| Born: | 02-08-1913 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Bernhard SIGAL (später: Bernard SHERIDAN), born on February 8th, 1913 in Vienna/Austria in Vienna's 16th district, Grundsteingasse (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), the middle child and only son of Israel Sigal (1887–1941) and Jocheved Sigal, née Bauchmann Beutel (1881–1941). His maternal aunt's family, the Lemlers, lived nearby. Later, the Sigal family moved to Vienna's 16th district, Weyprechtgasse 3/3, where Bernhard's father had a textile shop.
Bernhard Sigal attended Gymnasium in Vienna's 16th district, Maroltingergasse, then enrolled at the Medical School at the University of Vienna in 1932. At that time he lived in Vienna's 9th district, Strudlhofgasse 4/11, was last enrolled in the fall term 1937/38 at the Medical School in the 3rd year of his studies.
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"] was issued on July 11th, 1938).
On May 23rd, 1938, he had already applied to the emigration office of the Jewish Community Vienna for assistance in reaching "North or South America or English colonies" for himself, his parents and his sister Sara Sali (1920–2000), when he was warned by a fellow student in Nazi uniform that he would be arrested. He dis-enrolled and fled from Austria in 1938. He escaped via Switzerland to Lens, France, where he lived from 1938 until 1940 with his Herscher cousin and her family, who had escaped from Budapest/Hungary. When the Nazis occupied France, Bernhard Sigal joined the Free French Army to provide medical services, and was evacuated at Dunkirk.
In England, Bernhard was confined as an "enemy alien" in Pentonville Prison, then sent on the ship "Ettrick" to Canada. Here he was kept in various prison camps in the far north. When freed in February 1942, he joined the Canadian Army, and attended Queen's University in Kingston for his M.D. degree.
On July 26th, 1946 in Niagara Falls, NY/USA, he married Liesel Zwienicki (1921–1988), a refugee from Germany whose mother had been murdered in Bremen on November 9th/10th, 1938 ("Kristallnacht"). They had a family of seven children and lived and worked in Canada. Liesel died in 1988 in Ottawa, Ontario/Kanada.
Bernhard Sigal practiced General Medicine, then specialized in Eye / Ear-Nose-Throat, finally only in Ophthalmology. When he retired in 1977, he returned to Vienna.
In 1999, he received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Vienna. He died in Vienna on June 29th, 1999, at age 86, and is buried in the Zentralfriedhof.
Bernhard Sigal lost most of his family during the war: parents, older sister with her husband and daughter, Lemler family except for a daughter, entire Herscher family, and several dozen other relatives.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937-1938; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 475; information of his daughter Selma Sheridan M.D., 2009, 2019; KNIEFACZ/POSCH 2017c; https://www.ancestry.de, https://www.myheritage.at.
Herbert Posch
