Rubin Gottesfeld

Born:	01-02-1891
Faculty:	Law School
Category:	Deprivation of academic degree

Rubin GOTTESFELD (born on  2nd, 1891 in Zaleszczyki, Gallizien (Zalishchyky, Ukraine)), had graduated at the Law School at the University of Vienna  on July 16th, 1921 with the academic degree 'Dr. iur.'.  In times of Nazism he was deprived of his academic degree on July 22nd, 1943 with the racist argument, that he as a Jew was not considered dignified an academic degree of a German university ('eines akademischen Grades einer deutschen Hochschule unwürdig').   Rubin Gottesfeld finally lived in Viennas 10th district, Laxenburgerstrasse 39 before he was deported to the concentration camp Dachau in 1938, later he was imprisoned in concentration camp Buchenwald. Later he was able to emigrate to Australia and after about a decade to the USA. Neither in Australia, nore in the USA he could practice as a lawyer. In Vienna it took 12 years since the deprivation – and a very long time since the end of Nazism – until the regranting of the doctorate took finally place on May 15th, 1955. He was not informed about both, deprivation and regranting and kept the original diploma in a frame on his wall. Rubin Gottesfeld was married to Rosalie, neé Rubin (born January 16th, 1898, died in April 1991 in Passaic, New Jersey/USA). They had a son, Alfred Gottesfeld (1923-1990, married to  Sophie Cohen) and had three grandchildren: Ellis (married to Aaryn Post), Linda (married to Philip Parker) and Perry Gottesfeld (married to Amy Brooks). He deceased in the age of 91 in May 1982 in Passaic, New Jersey/USA.

Lit.: information of his grandson Perry Gottesfeld, USA, 2014; http://www.farhi.org/wc192/wc192_072.htm and http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/customsearchresults.asp?LDS=3&last_name=Gottesfeld

Herbert Posch