Adolf Gerstenhaber

Born:	10-08-1912
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled student

Adolf GERSTENHABER, born on October 8^th, 1912, in Kolomea, Galicia/Austro-Hungarian Empire [later: Poland, today: Kolomyja|Коломия/Ukraine] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna, Citizenship: Austria), son of Heinrich/Hersch Gerstenhaber (1885-1979, mechanic) and Adele Gerstenhaber, née Hirom (1988-?), lived in Vienna's 2^nd district, Wolfgang-Schmaelzlgasse 14/23. He began to study at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in 1931 and was finally enrolled in fall term 1936/37 in the 5^th year of his studies. After the Anschluss in 1938, Adolf Gerstenhaber was forced to abandon his studies and the current examination procedure for racist reasons and to leave the University of Vienna. After a long period of uncertainty, his "Absolutrium" was certified on July 18^th, 1938 and was able to obtain his doctorate on July 21^st, 1938, under numerous symbolic discriminations in the context of a "non-Aryan graduation", while at the same time being banned from working in the entire German Reich. He had to flee Vienna and was able to emigrate to England/Great Britain in time, where he was interned as enemy alien in Kitchener Camp in Richborough, Sandwich, Kent, and only later was able to continue his journey to the USA. He embarked on April 6^th on the SS Scythia from Liverpool, England to the U.S., arriving in New York City, NY on April 17^th, 1940. On the same ship arrived Ilse Margarethe Forges (1923-1987), also expelled from Vienna in 1938. He married her in Manhattan, New York, NY, in April 1942. He initially lived with his parents, and his younger siblings Julius (1923-2011) and Sophie Gerstenhaber Schoen (1920-2010) in Kings, New York, NY and was able to intern at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, NY, and Unity Hospital in Brooklyn, NY, respectively and was mustered in Brooklyn on October 16^th, 1940 for the U. S. Army. He and his wife became naturalized U.S. citizens in 1945 and lived in Bayside and Flushing, NY, and he worked as a physician at Unity Hospital and Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center and also as an internist at Deepdale General Hospital. He was a member of the American Geriatrics Society, the New York Cardiological Society, the Clinical Society, New York Diabetes Association, the Medical Society of the County of Queens, the Medical Society of the State of New York, and the American Medical Association. Adolf Gerstenhaber died on September 5^th, 1980 at the age of 67 in Flushing, Queens, NY/USA and is buried at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, Nassau, NY/USA..

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1931-1938, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 1929-1941, No. 4090; POSCH 2009, 369; GAUGUSCH 2011, 2528; New York State Journal of Medicine 1980, p. 1897; www.genteam.at www.ancestry.de; information from Irene Messinger, Vienna 02/2022.

Katharina Kniefacz, Herbert Posch