Herta Sprinzeles, verh. Spencer-Laszlo

Born:	09-05-1910
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled student

Herta SPRINZELES (later married SPENCER-LASZLO), born on September 5th, 1910 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria),was the daughter of Heinrich Abraham Sprinzeles (retired teacher of religious instruction, born 1868) and Regina (nee Rifke Hirsch, 1877-1942) and lived in Vienna's 2^nd district, Herminengasse 15. She was enrolled finally in the fall term 1937/38 at the Medical School in the 5^th and last year of her studies ('Absolutorium' was certified on January 25^th, 1938). After the so called "Anschluss" in March 1938 she was expelled from the University of Vienna for racist reason and could not finish her studies. Her younger sister Martha Sprinzeles (later: Mart Schon, born 1914), who studied at the Medical School, too, was also expelled from the University of Vienna. The siblings Herta, Martha and Emil Sprinzeles were able to escape to London/Great Britain. Their brother Emil Sprinzeles (later: Dr. Emil Lehmann, 1907-1999) served in the U.S. Army in the fight against National Socialism while Herta and Martha were engaged as nurses in London during the German air battle for England in 1940/41 ("Blitz"). In 1942 Herta emigrated further to the USA. She had to repeat her entire medical studies in the USA. She financed her studies at Western Reserve University by performing autopsies at the Department of Pathology. In 1948 she finally graduated with an M.D. and began her scientific career at Montefiori Hospital in Bronx/NY, USA, where she worked together with her husband Dr. Daniel Laszlo. Together they founded one of the first metabolic laboratories there. Her husband, who had emigrated from Cologne/Germany to Vienna and later to the USA after Hitler came to power in 1933, died only five years after their marriage. The marriage was childless but Herta Spencer-Laszlo continued to care for her stepson, John Laszlo, MD (Atlanta). Herta Spencer-Laszlo was one of the leading nutrition and metabolism pioneers in medical research and published over 250 scientific articles, including one on the effect of radioactive strontium-90, one of the byproducts of nuclear weapons testing in the 1940s and 1950s, on human metabolism. After the nuclear reactor accident at Three Miles Islands, her work took on life-saving dimensions. She later moved to the Veterans Hospital in Hines, IL, became head of the metabolic department there, and also became a professor at Loyola University Medical School in Chicago, IL. She became an internationally recognized expert on bone diseases such as osteoporosis and Paget's disease, and conducted research on the importance of minerals in the human body (she helped establish the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) for calcium, zinc, and fluorides, among others). She has also been a frequent speaker and consultant on health issues for the U.S. government. In 1996 she retired in the age of 85 and deceased in 2007 in Riverdale, NY.

Lit: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1933–1938; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 480; information from Mag. Barbara Sauer (Project "Medical Doctors in Austria 1938-1945. Deprivation of Rights, Expulsion, Murder") 2017; Remembering of her granddaughter Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi 2010 in Jewish Women's Archive. "Herta Spencer-Laszlo, 1911 - 2007" https://jwa.org/weremember/spencer-laszlo-herta>; www.geni.com.

Herbert Posch