| Born: | 02-23-1913 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Roman KAWALEK, born on February 23rd, 1913 in Zborow/Poland (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), son of (Meyer) Jakob Kawalek (white-collar employee, 1882-1941) and his wife Mathilde (Mila, born in 1883), had moved to Vienna with his family when he was 12 years old.
He lived in Vienna 8th district, Alser Strasse 69/8. After he had graduated from high school ('Bundes-Reformrealgymnasium') in Vienna 8th district, he started to study at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in fall term 1932/33. He was enrolled finally in fall term 1937/38 in the 5th year of his studies. He succeeded in finishing his studies and graduated on October 31st, 1938, but only with the discriminating ceremony of a 'Nichtarierpromotion', which included at the same time that he was banned from his profession. His twin brother Marceli Kawalek, who studied at the Medical School, too, also managed to finish his studies at the University of Vienna with the discriminating ceremony of a 'Nichtarierpromotion'.
Roman Kawalek worked voluntarily as physician at the "Rothschildspital" (hospital of the Jewish Community Vienna) from January 3rd until July 20th, 1939.
Together with his brother he was able to flee to London/United Kingdom at the end of July 1939.
His parents stayed in Vienna. His father died of a heart attack, his mother, his cousin Bronia Sonnenschein, nee Schwebel and other family members were deported to ghetto Litzmannstadt [Lodz/Poland] and then to the concentration camps Auschwitz [Oswiecim/Poland] and Stutthof/Germany, where Mathilde was murdered in September 1944. Bronia survived the deportations and emigrated to Vancouver/Canada after the liberation, which she experienced in the ghetto Theresienstadt [Terezín/Czech Republic].
In 1940 Roman Kawalek emigrated to the USA and was able to complete his graduate work in medicine at the university hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1941 he was divorced from his first wife Gertrude S. Kawalek.
Then he enlisted in the US-Army in June 1943 and in June 12th, 1944, his unit landed in Normandy/France. In 1945 he served as commanding medical officer with the unit that liberated the concentration camp Buchenwald. For his serving he was awarded the Bronze Star (1944), the Presidential Unit Citation, the Commendation Ribbon with Pendant (1946) and the Combat Medic Badge.
Back in the USA he met his future wife Diana Celia Lieberman during the summer of 1945, while on vacation in the Catskills. The couple married later that year in Brooklyn, New York, and settled in East Orange, New Jersey, where Roman Kawalek established a surgical practice. In 1962 they moved to West Orange. From 1962 to 1975 Roman Kawalek also worked as a police surgeon for the City of East Orange.
His wife Diana, with whom he had a son, Jeffrey Kawalek, and two daughters, Marlene Kawalek (married Josephs) and Kim Kawalek (married Vogel), died in 1982.
Roman Kawalek died ten years after his retirement on May 6th,1998 in West Orange, his ashes were interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
Marlene Kawalek Josephs donated her father’s papers – certificates, correspondence, newspaper clippings etc. about his education, his immigration to the USA and his time in the US Army – to the USHMM in 2005.
Lit.: information from his daughter Marlene Kawalek Josephs, New York, 2013, and from the son of his cousin (Bronia Sonnenschein) Dan Sonnenschein, 2013/14; Roman Kawalek Collection am United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (RG-10. 477); Marlene NOWOTNY, "Ich wünsche Ihnen viel Glück im Ausland!", in: science.orf.at, 24.07.2015; Bronia SONNENSCHEIN, Victory over Nazism. The Journey of a Holocaust survivor [compiled and edited by Dan SONNENSCHEIN], 3rd edition, Vancouver 2013; KNIEFACZ/POSCH 2017c.
Katharina Kniefacz
