| Born: | 10-04-1913 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Isak RUBINGER, born on October 4th, 1913 in Stanislau, Galicia/Austro-Hungarian Empire [later: Stanisławów/Poland, today: Ivano-Frankivsk|Івано-Франківськ/Ukraine] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), son of Meschulim Rubinger (1887-? knitter) and Minka Sissel Rubinger, née Grünberg (1887-?, knitter), lived in Vienna from 1917. In 1938 he lived with his parents in Vienna's 10th district, Ettenreichgasse 6/15, was last enrolled in the 4th year at the Faculty of Medicine in the spring term of 1938, but last term was no longer credited.
In 1938, after the takeover of power of National-Socialism he was forced to quit his studies for racist reason and to leave the University of Vienna (Leaving Certificate, "Abgangszeugnis", issued on June 24th, 1938).
Although his father applied to the emigration department of the Jewish Community for support for the entire family to emigrate to the USA in May 1938, he probably did not succeed in emigrating, but he is likely to have survived in Vienna, as he is included in a list of doctors who provided medical care for the 6,000 Hungarian Jewish forced laborers from summer 1944, even though he was not yet a doctor. He also worked at the Rothschild Hospital, among other places, as he testified in 1945 as a witness against Dr. Emil Tuchmann, the arrested medical officer of the Council of Elders of the Jews in Vienna and the Gestapo, who was accused by some Jewish victims of having handed over employees of the Rothschild Hospital for deportation who did not comply with the regulations, but who was also defended by doctors and staff of the hospital:
"If Dr. T. ever responded to a greeting from an employee, then he must have been in a very good mood. The hospital employees were abused by T. in the most foul-mouthed manner and each of these people can and will confirm that no one was as feared [sic] as Dr. Tuchmann, even though he was only a Jew. [...] It can therefore be said that it depended only on T. whether someone was assigned to the transport, or, I would improve, whether they were declared indispensable or not. I know of no case where someone was warned of his evacuation in time so that he could have continued to live as a submarine." (Transcript by Isak Rubinger, September 10, 1945, DÖW 17142 a, Vienna Police Directorate, State Police, Ref. II D, cited in Angetter/Kanzler 2017, 65)
Isak Rubinger had to move several times in Vienna - in 1940 he lived in Vienna 17, Artariagasse 5, in 1941 in Vienna 9, Liechtensteinstraße 73/6, in 1942 in Vienna 2, Zirkusgasse 15/3/36, from August 1943 in Hafnergasse 5/11, at the end of December 1943 in Vienna 2, Leopoldsgasse 9/2/9, after the end of the war he moved to Vienna 9, Alserbachstraße 17/12 on May 16, 1945.
On July 19th, 1946, Isak Rubinger received his doctorate from the University of Vienna as "Dr.med.univ" (in the doctoral transcript, however, the place of birth is given as "Knihinin in Russia, home to Vienna").
He had his first name officially changed from "Isak" to "Erich" in January 1947 and was admitted to the Baumgartner Höhe pulmonary sanatorium in Vienna 14, Sanatoriumsstraße 2 at the beginning of June 1947, where he died six weeks later.
Dr. Erich (née Isak) Rubinger died on August 11th, 1947 in the pulmonary sanatorium in Vienna 14 and was buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery/New Jewish Cemetery (Gate 4).
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937–1938, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 1941-1949, No. 1472; DÖW 17142 a; Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv/Ärztekarteikarten; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 462; Eleonore LAPPIN, Ungarisch-jüdische Zwangsarbeiter und Zwangsarbeiterinnen in Österreich 1944, Vienna/Berlin/Munster 2010, 84; Helga EMBACHER, Viennese Jewish Functionaries on Trial. Accusations, Defense Strategies, and Hidden Agendas, in: Laura Jockusch & Gabriel N. Finder (eds.), Jewish Honor Courts: Revenge, Retribution, and Reconciliation in Europe and Israel after the Holocaust, Detroit 2015, 182, 196; Daniela ANGETTER & Christine KANZLER, "... to arrange everything immediately so that the Jew disappears as a doctor". Jüdische Ärztinnen und Ärzte in Wien 1938-1945, in: Herwig Czech & Paul Weindling (eds.), Österreichische Ärzte und Ärztinnen im Nationalsozialismus (=DÖW-Jahrbuch 47), Vienna 2017, 47–66, 65; Michaela RAGGAM-BLESCH, Zwischen Rettung und Deportation. Jewish health care under Nazi rule in Vienna, in: ibid., 67–88, 86; REITER-ZATLOUKAL/SAUER 2025; information by courtesy of Dr. Barbara Sauer, Vienna 07/2024.
Herbert Posch
