Franziska Weiss (Racker)

Born:	04-26-1913
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled student

Franziska WEISS (married RACKER), born on April 26^th, 1914 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna, Citizenship: Austria), daughter of Dr. Arthur Weiss (physician, 1875-1936) and his wife Martha nee Schrecker (1885-1968), lived in Vienna 9^th district, Alserstrasse 18/15 together with her parents, her older sister Gertrud Weiss (later married Szilard, 1909-1981) and her younger brother Egon Weiss (born 1919). After she had graduated from high school for girls ('Maedchenrealgymnasium') in Vienna 8th district she began to study at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in fall term 1932/33. During her studies she met Ephraim Racker, a fellow student and her future husband.
Weiss finally was enrolled at the Medical School in spring term 1937 ('Absolutorium' was certified on July 18^th, 1938) and was preparing for the final exams ('Rigorosen') in 1938. Both were finally able to finish their studies and graduated on July 21^st, 1938, but only with the discriminating ceremony of a 'Nichtarierpromotion', which included at the same time that they were banned from their profession. "When Hitler invaded Austria on 11 March 1938, we were in the middle of our final examinations. Jews were immediately barred from the university and it appeared that our. five years of medical training were wasted. Many of us started to learn new skills. Ef and I attended a course on microchemical methods and another course on therapeutic exercises and massage. In some way or another we have made use of these experiences in later life. For reasons which none of us understood (they could not have been based on humane considerations), we were allowed to finish our final examinations between 20 June and 11 July of 1938. I still had five major examinations and I will never cease to be grateful for the encouragement and help of my friends, especially Ef, in the completion of my degree. He left Vienna soon thereafter and I left abruptly during the Munich crisis, believing that immediate war was inevitable." (RACKER/RACKER 1981, 266) Her sister and her brother had already emigrated to the USA in 1937 resp. in July 1938 and also Efraim Racker left Austria for Great Britain short time after graduation. Franzi Weiss deregistered from the apartment in the Alserstrasse, leaving to London on October 1^st, 1938. In 1939 she emigrated to New York, where her sister lived and worked as a physician. Franziska (Frances) Weiss studied at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1943. In 1945 she completed a fellowship in public health administration in Michigan.
In 1943 she first met Efraim Racker again and they married on August 24^th, 1945 in New York. On Oktober 11^th, 1950 their daughter Ann Myra Racker was born. After her studies, she returned to clinical practice and worked in the field of rehabilitation medicine. Franziska W. Racker finished a training for Public Health/Preventive Medicine in 1950 and received a certification in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in 1963.
In 1958 the family moved to Mount Vernon, New York, 1966 to Ithaca, New York, where Frances Racker became head of rehabilitation at Tompkins County Hospital. From 1971 until her death in 1999 she was medical director of the 'Special Children's Center' in New York, which was founded in 1948 as a voluntary not-for-profit dedicated to creating opportunities for people with special needs. Her years of service were a period of great progress at the center: Today it has over 30 sites in New York and ist named after her 'Franziska Racker Centers'.
From 1985 on she also worked as a consultant at Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca. Her husband Efraim Racker died in 1991 at the University Hospital in Syracuse of a stroke.
Franziska W. Racker died on February 27^th, 1999.

Lit.: POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 125f., 453; POSCH 2009, 239, 370f.; information from her daughter Ann Racker Costello, USA, 2014; Vienna University Archive, Medical School: Nationale 1932-1937 and graduation registry, No. 4125; Vienna City archive/Historical Central Registration of Viennese inhabitants, 26.03.2014; Efraim RACKER/Franziska WEISS RACKER, Resolution and Reconstitution. A Dual Autobiographical Scetch, In: G. Semenza, Ed., Of Oxygen, Fuels and Living Matter, Part 1, Chichester 1981, 265-287; Gottfried SCHATZ, Efraim Racker 1913-1991. A Biographical Memoir, in: National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs 70 (1996), 321-346; Franziska Racker Centers; Katharina KNIEFACZ, Franziska Weiss Racker, in: KOROTIN 2016; Medicine Online; Efraim Racker Library; ROEDER 1983.

Katharina Kniefacz