| Born: | 10-04-1914 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Johann (Janos A., Joan, später: Yanush) SCHOSSBERGER, born on October 4th, 1914 in Budapest/Austro-Hungarian Emire [Hungary] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Timișoara/Romania, citizenship 1938: Romania), son of Dr. Alexander/Šandor Schossberger (1880-1930, pediatrist in Timișoara, and director of the pediatric policlinic in Timișoara) and Roza Rachel Schossberger, née Reichard (?-1930), lived at various addresses in Vienna, most recently in 1938 in Vienna's 19th district, Billrothstrasse 20, was last enrolled in the spring term of 1937 at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in the 5th and last year of his studies ("Absolutorium" was certified on July 18th, 1938).
Johann Schossberger was no longer enrolled at the Medical School in 1938, but was preparing for the final examinations ("Rigorosen"). After a lengthy period of uncertainty, he was able to complete his studies after all and was awarded his doctorate on July 21th, 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.
He had been an orphan since 1930 and on April 5th, 1936 married the American Stella Kalmar (1915-2020), born in New York in 1915 as the daughter of Hungarian immigrants and had lived with her parents in Baden near Vienna since 1919. Johann Schossberger had to flee Vienna and returned with his wife to his hometown of Timișoara in Romania, where a general mobilization of the army had been declared a few months earlier, which is why he was then considered a deserter and imprisoned. At this time, his son Michael (Moshe, Misi) was only 7 months old. His wife had divorced him by the advice of her father, in order to regain her American citizenship and to go to the U.S. in 1939 attempting to bring her parents, ex husband and son there, which failled. She went to Chicago and was stuck there for one year: refused to go back, and refused to bring her family. Johann Schossberger was awaiting military trial, working in a sawmill. His ex-wife’s father, Alexander, payed a bribe to let him go. He was eventually mobilized as a non combat soldier, working in a horse stable in Sibiu and then returned to Timișoara.
He planned to emigrate to the British Mandatory of Palestine [Israel]. The only option for him and his younger brother Andrei/Bundy Schossberger (1918-1963) was to enter the country illegally and so he traveled on the notorious refugee ship Darien II, a cargo ship, from November 1940 from Constanța/Romania via Sulina/Romania, Varna/Bulgaria and Istanbul/Turkey until he arrived in Haifa/Palestine on March 19th, 1941. The approximately 880 illegal refugees were taken by the British to the Atlit detainee camp. Johann Schossberger was interned there and in the Beer Yaakov camp until 1943.
In March 1943, he volunteered to join the British Army (RAF) as Joan Schossberger MD, became a lieutenant and served in Egypt, Iraq and Kurdistan until 1948. He then settled in Israel, where his daughter Evi (Eve Rachel) was born in Haifa in 1944. With the end of British Mandatory and his resignation from the RAF, he briefly became a British citizen and finally became an Israeli citizen in May 1948 under the name Yanush Schossberger.
He moved to Jerusalem and enlisted in the Israeli army. His second son was born. Unable to find work, he trained in psychiatry in the psychiatric clinics and departments in Akko, Gehhah, Beer Yaakov and Bat Yam. Eventually he got a job in Kfar Shaul, a state psychiatric hospital. His fourth child, daughter Ruti, was born and he soon became director of the hospital. Shortly afterwards, he was recognized as a psychoanalyst by the Israeli Psychoanalytical Society.
In 1979, at the age of 65, he retired from the hospital management.
Dr. Yanush Schossberger, née Janos/Johann Schossberger, died on November 7th, 1986 in Israel and is buried at Har Hamenuchot Cemetery, Jerusalem/Israel.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1935-1938, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 1929-1941 No. 4114; POSCH 2009, 370; REITER-ZATLOUKAL/SAUER 2025; http://www.psychoanalysis.org.il/en/schossberger-dr-yanush/; information by courtesy of his son Eli Guy, Ramat Raziel/Israel 12/2020; www.myheritage.at, www.familysearch.org, www.geni.com.
Herbert Posch, Katharina Kniefacz
