| Born: | 05-06-1914 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Peter HUPPERT, born on May 7th, 1914 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), son of Roland Huppert (writer) and Flora Huppert, née Blum, lived in Vienna's 9th district, Türkenstraße 8/18, was last enrolled in the 5th and last year at the Medical School in the spring term of 1938.
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/"Abgangszeugnis" was issued on June 15th, 1938).
He was "protestant A.B.", but was considered a Jew under National Socialism, had to flee Vienna, and still managed to emigrate to England in time.
In the October 1939 census he lived with his brother Harold (Harry) Huppert (1916–2005) in Holy Trinity Church & Hostel in Bethnal Green, London and was initially registered as a friendly alien, but in the course of the Second World War he was interned as a potential enemy alien on June 21st, 1940 and deported from England to Australia on July 10th, 1940 on the ship "HMT Dunera". He was initially interned at the Hay camp, later at Tartuga, eventually enlisting in the Army and was not released until November 20th, 1941, returning to London, England on November 28th on the "SS Stibling Castle" via Liverpool.
However, he was unable to complete his nearly finished medical studies in England and worked as a biology and German teacher at St. Albans College, where he also met his future wife, Berlin-born Nora M. Benjamin (1928–2012). His sister Inga also lived in London at the time before later marrying a Swiss man and moving with him to Switzerland.
Peter Tom Huppert also eventually went to Switzerland to complete his medical studies in German, then returned to England where doctors were urgently needed for the Public Health Service, did his internships, and when he got his first fixed appointment as a doctor, he married Nora Benjamin on March 3rd, 1951 in Willesden, London NW, and daughter Rebecca was born in 1953, followed later by Amanda (Mandy).
The family moved repeatedly with Peter Huppert's changing medical posts in England but later also to Tasmania for three years where he worked as a psychiatrist at the State Hopital Norfolk near Hobarth before the family finally moved permanently to Australia in 1961 where he worked initially at the Repatriation Department as a consultant and from 1965 they lived in Sidney, NSW and he opened a private practice there.
Peter Tom Huppert died in May 1987 in Sydney, NSW/Australia and is buried at Macquarie Park Cemetery, North Ryde, Ryde City, NSW/Australia.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937–1938; REITER-ZATLOUKAL/SAUER 2023; National Archives of Australia NAA: C100, 1594047: Interview "The Dunera Diaries" with Peter Huppert by Claudia Taranto on September 1st, 1985, NAA MP1103-2 E39808:Report on Internee Peter Huppert; interview with his widow Nora Huppert by Tom Keleman, August 22nd, 1995 in Surry Hills, Sydney, USC Shoah Foundation No 5012 (https://vha-usc-edu.uaccess.univie.ac.at/testimony/5012); Peter Huppert, in: Ken INGLIS, Bill GAMMAGE, Seumas SPARK, Jay WINTER & Carol BUNYAN (ed.), Dunera Lives, vol 2: Profiles, Monash University Publishing 2020, 214–239; information courtesy by Elisabeth Lebensaft, Vienna 09/2023.
Herbert Posch
