Fritz Ettinger
| Born: |
07-07-1918 |
| Faculty: |
Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: |
Expelled student |
Fritz ETTINGER, born on July 7
th, 1918 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), son of Dr. David Ettinger (physician, 1889-1945) and Pauline Ettinger, née Schaller (1892-1944), lived in Vienna's 20
th district, Gaußplatz 6, was enrolled finally in the spring term 1938 at the Medical School in the 2
nd year of his studies.
In 1938, after the takeover of power of National-Socialism he was forced to quit his studies for racist reason and to leave the University of Vienna.
He had to flee Vienna and was able to emigrate to Belgium for the time being and lived in Brussels. He managed to obtain a U.S. visa in Antwerp, Belgium on December 30
th, 1938 and was able to emigrate from Antwerp to the U.S. on January 9
th, 1939 on the
SS Westernland, arriving in New York, NY on January 18
th, 1939 to live for the time being with his uncle Sigmund Imber in Bronx, New York City, NY. In 1940 he was living at 5607 Waterman, St. Louis, MO, with his friend Sigmund Falk and mustered into the
U.S. Army on October 16
th, 1940. In 1941 he applied for U.S. citizenship and became a naturalized on May 25
th, 1943. At that time he was a soldier in the
U.S. Army Medical Detachment and stationed in Kodiak, Alaska/USA.
His parents were unable to escape in time and were deported from a Jewish collective apartment at Vienna's 2
nd district, Foerstergasse 7/30 to Theresienstadt [Terezín/Czech Republic] on October 1
st, 1942 and from there on to the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz [Oswiecim/Poland] on October 19
th, 1944, where his mother was murdered, his father was deported one week later to the concentration and extermination camp Dachau [Bavaria/Germany] and was murdered on January 18
th, 1945 in Dachau/Kdo.Kaufering.
Fritz Ettinger came back to Austria after the end of the war as an American with the U.S. Army and married Erna Johanna Frohlich from Rittersfeld, Lower Austria, on October 4
th, 1946, at the registry office in Vienna's 18
th district, Martinstrasse. He then returned to the U.S. with his wife, but kept commuting between the U.S. and Germany.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937–1938; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 380; www.genteam.at; www.ancestry.de.
Herbert Posch
