| Born: | 06-01-1914 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Fritz (Frederick Mark) REIS, born on June 1st, 1914 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), son of Martin Reis (?-1940, merchant) and Henriette Reis, née Stark (1873-?), lived in Vienna's 2nd district, Leopoldsgasse 26/12, was last enrolled in the spring term of 1938 at the Medical School in the 4th year of his studies.
Under National Socialism, after the "Anschluss," he was forced to quit his studies for racist reasons. After being one of the few Jewish students admitted under the numerus clausus to continue his studies for about three months until the end of the spring term of 1938, he was nevertheless forced to leave the University of Vienna without a degree (leaving certificate dated September 26th, 1938).
He had to flee Austria, but before he succeeded in doing so, he was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the Dachau concentration camp in Bavaria, where he was registered on June 3rd, 1938, with prisoner number 15375 and transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany, on September 22nd. He was released from there on February 7th, 1939, on condition that he leave the country immediately, and he managed to emigrate to the United States in time, arriving in New York, NY, on April 10th, 1939, from Rotterdam, Netherlands, on the ship SS Zaandam.
He lived and worked in Chicago, IL, from 1940 onwards, initially at Michael Reese Hospital, where he was examined for the US Army on October 16th, 1939 (he then joined the US Army on September 24th, 1943) and was able to complete his medical studies at the University of Illinois Medical College as part of the army until the end of the war.
In May 1941 he married Berlin born Carola Kupfer (1917-1988) in Chicago, with whom he had three children: son Mark L. Reis (b. 1946), and daughters Janet of St. Louis and Deborah Brusbeen of Champaign, IL. Upon becoming a naturalized citizen on November 10th, 1943, he changed his name to Frederick Mark Reis.
At the time of the April 1950 census, he was living in Bismark, North Dakota, and working as a physician at the local clinic. He then lived for a long time in Mattoon, where he became head of the X-ray laboratory at Memorial Hospital in 1951, and from 1972 in Effingham, IL/USA, where he worked as head of radiology at the Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center.
He was a member of the American Medical Association and the Radiological Society.
Frederick Mark Reis M.D., born Fritz Reis, died on May 8th, 1992, in Carle Arbours in Savoy, Effingham, Illinois, USA.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937–1938; Arolsen Archives: Dachau concentration camp room card and access book, Buchenwald concentration camp individual records for men, index card from the Office for the Registration of War Victims in Berlin; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 456; REITER-ZATLOUKAL/SAUER 2025; www.ancestry.de
Herbert Posch
