| Born: | 12-26-1900 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled teacher |
Edmund VERMES, born on December 26th, 1900 in Szombathely, Hungary/Austro-Hungarian Empire [Hungary] (right of domicile and citizenship until 1919: Hungary, thereafter until 1938: Austria), was an assistant or demonstrator with a scholarship at the University Clinic for Ear, Nose and Larynx Diseases (directed by Prof. Heinrich Neumann) at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in 1938.
He was persecuted under National Socialism for racist reasons and expelled from the University of Vienna in April 1938.
He had received his "Dr.med.univ." from the University of Vienna on June 6th, 1924 and was then at the ENT clinic from October 1925 to March 1938 - from July 1st, 1928 as an assistant. He published numerous scientific articles, many in the Monatsschrift für Ohrenheilkunde, and was a member of the Vienna Oto-Laryngological Society from 1930. He also had his own ENT medical practice, initially in Vienna's 2nd district, Taborstrasse 17A and lived in Vienna's 7th district, Zollergasse 2, from 1935 both in Vienna's 1st district, Dominikanerbastei 21. In 1935 he had also married Magdalena Szasz-Propper (1900-1990), a doctor's daughter, also from Hungary, in the Vienna City Temple.
He had to flee Austria with his wife after the Anschluss and managed to emigrate in time to France in June 1938, on to Madrid/Spain in 1942 and finally on September 15th, 1943 via Lisbon/Portugal and Funchal/Madeira with the SS Lourenco Marques to the USA, where they both arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania/USA on October 4th, 1943. He was promptly mustered into the U.S. Army but was not drafted and they lived at different addresses in New York. He was granted U. S. citizenship in April 1949 (at that time he lived at 41-44, 44th str., L.I.C., Brooklyn, NYC), in the April 1950 census he lived at 108/109 34th Ave, Queens, NYC, and finally at 109/19 72nd Ave, Forest Hills, Queens, NYC from 1952 on. He had his own practice all these years at 625 Park Avenue, Manhattan, NYC.
His wife Magdalena, who had worked in Vienna as a medical assistant and secretary in his practice, took the opportunity to study ceramics in emigration and became a successful ceramist in the US.
After the end of the war, his sister Ella Rapaport (later Rappert, 1903-?) and her husband, the journalist Hugo Rapaport (1901-1966) and their daughter Eva Gloria (1929-2014) also emigrated from Neuilly sur Seine/France to join them in New York City in May 1948.
Edmund Vermes died in October 1974 in New York City, NY/USA.
Lit.: Archives of the University of Vienna/graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 1923-1929, Rectorate GZ 680/II ex 1937/38; FEIKES 1999; REITER-ZATLOUKAL/SAUER 2023, friendly reference from Dr. Barbara Sauer, Vienna 11/2022; www.ancestry.de.
Herbert Posch
