| Born: | 01-31-1917 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Benno (Benjamin) MAHLER, born on January 31st, 1917 in Neu-Sandez, Galicia/Austro-Hungarian Empire [Nowy Sącz/Poland] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), son of Dr. Michael/Mikhal Mahler (lawyer, 1892-1965) and Serke/Selma Mahler, née Lieberman (1893-1974), had moved with the family to Vienna as a child in 1920. They first lived in Vienna's 20th district, Karl Meissl-Strasse 3, then in Vienna's 1st district, Stubenring 4 (also the father's law office), from February 1938 in Vienna's 1st district, Riemergasse 8 and finally in Vienna's 6th district, Gumpendorferstrasse 76/4. Benno Mahler passed his school-leaving examination (Reifepruefung/Matura) in 1935 at BG IX (Bundesgymnasium Wien 9, Wasagasse) and then began to study medicine at the University of Vienna in the fall term of 1935/36. He was last enrolled in the 3rd year of his studies at the School of Medicine in the spring term of 1938 and had passed the first of three rigoroses (viva voce examinations).
In 1938, after the takeover of power of National-Socialism he was forced to quit his studies for racist reason and to leave the University of Vienna (leaving certificate dated May 28th, 1938).
The father, who in 1923 had received a "Dr. iur." and had had his own law office in Vienna since 1930, was banned from the Bar after the "Anschluss" as a Jew from May 1938. They had to flee Austria and the family tried to leave Vienna in May 1938 with the help of the emigration department of the welfare center of the Jewish Community Vienna, initially with the desired destination Cuba, where cousins were already, Palestine or USA, where a great cousin lived.
As an additional qualification or learned profession, the medical student Benno stated: "photographer/reporter". Lacking the necessary means and papers, the parents decided that Benno should be the first of the family to emigrate alone, his father, and later his mother, would follow.
Within the framework of the emigration relief action "Gildemeester" Benno Mahler thus finally succeeded in emigrating on November 9th, 1938, via France on December 10, 1938 on the ship SS Saint Domingue to Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands (December 24, 1938) and on to Santiago de Cuba/Cuba. He was then able to emigrate from Havana/Cuba on the SS Florida to Miami, FL/USA on December 3rd/4th, 1939 and then traveled to the East Coast to New York , NY where he settled in New York City where his father was also able to emigrate on June 27, 1940 also via Havana/Cuba and later his mother. He worked across the Hudson River in Newark, NJ, in 1940 as a photographer for Lorstan Studios Inc. and applied for U.S. citizenship that same year, which he finally received as "Benno Benjamin Mahler" in September 1945. In 1950 he lived with his parents in Newark, NJ, and worked as an electrical engineer in a telephone and radio factory.
In 1952, Benno Benjamin Mahler married Clare Edith Loeb (1923-2013), born in Boppard, Germany, in Manhattan, New York City, NY, also a U.S. citizen since 1946, and the couple had three children together - JoAnne Kelter (1953-2016, Jerusalem/Israel), Susan Ra'anan (Moshav Talme Yosef/Israel), and Cindy Mahler (Amhearst, MA/USA) - and they lived in Bedford, MA/USA.
Benjamin (Benno) Mahler died on January 8th, 1983 at the age of 65 in Lexington, Middlesex, MA, and was buried at Pine Knoll Cemetery in Hanover, Grafton, NH/USA.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937–1938; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 433; SAUER/REITER-ZATLOUKAL 2010, 239; www.ancestry.de; www.myheritage.at; information from Edith Heller M.A., Vienna 10/2022.
Herbert Posch
