| Born: | 03-16-1912 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Karoline ASCHER (née HIRSCHHORN), born on March 16th, 1912 in Vienna Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna, Citizenship 1938: Austria), daughter of Sigmund (Selig) Hirschhorn (name changed to Ascher in 1913, paper merchant) and Leha Hirschhorn (Ascher), née Pasternak, lived in Vienna's 2nd district, Schreigasse 12/30. In June 1932 she had passed her school-leaving examination (Matura) at the Girls' Realgymnasium in Vienna's 8th district, Albertgasse 38, and in the fall term 1932/33 she began her medical studies at the University of Vienna. She was last enrolled at the Medical School in the spring term of 1937 in the 5th and last year of her studies and had been in the examination stage since then.
Under National Socialism, she was forced for racist reasons to abandon her almost completed studies after the Anschluss and to leave the University of Vienna without an academic degree.
She was able to emigrate to England/Great Britain with a domestic permit and worked there in Wallasey, Cheshire, England, as a maid and a cook, but was later able to use her almost finished medical studies to work as a nurse and midwife in England. Her brother Heinrich Ascher was able to emigrate to Palestine (Raananah/Israel), her sister Ruth Schneider lived in Vienna.
After the end of the war, Karoline Ascher returned to Vienna in 1950 and completed her medical studies, obtaining her "Dr. med." degree from the University of Vienna on February 8th, 1952 and living in Vienna's 12th district, Steinbauergasse 1-7/18/16 (since she had only regained her Austrian citizenship on April 26th, 1952, she still had to sign a foreigner's clause at the time of her doctorate stating that she would not practice in Austria, but this became irrelevant two months after signing).
In 1954/55 she emigrated to the USA with the help of the A.J.D.C. Emigration Service, completed her internship in Rhode Island in 1955 and her residency at New Britain General Hospital and then worked for many years at Cedar Crest Hospital, Newington/CT and Rocky Hill Veterans Hospital before retiring in 1977. She became a U. S. citizen in July 15th, 1960.
She was a member of the Hartford County Medical Association and the National American Medical Association.
Karoline Ascher died on April 23rd, 1988, in New Britain, Hartford, CT/USA.
Lit: Archives of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale" MED 1932-1938, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED XV (1949-1956) No 3362; Archives of the Jewish Community Vienna/birth records; www.genteam.at; www.ancestry.de.
Herbert Posch
