| Born: | 08-15-1917 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Nora OHRNSTIEL (married ROKEACH / ROGERS), born on August 15th, 1917 in Prague, Bohemia/Austro-Hungarian Empire [later: Czechoslovakia, today: Praha/Czech Republic] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna-Simmering, citizenship 1938: Austria), daughter of Ing. Karl Ohrnstiel (engineer, 1885-1941) and Ada Ohrnstiel, née Müller (dress maker, milliner, 1890-1996), lived in Vienna's 3rd district, Landstrasser Hauptstrasse 75/10, was enrolled finally in the spring term 1938 at the Medical School in the 3rd year of her studies.
In 1938, after the takeover of power of National-Socialism she was forced to quit her studies for racist reason and to leave the University of Vienna (Leaving Certificate ("Abgangszeugnis") issued on May 11th, 1938).
She had to flee Vienna and was able to escape in time with a domestic permit to Great Britain, where she lived and worked in Bath, Somerset/England as a cook and servant. There, on September 12th, 1939, she married Norbert Rokeach/Norman Rogers (1914-2011), an Austrian born in Galicia, who later became a physician and psychiatrist, and who had found employment as a mechanic in Bath.
Together with him she emigrated in March 1940 via Liverpool to the USA, where they arrived with the SS Samaria on March 13th, 1940 in New York City, NY, where they also lived for the time being. A few months later, her mother Ada was also able to emigrate from Vienna via Genoa/Italy to New York City and lived with them, while her father Karl was unable to leave in time and was deported from Vienna to Minsk/Belarus on November 28th, 1941, where he was murdered.
Nora Rogers' husband was drafted into the U.S. Army as early as June 23rd, 1941, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen at his duty station in Kodiak, Alaska in May 1943; she herself also became a U.S. citizen soon after on December 13th, 1943.
They later lived in Minneapolis, in 1950 in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, later in New York City, NY, finally in Palo Alto, CA.
Their two children Steven A. Rogers (b. 1948) and Betty L. Pickell (b. 1949) were born in Oregon.
Nora Rogers, née Ohrenstiel, died on June 11th, 1984 in Santa Clara, CA/USA and is buried at the Hills of Eternity Memorial Park in Colma, San Mateo County, CA/USA.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937–1938; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 445; www.ancestry.de; information courtsey of Edith Heller, M.A., Vienna 11/2022.
Herbert Posch
