| Born: | 05-17-1889 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Deprivation of academic degree |
Siegfried BERL was born on May 17th, 1889 in Wiener Neustadt, Lower Austria/Austro-Hungarian Empire as son of Bernhard Berl and Auguste Berl, née Deutsch. He had studied medicine at the University of Vienna and received the degree of "Dr.med.univ." from the Medical School on January 23rd, 1914. He worked as a general practitioner in Vienna's 11th district, Simmeringer Hauptstrasse 113, and from 1924 was the district doctor of the Vienna Workers' Insurance Fund.
After the Anschluss he was persecuted as a Jew for racist reasons and could no longer continue to work as a doctor. On November 10th, 1938, in the course of the Reich Pogrom Night, he was arrested, interned and deported to the Dachau concentration camp for four months, where he was only released on February 4th, 1939, in exchange for the promise of immediate emigration.
He was expelled from his apartment and practice, resettled in Jewish collective apartments in Vienna's 3rd district, Dampfschiffgasse 3, later in Vienna's 1st district, Maria-Theresien-Strasse 10 and last in Schottenring 9/9, all property was expropriated and he only succeeded in leaving on October 24th, 1939, officially with destination Bolivia, in real he illegally left for the British Mandate territory Palestine [Israel], where he arrived on February 12th, 1940 and was interned for two years in the camp Athlit and even after his release he could not work as a doctor because of the illegal entry. After working in a coffee house and as an auxiliary policeman, he was finally able to work again from mid-1944 as a contract physician with the health insurance fund and as a general practitioner in private practice.
In August 1941, the German Reich Ministry of the Interior in Berlin (RIM) opened expatriation proceedings against Siegfried Berl, whereby his German citizenship was to be revoked, his assets confiscated and he was to be rendered stateless. In the course of these proceedings, the RIM, via the Reich Ministry of Education in Berlin, requested the Rectorate of the University of Vienna on September 4th, 1941, to also revoke Berl's academic degree, which he had earned 27 years earlier, as a further legal consequence.
The expatriation was decided on October 16th, 1941, and came into effect with the announcement in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger of October 18th, 1941.
At the University of Vienna, he was subsequently deprived of his doctoral degree on July 14th, 1942, for racist reasons, since he was considered "as a Jew unworthy of an academic degree from a German university" under National Socialism.
Only 13 years after the deprivation and long after the end of National Socialism, the doctoral degree was granted to him again on May 15th, 1955, or the deprivation was declared "null and void from the beginning", but without informing him.
He had been a citizen of Palestine [Israel] since January 1945 and continued to live at 69 Moriah Street, Mt. Carmel, Haifa/Israel, and was also an Austrian citizen again from 1956, returned to Vienna for a short time and, due to his economic hardship and his health restrictions (80% incapacitated), also applied for compensation or support from Austria in the mid-1950s.
He had married Rosa Schoenfeld (born 1902 in Vienna) in Vienna in 1955.
Since his claims for support in Vienna were only recognized to a very limited extent, he moved to Grado in Italy in 1958 after a short stay in Vienna, where friends were able to provide him with material support, and finally to Vienna, which meant that he finally lost all the support he had been granted only abroad.
Siegfried Berl last lived with his wife Rosa in Vienna's 3rd district, Stanislausgasse 16/I/8, died in Vienna on January 31st, 1961 and is buried in the Central Cemetery, New Jewish Section.
Lit.: Archives of the University of Vienna/graduation regitry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 1912-1919 No. 481, Rectorate GZ 118 ex 1941/42 No 106, GZ 561 ex 1944/45 No 15; Austrian State Archives OeStA/ CoR/ E-uReang/ VVSt/ VA/ 29672, OeStA/ CoR/ E-uReang/ Hilfsfonds/ Abgeltungsfonds 4864, OeStA/ CoR/ E-uReang/ FLD 4646; Vienna City and State Archives WStLA/ 1.3.2.119. A41 I-810, District: 4, WStLA/ 1.3.2.119.A41 83; 190; E-63, District: 11; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM RG-68.067M: Illegal immigration to Palestine (RG 17); Deutscher Reichsanzeiger No. 244 of October 18th, 1941; POSCH 2009, 393; REITER-ZATLOUKAL/SAUER 2022; www.genteam.at; www.ancestry.de; information from Dr. Barbara Sauer, Vienna 07/2022.
Herbert Posch
