Kurt Elias
| Born: |
09-03-1918 |
| Faculty: |
Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: |
Expelled student |
Kurt ELIAS, born on September 3rd, 1918 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), son of
Prof. Dr. Herbert Elias (Univ.-Prof.), lived in Wien 9, Liechtensteinstraße 2, was enrolled finally in the spring term 1938 at the Medical School in the 1st year of his studies.
He emigrated to the USA in 1938 - as well as his sister
Hanna Elias, married Kapit, who wa also forced to leave the University of Vienna in 1938. He could continue his studies at the New York Medical College in 1941, graduated in 1944 (M.D.) and worked as a physician in the USA, also for the Austrian Consulate in New York.
Kurt Elias died in New York City on March 1, 2010 at the age of 91.
Lit.: Remembering Kurt Elias, MD (2010); Interview with Kurt ELIAS in New York on February 21st, 2006 (Interviewer: Herbert Posch, Videodocumentation: Gabriele Mathes); Interview in Austrian Heritage Collection at Leo Baeck Institute New York [AR 10382]; Exhibition "Bedrohte Intelligenz – Von der Polarisierung und Einschüchterung zur Vertreibung und Vernichtung im NS-Regime", Vienna 2015.
Kurt Elias – Sketch of a Portrait (in:
POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 331f.)
Born in Vienna in 1918, he was, as he himself reminisced, a child who loved learning and to whom, in keeping with the family tradition, knowledge was important. He fondly remembers his years in elementary school on Gruenentorgasse in the 9th district of Vienna and his grammar school at Stubenbastei.
Kurt Elias got his A-levels in 1936, volunteered for a year’s military service and subsequently began his study of medicine at the University of Vienna. He escaped to London via Prague in 1938 and went on to the USA on board the "Normandie". He received his B. S. (Bachelor of Science) a year later and his M. S. (Master of Science) in the consecutive year. He put himself through university by working odd jobs, as a mortician and a liftboy, to name but two. He got his M. D. in 1944 and married the physician Nina Dulcher in 1946. He then served in the US Army till 1948. That was followed by further training in oncology, the building of a private practice and, from 1953 onwards, activity with the Montefiore Medical Group. As a physician, his compassion was especially challenged during his work in the field of oncology, he remembers, but this was to be regarded as his special vocation. That same challenge inspired him to develop his holistic approach, in which not only the psychological parameters of sickness and patients’ feelings are considered, but those of the treating physicians and nurses as well. As one of his students later wrote, he was the one who taught humaneness in medicine.
Kurt Elias was married to psychiatrist Gloria Karshaw Clare, his second spouse. He had three children and seven grand-children: his son Peter has also became a physician, his elder daughter Joan is an attorney and the youngest, Margaret, dedicates herself to social work.
And thus, he assures us, every experience in his life was important and contributed to his understanding of what it means to be a human being. Says Kurt Elias: "Some people’s hate, other people’s love, understanding or the lack thereof, I learned from everything."
Doris Ingrisch | Herbert Posch
