Hans (John H.) Salzer

Hans (Egon Felix, later: John Howard) SALZER born on July 31^st, 1914 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), son of Eduard Salzer (1879-1926, director of the AEG-Union, died in 1926) and Margarethe Salzer, née Glogau (1890-1973, remarried on April 12^th, 1938 to Ernst Alexander, b. 1899), lived in Vienna's 19^th district, Pyrkergasse 13 was enrolled at the Medical School from fall term of 1932/33 to fall term of 1936/37. In 1938 he was preparing for the final examinations/viva voce ("Rigorosen").

After the "Anschluss" in 1938, he was forced to abandon his studies/examination procedure for racist reasons and leave the University of Vienna, but after a long period of uncertainty, he was still able to obtain his doctorate on July 21^st, 1938, but only with the discriminating ceremony of a "Nichtarierpromotion", which included at the same time that he was banned from his profession in the entire German Reich. The diploma was taken over by a deputy, as Hans Salzer had already left the country by this time.

His younger brother Robert Otto Erich Salzer (b. November 9^th, 1918, Vienna), had left the Jewish Community in Vienna on September 24^th, 1936 as a high school graduate, was a member of the Red Student Union. In the fall term of 1936/37, he began studying economics at the then Hochschule für Welthandel (University of Economics) and took part in anti-fascist leaflet campaigns there. He was arrested and detained for six weeks and then banned from all Austrian universities for two years. So he left austrofascist Austria, went to Spain and fought on the Republican side against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. One trace leads to him in Madrigueras on September 28^th, 1937 - fter that, his trail is lost. At the end of December 1940, his German citizenship was revoked and his assets confiscated in favor of the Third Reich, but it is unclear whether he was still alive at this time. After the end of the Second World War, he was declared dead by the Vienna Regional Court for Civil Matters on October 8^th, 1948, and the date of his death was set as July 31^st, 1938.

Hans Salzer had to flee Vienna after the "Anschluss", but was arrested by the Gestapo on April 23^rd, 1938, and imprisoned in the Elisabethpromenade police prison. He had to carry out heavy physical labour in the Arsenal under the supervision of the Waffen-SS. The family's house and assets were expropriated (“aryanized”). He was imprisoned until May 9^th, 1938. His widowed mother managed to get U.S. visa on March 21^st at the U.S. embassy in Vienna, married the British subject Ernst Alexander/Alexandre (b. 1899 in Vienna) on April 12^th, 1938 in the synagogue in Tempelgasse in Vienna, became a British citizen by that and managed to organize the emigration via France for her son and herself. Therefor Hans Salzer could leave the prison on May 9^th and two days later they left Vienna for Paris on May 11^th. There they had to wait for their passage until May 25^th before they were able to emigrate with the SS Normandie to the U.S. via Le Havre/France and arrived in New York, NY, on May 30^th, 1938. After arriving in saftey in the U.S., his mother got divorced from Ernst Alexander on July 12^th 1938.
Hans Salzer quickly passed the “English for Foreigners” exam at the State University of New York in September 1938, lived in New York City, NY, from 1938-1942 and completed his medical training at various hospitals and clinics, including interning at St. Fancis Hospital in Wilmington, Del. in late 1938, at Beekman Hospital, NYC in the first half of 1939, and at the Jewish Hosptial of Brooklyn, NYC from 1940-1941 and received his medical license in NY. 1942-1962 he lived and worked in Bellmore, NY, and was registered as a general practitioner (G.P.) in Nassau county, NY.

He married the American and medical technologist Bella Hershberg (1915-1967) in Bronx, NYC/NY on December 23^rd, 1939, and they had three children, son Edward Salzer (1943), son Peter Salzer (1945) and daughter Kathy Neiss, née Salzer (1948). He was registered for the U.S.-Army in October 1940. He became a U.S. citizen in New York on August 26^th, 1943, and his first name was officially changed to "John Howard"´.
When his first wife died in 1967, they lived in Merrick, where she was a member of the sisterhood and Hadassah of the Merrick Jewish Center (son Peter then lived in Boston, son Edward in Los Angeles only daughter Kathy in Merrick) and John H. Salzer then practiced in Bellmore.
He then remarried Vienna born Gertrude Mautner (b. 1922) and they lived in Long Island.

In an application for compensation for occupational disadvantages in 1962, he stated:

“I had intended to specialize and study surgery after my graduation. As a result of the emigration, I had to become a general practitioner instead of a surgeon. This meant a great loss of earnings for many years.”

Dr. John H. Salzer, born Hans Egon Felix Salzer, died on August 5^th, 1972, in Nassau, NY/USA and is buried at the New Montefiore Cemetery in West Babylon, Suffolk County, NY (USA).

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1932-1938, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 1929-1941, No. 4113; Archive of the Economic Univiersity of Vienna/Karteikarte Disziplinarmaßnahmen Robert Salzer, Inskriptionsprotokoll Robert Salzer No. 19480; Austrian State Archives OeStA/AdR/NHF, OeStA/AdR/E-uReang/FLD 16153 und 30142; POSCH 2009, 370, www.myheritage.org, www.ancestry.de; www.myheritage.at; www.ancestry.de; VHA Shoah Foundation interview with Gertrud Salzer, née Mautner, from April 1^st, 1997 in Springfield, NJ/USA; information by courtesy of Dr. Barbara Sauer, Vienna 12/2024 and by Pd. Dr. Johannes Koll, WU Vienna, 12/2024..

Herbert Posch