Fritz (Frederick Claude) Kramer
| Born: |
02-16-1914 |
| Faculty: |
Philosophical School |
| Category: |
Expelled student |
Mag. pharm. Fritz KRAMER (later: Frederick Claude Kramer], born on February 16
th, 1914 in Vienna/Austro-Hungarian Empire (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), son of Josef Kramer (1876-1941, pharmacist) and Grete Kramer, née Pollak (1891-1941), lived in Vienna's 4
th district, corner Trappelgasse 11/Wiedner Hauptstrasse 75/12. In 1932, he had graduated at the humanistic Gymnasium in Vienna's 5t
h district, Rainergasse 39 (Elisabethgymnasium, today: Rainergymnasium) and in the fall term 1932/33, he began studying pharmaceutics at the university, which he completed in 1937 with the degree of Master of Pharmacy ("Mr. pharm."). He then continued to study for his doctorate in fall term 1937/38, but now in psychology. He was last enrolled in the spring term 1938 at the School of Philosophy in the 6
th year and attended lectures in psychology and philosophy.
In addition to his psychology studies, Fritz Kramer had been employed since July 7
th, 1937 as a trainee ("Aspirant") in the Haydn Pharmacy, which his father had opened in 1926 in Vienna's 5
th district, Margaretenguertel 98 (Metzleinstalerhof) as the first pharmacy in a municipal building of "Red Vienna".
After the takeover of power of National-Socialism in 1938 he was forced to quit his studies for racist reason without a chance to graduate. He requested to continue his studies in the context of the 2% numerus clausus of Jewish Students, but was rejected and had to leave the University of Vienna.
Immediately after the Anschluss, Fritz Kramer wrote to his cousin Rudolf Gleissner, a pharmacist in New York, about what it was like in the U.S. and also immediately took an English course (since he had not been taught any living foreign languages at the humanistic Gymnasium). His cousin sent him an affidavit within a few weeks so that he could leave for the USA. Despite the catastrophic conditions, Fritz Kramer was glad to escape the preordained but unloved future in his father's pharmacy and to be able to decide freely about his professional future in the USA. He was able to obtain a visa at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna on May 16
th and then left via Le Havre/France on the
SS Georgic on June 10
th, 1938, arriving in New York/USA on June 19
th, 1938.
At this time in Vienna his father's pharmacy was "Aryanized" - expropriated by forced sale far below value - after some time he and his wife were forcibly relocated to a Jewish house in Hollandstraße in Leopoldstadt and in 1941 both were deported to Litzmannstadt [Łódź/Poland] where he still worked briefly as a pharmacist - neither survived for long.
Fritz Kramer first moved to the USA to live with his cousin Rudolf Gleissner, son of his father's sister, at 713 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York/NY. He then helped a relative harvest tobacco in South Carolina, then went to Richmond/Virginia and worked as a pharmacist in a drugstore, then in Washington, D.C., and then from October 1939-October 1940 moved in with his sister
Lilly Kramer, also expelled from the University of Vienna without a degree, who in the meantime had managed to emigrate to the U.S. and worked as a maid for a famous cartoonist - Harry ("Bud") Fisher (1885-1957), in Deal, New Jersey. Later he moved to nearby Asbury Park, New Jersey where he worked in a furniture manufacturing plant and later as a coupon salesman for a photography studio (Wexler), from November 1940 to June 1942 in Newark, New Jersey, as a waiter in a hotel, from July 1942 to September 1944 as a waiter in New York City, NY.
His attempts to bring his parents to the U.S. as well failed, as both were born in Czechoslovakia and the Czech quota for immigration was very small. At that time he had learned from an aunt that his parents had been deported to Łódź and perished soon after. He sought help from his sister, by then married to Richard I. Kovler (1910-2006) in Waterbury, Connecticut, had a breakdown on the return trip, and was in a psychiatric hospital for about a year.
From there he joined his uncle Richard and Elsa Popper in Chicago in 1945 and became a U.S. citizen (finally anglicizing his first name from Fritz to "Frederick Claude"). He later gave music lessons in Chicago and began working as a photographer. In 1956 he also met his future wife, whom he married in 1957, and in 1959 their daughter was born.
Frederick Claude Kramer died on May 22, 1992 in the USA.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/Enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1937-1938; Austrian State Archive, OeStA/ Archive of the Republic, AdR / E-uReang / VVSt / VA / 18759; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 421; information from Dr. Liesl Fritsch, Vienna 2013; FRITSCH 2007, 63; LEIMKUGEL 1999, 74 u. 221; Alfred Fehringer, Arisierung und Rückstellung von Apotheken in Österreich, Göttingen u. Wien 2013, 142-144; Benedikt Zanzinger, "Arisierung" und Restitution der Wiener Apotheken, ungedr. phil. Dipl. Univ. Wien, Wien 2013, 46, 85-90; information from his daughter Marion Dole, Los Angeles 01/2019 and 03/2021; interview from Marion Dole with Frederick Kramer from April 19th, 1989.
Herbert Posch
