Samuel Bondi

Born:	05-29-1878
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled teacher

Samuel BONDI (born on May 29th, 1878 in Mainz, died January 21st, 1959 in USA), son of Marcus Meyer Bondi (1830-1926) and his wife Bertha nee Hirsch.
He was "Privatdozent" for Inner Medicine at the Medical School of the University of Vienna since 1920. He was persecuted in times of Nazism as a Jew lost his position and was thrown out of the university on April 22nd, 1938. His daughter Gabriele Bondi, who studied at the Medical School, was also expelled from the University of Vienna, was also expelled from the University of Vienna as was his niece Berta Bondi, who studied psychology at the Philosophical School. His son Sir Hermann Bondi (1919-2005) lived and studied in Cambridge/UK since 1937 and later became professor for Mathematics at King's College, London (on October 14th, 1993 he became honorary doctor - Dr.rer.nat. h.c. - of the University of Vienna).

Samuel Bondi was able to emigrate to the USA: "He fled Austria, following a telegram on 9 March 1938 from my father, Hermann Bondi, in the UK, saying to leave now, without further thought. He and my grandmother took the train on the morning of 11 March, crossing the border into Hungary shortly before Hitler arrived in Vienna. From there, my grandparents travelled from Budapest via Yugoslavia and Italy to Lugano in southern Switzerland, and thence went to the UK, where they stayed until the fall of France, after which they emigrated to the USA." (Alice Bondi, 2010) His twin sister Rosa Bondi was less fortunate: she could not emigrate and died in Auschwitz [Oświęcim/Poland] in 1943.

Lit.: information from his grandchildren Alice Bondi, UK, and Bernard Lobel, New York/USA, 2010; MERINSKY 1980, 28-29; UB MedUni Wien/van Swieten Blog; ; KNIEFACZ/POSCH 2017b.

Herbert Posch