Menachem Distenfeld

Born:	12-11-1912
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled student

Menachem DISTENFELD, born on December 11^th, 1912 in Chortków/Galicia, Austro-Hungaria [later Czortków/Poland, today Чортків, Chortkiv/Ukraine] (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Poland, Citizenship: Poland), son of Pinkas Distenfeld (merchant), lived in Vienna's 9^th district, Waehringer Strasse 26/9, was enrolled finally in the spring term 1938 at the Medical School in the 5^th year of his studies. After the "Anschluss" in 1938, he and his wife - he was married to Esther Malka Amalia Distenfeld, nee Langinger, born in 1919 in Lvov/Poland) - were deported to a camp in German-occupied Poland, but they managed to survive the Nazi persecution. After the escape for Ukrainian partisans Menachem Distenfeld became a doctor for Polish prisoners. In 1945 the family came to Czernowitz as refugees, where Menachem Distenfeld took medical care on war orphans. Presumably he returned to Vienna, as the records of the Austrian chamber of physicians mention, that he graduated from Vienna University on July 19^th, 1946 and became a member of the chamber of physicians. He worked as a guest doctor at the 1st medical university-clinic and left the chamber on September 19^th, 1947 with a remark "for Southern America". But in 1947 the family - the couple had five children - emigrated to New York/USA, where Menachem Distenfeld restarted to study medicine in order to qualify as a doctor in the United States, while his wife Amalia Distenfeld did odd jobs to earn a living. The couple lived in Forest Hills in Queens, New York - near his former fellow student David Frenkel - where he established a private practice. He helped patients who would not have financial means by giving them medications free of charge, and the couple was involved in charity. In 1954 they were naturalized and became US citizens.
He deceased in New York in 1966.

Lit. POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 375; Carolyn McCARTHY, Tribute to Amalia Distenfeld, 1999; Jonathan ROSENBLUM, A Frum Jew goes to Washington..., 2004; Antrag auf US-Staatsbürgerschaft, 1954;  Martin Harris, The Rizhiner Rebbe Yisroel Chortkov & Healing; geni.com 1, geni.com 2; information from Karen A. Frenkel, USA, 2014, and from Mag.^a Barbara Sauer, Vienna, 2017; REITER-ZATLOUKAL/SAUER 2022.

Katharina Kniefacz and Herbert Posch