Otto Weinmann
| Born: |
11-19-1913 |
| Faculty: |
Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: |
Expelled student |
Otto WEINMANN, born November 13, 1913 in Vienna (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), son of Julius Weinmann (merchant), lived in the second district of Vienna, in Obere Donaustraße 43.
After he had graduated from high school ('Realgymniasium' in Vienna 8th district, Albertgasse), he began to study at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in fall term 1932/33. He was finally enrolled in the winter semester 1937/38 at the Medical School for his 5th study year (His 'Absolutorium' (certificate of study completion) was issued on November 3rd, 1938). After a long period of uncertainty and hard work – "I studied while standing in order not to fall asleep" - he was able to pass the six exams he still had pending and graduated on October 31st, 1938, within the discriminating ceremony of a non-Aryan promotion ('Nichtarierpromotion'), which implied being banned from his profession. He recalled that the Dean, Eduard Pernkopf, had refused to shake his hand during this informal graduation ceremony. In spite of this, graduation was crucial for him: "Without my doctorate I wouldn’t have survived". His academic title was vital for his survival as an émigré in France.
Otto Weinmann fled with the help of a people trafficker the night of New Year’s Eve 1938 near Aachen over the border to Belgium. In Brussels he was arrested as an illegal immigrant and was detained in the camp Merxplas in Belgium.
In spite of the invalidation of his academic credentials, during his four to five months’ stay at the camp he was appointed as a physician and exempted from hard work. During his monthly releases he was able to get in touch with a cousin of his grandmother in Brussels, who got an unpaid job for him at the Pasteur Institute in Brussels (bacteriology and serology). His work certificate enabled him to leave the detention camp and he got financial support from the Jewish community.
On May 10, 1940, when the German Wehrmacht seized power in Belgium, Otto Weinmann was detained as a foreigner and deported to France two days later. During the trip to Toulouse one of the train’s wagons was caught by a bomb and Otto Weinmann, together with other arrested physicians, had to take care of the injured prisoners. Once at the detention camp St. Cyprien he continued working as a doctor with a series of vital "privileges", such as having his own clinical barracks. There, coincidentally, he met Professor
Fritz Lieben, who knew him as a student at Vienna University. In August 1940 he caught typhus during an epidemical outburst in the camp. He was brought to St. Louis Hospital in Perpignan, where he also had privileged treatment. In order not to have to go back to the camp, he asked for an unpaid job at the hospital as soon as he recuperated from his illness. He managed to get a position as an outpatient physician until August 1942, when raids were carried out and he was forced to leave the hospital and hide in a flat together with two other fugitives. He then met Simone Pasquet, who brought him to Banyuls-sur-Mer by the foothills of the Pyrenees, where he managed to escape to Spain with the help of a people smuggler. But he broke his leg and had to be left behind by the group. After almost two days of waiting he was found by a farmer, and in a stretcher he was then taken back to Banyuls by the police. Otto Weinmann identified himself as a Belgian, so he would be taken to a French hospital. There, thanks to the protection of a "Jewish-friendly" doctor, he was able to stay and study. He later found shelter with a family in Perpignan.
Simone Pasquet got him documents with a false identity ("Albert Baudouin") and with a place of birth at the Belgian border, as well as enough money for a train ticket to Lyon and the addresses of people who could help him. He spent the last months of the war in Lyon, where he frequently changed his living quarters.
On August 20, 1944, Otto Weinmann experienced the liberation of Lyon. An acquaintance helped him to get a job as director of a children’s home in Saint-Paul-en-Chablais, where he stayed until November 1945 and unofficially practiced as a physician as well. However, he decided to leave France, since there he was not entitled to work as a doctor.
He went back to Vienna for the first time in Jannuary 1947, where he met a former demonstrator from Vienna University, who had returned from England. He procured a job for Otto Weinmann at Wilhelminenspital in 16th district of Vienna. Before going back to Vienna for good, he had married a French lady in Paris. His daughter was born 1951.
They got divorced after a few years; his wife moved to Israel. Once Otto Weinmann moved back to Vienna in May 1947, he obtained a residence in the town centre, where some English people used to live. After 7 years of work at the hospital, around 1954, Otto Weinmann opened a private medical practice (located at the corner of Thaliastraße and the Guertel). There he worked as an internist for 36 years, until the end of the 1980’s. Additionally, he worked as a doctor for the social security of the Austrian Federal Railways. He still lives in Vienna.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1932-1939, MED graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") 1929-1941, Nr. 4172; Vienna City Archive/relief fund; information from his daughter Dorit Knobel, Israel 09/2009 and of Dr. Barbara Sauer, Vienna 07/2019; USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, University of Southern California, Interview 27143; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 497; KNIEFACZ/POSCH 2017c; REITER-ZATLOUKAL/SAUER 2022.
Katharina Kniefacz
