| Born: | 03-29-1916 |
| Faculty: | Law School |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Heinrich (later: Henry Albert) PORGES (name changed to HUGERTH on June 27th, 1931), born on March 29th, 1916 in Vienna (domiciled in Vienna, son of Dr. iur. Richard Hugerth, née Porges (1884-1944, lawyer) and Anna Hugerth, née Flaschner (1895-1944). He had left the Jewish Community of Vienna on July 16th, 1934 and converted to Roman Catholicism, lived in Moedling, Riegerstrasse 33, and studied law at the University of Vienna since the fall term of 1936/37. He was last enrolled in the 2nd year of his studies at the School of Law in the spring term of 1938, and took courses in law.
He was forced to discontinue his studies under National Socialism for racist reasons and to leave the University of Vienna after the "Anschluss".
He had to flee Vienna and was able to reach Prague/Czechoslovakia with his family, where he received his U. S. visa shortly after the November pogroms on November 14th, 1938, and was able to emigrate to the U. S. via Rotterdam/Netherlands in time with the SS Volendam, arriving in New York, NY on December 14th, 1938. From there he traveled on to his acquaintance M. Kane in East Haven, CT.
Henry A. Hugerth married Christine Mary Schelter (1914-2003), an immigrant from Canada, on July 28th, 1939, in New Haven, CT, and on October 16th, 1940, was mustered for the U. S. Army - at that time he was working for the Whitney Theatre Inc. in Hamden, CT. He was able to continue and complete his law degree, worked at Yale University on the Strategic Index of South America, and then served as a Private in the U. S. Army beginning October 20th, 1943.
His parents and his younger brother Peter (b. 1922) did not manage to escape in time - they were deported from Prague to Theresienstadt [Terezín/Czech Republic] in 1942 and further deported to Auschwitz [Oświęcim/Poland] in 1943 (brother) and 1944 (parents) and were all murdered there.
Henry A. Hugerth participated in the liberation of Europe from National Socialism, first with the U.S. Infantry in Italy, later as a lawyer in the Vienna headquarters of General Mark W. Clark (1896-1984), U.S. High Commissioner of Austria and Commander-in-Chief of the U.S.F.A., who was awarded an honorary doctorate (Dr. rer.pol. h.c.) of the School of Law and Political Science of the University of Vienna on his retirement on May 20th, 1947. Hugerth himself received his regular doctorate in law from the University of Vienna at the beginning of 1946, thus completing his studies in Vienna as a soldier in one of the liberation armies, which he had been forced to abandon under National Socialism. In October 1946 he returned to the USA via Bremerhaven/Germany with the SS U.S.T.A. George Washington.
He had become a U. S. citizen on January 14th, 1944. and was discharged again from the U. S. Army in late 1946. In 1947, his first marriage was divorced in Dade, Fl, and on May 16th, 1954, he married American Dorothy Louise Hersey (1926-2005) in Boston, MA, where he was then living. He was working as a sales manager for the Frederick Lawrence Co. in Cambridge, MA. He continued to work as a lawyer for a few years, but then had to give up work due to illness as a "disabled veteran".
Henry A. Hugerth died after a long illness at the age of only 51 on January 21st, 1968 from multiple sclerosis in Harvard, MA/USA.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale) PHIL 1937-1938, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") IUR 1939-1959, 707; SAUER/REITER-ZATLOUKAL 2010, 186; The Greenville News (South Carolina) from May 9th, 1954, 23 and from January 22nd, 1968, 5; www.ancestry.de; www.doew.at.
Herbert Posch
