Zita Zimentstark (Soffer)

Born:	10-11-1915
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled student

Zita ZIMENTSTARK (married SOFFER), born on October 11th, 1915 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), daughter of Emil Zimentstark (painter), lived in Vienna 2nd district 2, Obere Donaustrasse 73, was enrolled finally in spring term 1938 at the Medical School in the 3rd year of her studies. After the "Anschluss" 1938, Zita Zimentstark was able to emigrate to the USA. In the USA she could never complete her medical studies due to lack of money, which was a great source of sadness for her. She was able to save her younger sister Stella and her parents from being murdered by the Nazis by obtaining the required affidavits of support for all three of them despite the most difficult and improbable odds.
In 1940 she met Erich Soffer, a mechanical engineer and also an inventor, who was also a Viennese Holocaust survivor, in Cleveland, Ohio and they married later. Zita Soffer died on July 18th, 1997 at the age of 81 in Beachwood, Ohio.

Lit.: information from her daughter Carol Soffer Gordon, 2014.

Herbert Posch