| Born: | 04-05-1917 |
| Faculty: | Philosophical School |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Ruth STEIN (married SOMMER), born on April 5th, 1917 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), daughter of Dr. Ernst Stein (physician, 1881-1957) and Malke Stein (nee Haar, 1886-1944). They lived in Vienna's 19th district, Peter-Jordan-Strasse 82. Ruth Stein had graduated from highschool on June 6, 1935 (at Waehringer Maedchen-Realgymnasium in Vienna's 18th district, Gymnasiumstr. 38) and immatriculated at the University of Vienna at the Philosophical School and she was enrolled finally in the spring term 1938 in the 3rd year of her studies and took courses in Pharmaceutics and Chemistry.
She was not allowed to finish her studies after the "Anschluss" for racist reason and she had to flee from Austria, like the rest of her family. Her brother Paul Stein (1913-2000) who had graduated at the Medical School on March 4, 1938 (only 8 days before the “Anschluss”) could emigrate via Sweden to the USA. Former patients of her father - a leading doctor and head of the Hospital of the Viennese Mercantile Community - were a big help to get the visa and affidavits for him and his wife to leave Austria to London and eventually to the USA.
Ruth Stein could emigrate to Great Britain with a nursing training visa and in 1939 to the USA. She was not able to continue her studies under the conditions of emigration, but could start medical-technician studies in September 1940 at the School of Clinical Laoratory Technology at St. Mary's Hospital in Madison Wisconsin and graduated in September 1942. She worked from January 1943 to January 1948 as a laboratory assistant at the Montefiori Hospital in New York/NY. In November 1945 she was naturalized and became a cititzen oft he USA. She lived in different parts of the USA e.g. in New York/NY and later in Albany, Schenectady and Rochester/NY. In January 1948 she married Dr. Moses Sommer (1911-2008) from Tarnów in Galicia/Austro-Hungaria [Tarnów/Poland]. They had a son, Henry who became a lawyer later on, and two daughters, Margaret, who had a small business, and Susan, a nurse practitioner.
Ruth Sommer, nee Stein, deceased on January 15, 2012 in Rochester, Monroe County/NY.
Lit.: information from her son Henry Sommer, USA 2017; geni.
Herbert Posch
