Olga Speranza Plachte (verh. Wermer)

Born:	09-03-1913
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled student

Olga Speranza PLACHTE (later married WERMER), born on September 3^rd, 1913 in Zurich/Switzerland (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Tarnów/Poland, Citizenship: Poland), daughter of Ing. Leo Plachte (engineer) and Jadwiga, née Schwanenfeld, lived in Vienna's 9^th district, Garnisongasse 1/2, was enrolled finally in the spring term 1938 at the Medical School in the 5^th and last year of her studies. 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 withour graduation (Leaving Certificate ("Abgangszeugnis") was issued on July 19^th, 1938). She had to flee Austria and managed to emigrate via Le Havre/France with the SS Normandie to the USA where she arrived in New York on December 22^nd, 1938 and five days later married her Viennese fellow student Dr. Heinz (later: Henry) Wermer (b. August 15^th, 1913 in Vienna as son of dentist Dr. Leopold Wermer and Sofie, née Goldstern, d. November 5^th, 1968 in Newton, MA/U.S.). He had already received his M.D. at the University of Vienna on December 22^nd, 1936 and had already left Vienna for New York on July 24^th, 1938.

Olga Speranza Wermer-Plachte traveled from the USA to Europe for six months in 1939 to complete her studies in Switzerland at the University of Lausanne to obtain her medical degree. On August 17^th 1939, she returned to the U.S. as a doctor of medicine (M.D.) and lived and worked in the Boston area. She started her career practicing endocrinology and gynecology and later went into psychiatry. She was a graduate and a member of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and was on the attending staffs of McLean Hospital and Beth Israel Hospital. Besides she practiced for 30 years as psychoanalyst and psychiatrist in her own practice. She had two daughters, Dr. Hedy S. of Amhearst and Margaret R. of Needham.

Dr. Olga S. Wermer, née Plachte, was a resident of Newton in the end and died on April 21^st, 1993 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA and is burried at Sharon Memorial Park Sharon, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, USA.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937-1938; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 449; www.genteam.at; www.ancestry.de; obituary in The Boston Globe from April 24, 1993, 17.

Herbert Posch