Fanny Knesbach (verh. Stang)

Born:	04-15-1914
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled student

Fanny KNESBACH (married STANG), born on April 15th, 1914 in Ollynia/Poland (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), daughter of Osias Knesbach (merchant), lived in Wien 14 [Wien 15], Storchengasse 23/18.
She attended secondary school in Vienna and first enrolled at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in fall term 1932/33. She attended the lectures of anatomy with Julius Tandler and experienced (also here) anti-Semitic riots: "One morning the academic atmosphere of Tandler's lecture room was rudely shattered. It was shortly after the start of the summer semester of 1933 and we had assembled for our morning anatomy Kolleg. […] Suddenly above the general chatter we heard a commotion from the top rows of the lecture theatre. We turned and saw a crowd of Burschenschaft-capped students. They bawled a chorus of the Horst Wessel Lied and then started to come down the aisle in two tight gangs screaming: Juda verrecke! They were hitting out at Jewish-looking students and fights started in the crowded auditorium. 
Max was sitting near the aisle and he with his black curly hair and semitic nose would be their next target. We sat there hemmed in, wondering what to do. At this moment Professor Tandler appeared. Summing up the situation at a glance he took off his white coat and threw it on the table in front of him. Even the Nazis had frozen into silence. 
'Gentlemen, unless all my students resume normal academic behaviour I shall stop all anatomy lectures this semester. You have five minutes to clear the theatre and restore order.' He withdrew. 
The largely imported Nazi groups made themselves scarce, no doubt encouraged by their medical comrades. The closure of Tandler's lectures would have meant the anatomy exams could not be held and thus the loss of half a year for Jew and Aryan alike. Such scenes never occurred again - in Tandler's lectures at any rate." (STANG 1988, 100) In January 1936 she received a half-year clerkship in the internal medicine department with Prof. Eppinger. She also visited the the weekly meetings of the Vienna Medical Society ("Wiener medizinischen Gesellschaft"). Fanny Knesbach was enrolled finally in the fall term 1937/38 at the Medical School in the 5th year of her studies. She attended her last lectures in 1938, after the "Anschluss" of Austria to Germany ('Absolutorium' was certified on November 3rd, 1938): "When I turned up next day, nothing at first glance had changed. The lecture room was the same. There was the usual sprinkling of fraternity caps, but - yes - some indeed with superadded swastikas but many without. I noticed Heinz, our old flame, in the third row where I usually sat. I was about to join him as there was a spare seat, but when our eyes met he turned away and I saw a bright silver swastika gleaming in his lapel. […] 
Looking around for other familiar landmarks, I realized with a stab of pain that the portrait of Wagner-Jauregg had been replaced by a large photograph of Hitler. 
Professor Poetzl entered. He raised his arm in an accomplished 'Heil Hitler' salute as if he had been doing it for ages. The students jumped up in response, somewhat raggedly, with their right arms extended at various angles. 
'Heil Hitler!' came the chorus." (STANG 1988, 177)  She passed the last exams in October 1938, succeeded in finishing her studies and graduated on October 31st, 1938, but only with the discriminating ceremony of a 'Nichtarierpromotion', which included at the same time that she was banned from her profession. "Then at last came the day which was to put the crowning glory on our six years of study and bestow on us the doctorate of medicine of the Universitas Vindobonensis. […] 
We stood huddled in the small side room. Not for us the grandeur of the Festsaal, the rejoicing relatives, the flowers, the medieval stage decor surrounding the Dean and his acolytes. There were about a dozen of us. I think Clara and myself were the only female graduates. We all knew each other from years of attending the same round of lectures but we hardly exchanged a word. Schloss who had shared the Eppinger clerkship with me kept wondering if we would receive the degree at all. And could non-Aryans still take the oath? Rumours circulated that the Hippocratic Oath would be tacitly dropped. […] 
Suddenly the side door opened and the Dean entered followed by an official who was carrying a pile of black folders in his arms. […] We hastily formed a line. The folders were deposited on a small table and, to our amazement, the Hippocratic Oath was read in Latin from a sheet lying on top of the pile. […] 
I heard my own name and this time it was no courtesy title. I clutched my folder, shook hands and stepped back into line. We all stood to attention until the last diploma had been duly handed over and the last handshake had taken place. No music, no singing of Gaudeamus Igitur. The Dean inclined his head and both men left by the side door. 
We hardly looked at each other as we hurried down the grand staircase. With a wave of my hand I parted from my colleagues, perhaps never to meet again." (STANG 1988, 192f.)  At the beginning of the year 1939 her parents decided to get her and her brother Leo out of the country quickly. In February Leo Knesbach took an illegal transport to Palestine, where he arrived in August. Fanny Knesbach received an unpaid job at the Rothschild-hospital, where she preparated tissues for microscopical examinations. Meanwhile, the Knesbachg family had to share the apartment with another Jewish family, a short time later it was "aryanized" by an SS-man, the furnishing was removed and confiscated.
On July 4th, 1939 Fanny Knesbach left Austria for England by train. In London she met liguist Maurice Stang, who he had fought in the Spanish Civil War. They married 1939, after the beginning of World War II he joined the army and served in Africa and Italy. After the war she was informed that her parents, who tried to escape to Palestine, had been caught and shot by the Germans in Zasavica/Yugoslavia in October 1941. In 1941 Fanny Stang took a job as a laboratory assistant at Lucas Ltd. in Birmingham, where she worked on the determination and therapy of lead poisonings. She repeated parts of her medical studies in order to graduate again and to get the permission to work as medical practitioner in Britain. "Entering medical school again would mean two years of writing exam papers in a foreign language, paying fees out of our meagre savings, seeking cheap digs and economising on our few luxuries: the theatre, books and concerts. The other option would provide a decent income and perhaps a settled home – but only on the strength of a ‘temporary registration’.
‘And what happens after the war? I never want to return to Vienna. Would you want to live there?’
‘England will win and will be magnainimous to those who helped her in her hour of need,’ Maurice assured me.
‘But I shall remain a doctor with a foreign degree. I shall never feel equal!’
‘You decide and I’ll help you all I can with my fourteen years’ experience of written exams. You’ll see, correspondence courses in the subjects will give you the skill and confidence you need.’
Thus my mind was made up and I started to prepare for the ordeal. At the microscope in the office, I studied histology with the slides lent me by Dr Scott and I read Boyd’s Pathology in the evenings. […]" (STANG 1997, 111)  Because the for studying in Edinburgh were considerably lower than those charged in London, she took the Scottish medical exams. She started to do her clinical work in the north and continued at Postgraduate School of Hammersmith Hospital in Du Cane Road, London. The July 20th 1944 was her graduation day at the University of Glasgow: "Then suddenly I found myself in the Great Hall. When the ceremony started, I viewed the row of colleagues with me, mainly male. Some of them were already sporting brand new officer's uniforms. During the speeches they turned and smiled at their families and friends behind us.
I recalled my first graduation in Nazi-torn Vienna, in October 1938. My parents had rushed to the windows each time they heard a tram stop. They were afraid I might have been beaten up or seized as I came down the blood-stained great stairway of the classical facade of the university. When they saw me cross the street they waved and laughed and my brother came rushing down the stairs to meet me. In the sitting room my mother and father hugged me and I had to unfold the impressive document and translate the Latin text of the MD Vienna. This was disfigured, alas, by Nazi stamps which prohibited my practising in the great German Reich.
The speeches and the reading of the Hippocratic oath ended. I shook hands with the dignitaries, was given my scroll and returned to my two friends, for whose company I was grateful.
[…] I looked at the black Latin lettering and saw my married name in blue ink. No more German name and no more German stamps forbidding me to practise at the very moment of my graduation. It is a new beginning. On Monday I start as locum for Dr MacNamara here in Edinburgh. After six years of struggle, I am at last fully fledged to work in my profession. That will be my true graduation." (STANG 1997, 164f.) Male doctors retuming from military service had priority after the ending of the war, so she hardly had no chance as a medical practitioner and went into public health. Maurice Stang became teacher at a secondary school after returning from the army and continued his study of languages and their literature. They moved to Manchester and Fanny Stang became Assistant County Medical Officer in Middleton near Manchester. On her retirement she was awarded honorary fellowship of the Institute of Public Health. She died on December 29th, 2008 in London.

Lit.: information by Esme Chandler (2011); Fanny STANG, Fräulein Doktor, Sussex 1988; Fanny STANG, A New Beginning, London 1997; Frank BECK, Dr Fanny Stang. The last Jewish graduate of Viennese medicine, in: Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) Journal 04/2007, p. 11; AJR Journal 02/2009, p. 14; KNIEFACZ/POSCH 2017a.

Katharina Kniefacz