Paul Blatt

Geb. am:	14. März 1889
Fakultät:	Medizinische Fakultät | Medizin Universität Wien
Kategorie:	Vertriebene WissenschafterInnen

Paul BLATT, geb. am 14. März 1889 in Wien, war Privatdozent für Urologie an der Medizinischen Fakultät der Universität Wien. Er hatte hier am 23. Jänner 1914 promoviert, war im Ersten Weltkrieg ab 1915 Mitglied einer mobilen Chirurgengruppe und Operationszögling an der I. Chirurgischen Universitätsklinik (Anton Eiselsberg), ab 1918 Aspirant an der Urologischen Abteilung der Wiener Allgemeinen Poliklinik (Otto Zuckerkandl und Hans Rubritius), 1921 Assistent, ab 1928 erster Assistent und arbeitete gleichzeitig am Pathologisch-Histologischen Institut (Oskar Stoerk) und seit 1927 auch am Pharmakologischen Institut (Ernst Peter Pick), 1930 suchte er um die venia legendi an und wurde 1932 Privatdozent. Er war verheiratet mit Grete Blatt, geb. Tschiassny, und sie hatten zwei Söhne (Franz Joachim Blatt, geb. 1924, und John Marcus Blatt, geb. 1921) - sie lebten zuletzt in Wien 9., Berggasse 22/9. Paul Blatt wurde im Nationalsozialismus aus rassistischen Gründen verfolgt, 1938 verhaftet, die venia legendi entzogen und am 22. April 1938 wurde er seines Amtes enthoben und von der Universität Wien vertrieben. Er konnte noch 1938 nach Paris/Frankreich emigrieren und 1939 weiter in die USA nach Cincinatti/Ohio. Kurzbiografie, verfasst von seinem Sohn, Prof. Frank J. Blatt, 2012: "Paul Blatt was born 14 March, 1889. He graduated from Medical School, Univ. of Vienna, in 1914. In April of that year he married Grete Tschiassny, who also graduated that year from Medical School. Both joined the medical service of the k&k army. After the end of WWI Paul Blatt started his practice in Urology and also was a member of the urological faculty at the University of Vienna.
Paul Blatt was active in the Massadah chapter of the B’nai Brith, and was elected chairman of that chapter in September 1937. Consequently, his name was high on the list of Jews to be apprehended by the Nazis, and on the evening prior to the official day of the Anschluss in March, 1938, two men wearing Swastika armbands and rifles came to our apartment in Berggasse 22 and arrested Paul Blatt. It took my mother several days to discover where her husband was held, and we were relieved that he had not been shipped to the already notorious concentration camp of Buchenwald as yet. My maternal grandmother recalled that a distant cousin had emigrated to the USA and had once visited Vienna with his son, Jack Stark, who had just completed medical school. My mother wrote to Dr. Jack Stark, who lived in Cincinnati, Ohio and asked for his help. It was through Dr. Stark’s intercession (I suspect that Dr. Stark paid a ransom in US currency) that Paul Blatt was released from jail in early June. Paul Blatt and his older son, Hans, departed Vienna for Paris shortly after Dr. Blatt’s release, and Mrs. Blatt and Franz joined them in August. The family stayed in Paris, supported by Dr. Stark and various refugee organizations until August 1939, when they were informed by the US Consulate that their quota number had come up and that the family could enter the USA.
The family arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio, shortly before the start of WWII. Dr. Stark had arranged a rent-free apartment for the family in a building he owned where we lived for the next two years. Paul Blatt learned that he would have to pass the State Board Examination before he could practice urology in Ohio, and he spent most of a year studying anatomy, oncology, cardiology, neurology, ophthalmology, etc., and became knowledgeable and familiar with newer techniques and information in branches of medicine other than urology, the area of his own specialty. He passed the Examination in 1940 and started private practice in urology and joined the staff of the Cincinnati Jewish Hospital.
Paul Blatt retired in 1971 at the age of 82. He moved that summer to Sydney, Australia, where his son, John (Hans), held the position of Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of New South Wales.
Paul Blatt died in Sydney in 1981."

Lit.: Archiv der Universität Wien/Personalstand 1937/38, 47, Rektorat GZ 680 ex 1937/38; MÜHLBERGER 1993, 18; FIGDOR 2007, 42f.; MERINSKY 1980, 22-23; UB MedUni Wien/van Swieten Blog; freundlicher Hinweis seines Enkels Dr. David Blatt, Australien 2012 und seines Sohnes Prof. Frank J. Blatt, 2012.

Katharina Kniefacz, Herbert Posch