughter of Wilhelm Geiringer (coffee house owner, 1881-1930) and Irma, née Koerner (1885-1957) lived in Vienna's 20^th district, Rauscherstrasse 14/15a.
She had studied from 1931 to 1935 at the Philosophical School of the University of Vienna and took classes in biology and sociology and moved without graduation to to the "Biologische Versuchsanstalt" (BVA) of the Austrian Academy of Science in Vienna's Prater, where she continued to work theoretically and practical on her topics in research.
To formally end her academic education with graduation she enrolled again at the University of Vienna in fall term 1937/38. Her doctoral thesis was advised by Hans Przibram, extraordinary professor of zoology at the university and head of the zoological department art the BVA. In 1938, after the takeover of power of National-Socialism she was forced to quit her studies for racist reason and to leave the University of Vienna without graduation. She was neither allowed to work at the Academy of Sciences, but she managed to escape from Vienna in time and emigrated to Belgium with her sister Gertrude (1918-2002) and tried to resume and complete her studies in biology at the University of Ghent, but this was hindered by the German Consulate in Belgium in 1939. Her sister emigrated to England in 1939 and later to the USA, but Martha Geiringer remained in Ghent for the time being and was unable to flee after the occupation of Belgium by Nazi Germany in May 1940. She was arrested several times and after her last imprisonment was first transferred to the internment camp Caserne Dossin in Mechelen/Malines and from there deported to the German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau [Oświęcim/Poland] on January 15^th, 1943, where she perished (time of death unknown). The composer, pianist and nephew of Martha Geiringer, Frederick Adler, dedicated the string quartet # 1 "In memoriam Martha Geiringer" to her memory, which was premiered in Ghent in May 2005.

Lit.: DÖW 2001; Gedenkbuch für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus an der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften; testimonial at www.yadvashem.org, www.yadvashem.org [March 2006]; Johannes Feichtinger/Herbert Matis/Stefan Sienell/Heidemarie Uhl, Hg., Die Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien 1938 bis 1945, Vienna 2013, 111; Klaus Taschwer, Hochburg des Antisemitismus. Der Niedergang der Universität Wien im 20. Jahrhundert, Vienna 2015, 233; Marc VERSCHOORIS, Uit de lus van de Strop. Gentaars in de bres voor de Joodse bevolking 1940-1944, Gent 2020; www.ancestry.de; www.genteam.at; information from Dr. Nina Knieling, Vienna 04/2021, information from Marc Verschooris, Ghent 05/2021; link to memorial video Gent 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsPTlC5BO8g.

Herbert Posch