Otto Abeles

Born:	05-01-1879
Faculty:	Law School
Category:	Deprivation of academic degree

Otto ABELES (born on May 1^st, 1879 in Rohatetz bei Nikolsburg, Mähren, died on May 25^th, 1945 in Buchenwald/Kommando Tröglitz), had graduated at the Law School at the University of Vienna on December 22^nd, 1905 with the academic degree 'Dr. iur.'. He was a lawyer and a journalist. He was co-founder of the zionistic student fraternity "Veritas", co-founder of the zionistic movement in Bohemia and Moravia as well as co-founder of the first zionistic daily newspaper "Wiener Morgenzeitung" (1919-27). Until 1928 he worked at the Austrian Railway Company (OEBB) and was a senior servant ('Bahnrat'). He emigrated to Amsterdam/The Netherlands. and was therefor deprived of his german citizenship and also deprived of his academic degree on May 8^th, 1941 with the racist argument, that he as a Jew was not considered dignified an academic degree of a German university ('eines akademischen Grades einer deutschen Hochschule unwürdig'). He was deported to the Camp Westerbork in 1944, later on deported to the Camp Bergen-Belsen. Shortly after the liberation of the camp, he died because of 'Flecktyphus'. His son became a physician and emigrated to Israel.
It took 62 years since the deprivation - and a very long time since the end of Nazism - until the regranting of the doctorate took finally place on April 10th, 2003 posthumously in a solemn ceremony.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") IUR 1903-1908, Nr 653, rectorate GZ 1309 ex 1939/40, GZ GZ 1416 ex 1939/40, GZ 140 ex 2002/03; Deutscher Reichsanzeiger Nr. 289, Dezember 9^th, 1940; BOLBECHER/KAISER 2000, 24; BLUMESBERGER 2002, 2; POSCH/STADLER 2005, 65f.; POSCH 2009, 206, 274, 385; SILVERMAN 2012, 153; ÖBL 2011 (E. Adunka); www.joodsmonument.nl; Yad Vashem | Shoah Victims' Names.

Herbert Posch