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ABSTRACT
Approximately 9,000 physicians were uprooted for so-called “racial” or “political” reasons by the Nazi regime and 6,000 fled Germany. These refugees are often seen as survivors who contributed to a “brain drain” from Germany. About 432 doctors (all specialties, private and academic) were dismissed from the major German city of Hamburg. Of these, 16 were Hamburg University faculty members dismissed from their government-supported positions for “racial” reasons, and, of these, five were neuroscientists. In a critical analysis, not comprehensively done previously, we will demonstrate that the brain drain did not equal a “brain gain.” The annihilation of these five neuroscientists’ careers under different but similar auspices, their shameful harassment and incarceration, financial expropriation by Nazi ransom techniques, forced migration, and roadblocks once reaching destination countries stalled and set back any hopes of research and quickly continuing once-promising careers. A major continuing challenge is finding ways to repair an open wound and obvious vacuum in the German neuroscience community created by the largely collective persecution of colleagues 80 years ago.
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank Dr. Frank Stahnisch (Calgary) for inviting us to contribute to this special issue, Prof. Eckart Krause of the Universitaet Hamburg Arbeitsstelle und Bibliothek fuer Universitaetsgeschichte, the staff of the Hamburg Staatsarchiv, Stephen Wordsworth of the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA, successor agency to the SPSL) for granting permission to research and reproduce AAC/SPSL files at Oxford, Colin Harris and the staff of the Oxford Bodleian Library (Weston Library, Oxford University, Oxford, England) for help with the AAC/SPSL files, the staff of the National Archives and Records Administration Great Lakes Division (Chicago, IL), Peter and Samuel Loewenberg (son and grandson of Richard Loewenberg, respectively), Jon Barstad (Norwegian Riksarkivet [Main State Archive], Oslo, Norway), Maynard Gerber (Cantor of The Great Synagogue in Stockholm, Sweden) for assistance with Kafka, Lars Hallberg (Swedish Riksarkivet Stockholm, Sweden), and Kristian Groenseth (Oslo, Norway) for help translating and interpreting Norwegian and Swedish files on Kafka.
Funding
Dr. Zeidman received support from the University of Illinois at Chicago Office of International Affairs (Nuveen International Development Fund).
Notes
1 With respect to the retrospective analysis, many of the individuals in this article are anachronistically referred to collectively as “neuroscientists,” though that term did not emerge until the 1960s with the creation of the Neurosciences Research Program in which experts in neurology, psychiatry, and other related basic biomedical fields met to confront ongoing research challenges in an interdisciplinary fashion (see Adelman, Citation1987). Additionally, neurology and psychiatry were typically linked in Germany until after World War II, separating when diagnostic and therapeutic advancements in neurology made it distinct and viable enough as a specialty to practice separately (see Janzen, Citation1977; Holdorff, Citation2004).
2 Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers’ Party; the Nazi Party).
3 Hamburg Staatsarchiv (Henceforth listed as “StAHH”) 361-6_I_319 Personalakte: Pette, Heinrich.
4 Verordnung ueber eine Suehneleistung der Juden deutscher Staatsangehoerigkeit (RGBl. I S. 1579). November 12, 1938.
5 DEGO-Tax was a payment to the Deutsche Golddiskontbank (Barkai, Citation2000).
6 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-5: Josephy, Hermann.
7 StAHH 131-11-1567: Hermann Josephy.
8 Ibid.
9 StAHH 361-6_IV_1877: PA Jacob, Hans.
10 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-5: Josephy, Hermann.
11 File from the “Devisenstelle“ of the “Oberfinanzpraesident Hamburg“, Sta HH/OFP 314-15/F1204.
12 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-5: Josephy, Hermann.
13 Ibid.
14 Information courtesy of the Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstaetten/Gedenkstaette und Museum Sachsenhausen. Original file located at: Russian State Military Archive, Moscow 1367/1/20, Bl. 070.
15 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-5: Josephy, Hermann.
16 Ibid.
17 File from the “Devisenstelle“ of the “Oberfinanzpräsident Hamburg,“ StAHH/OFP 314-15/F1204.
18 Oxford Bodleian SPSL Home Office file 433-4: Josephy, Hermann.
19 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-5: Josephy, Hermann
20 Oxford Bodleian SPSL Home Office file 433-4: Josephy, Hermann.
21 Ibid.
22 C-class German and Austrian aliens in Britain were theoretically supposed to have protection from internment, given that they were refugees from Nazi oppression. But men living in a “protected area” could be arrested and interned. See: Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-5: Josephy, Hermann.
23 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-5: Josephy, Hermann.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid.
26 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-9: Kirschbaum, Walter.
27 Ibid.
28 StAHH 361-6 IV 1200.
29 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-9: Kirschbaum, Walter.
30 Ibid.
31 Information courtesy of the Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstaetten/Gedenkstaette und Museum Sachsenhausen. Original file located at: Russian State Military Archive, Moskow 1367/1/15, Bl. 077 and 1367/1/20, Bl. 135.
32 Kirschbaum WR. Letter to Dr. Louis Boshes, June 12, 1970. Archives of the Chicago Neurological Society. Boshes Library of the Neurosciences. University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Neuropsychiatric Institute, Chicago, IL, USA.
33 File from the “Devisenstelle“ of the “Oberfinanzpräsident Hamburg“, StAHH/OFP 314-15/F1299.
34 Kirschbaum WR. Letter to Dr. Louis Boshes, June 12, 1970. Archives of the Chicago Neurological Society. Boshes Library of the Neurosciences. UIC Neuropsychiatric Institute, Chicago, IL, USA.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
37 Files of the Medical Faculty of Hamburg University, file Kirschbaum (without file number).
38 Boshes LD. In Memoriam: Dr. Walter R. Kirschbaum, 1894–1982. Archives of the Chicago Neurological Society. Boshes Library of the Neurosciences. UIC Neuropsychiatric Institute, Chicago, IL, USA. pp. 1–5; Kirschbaum WR. Curriculum Vitae, March 12, 1958. Archives of the Chicago Neurological Society. Boshes Library of the Neurosciences. UIC Neuropsychiatric Institute, Chicago, IL, USA.
39 Ibid.
40 Boshes LD. In Memoriam: Dr. Walter R. Kirschbaum, 1894–1982. Archives of the Chicago Neurological Society. Boshes Library of the Neurosciences. UIC Neuropsychiatric Institute, Chicago, IL, USA. pp. 1–5.
41 Kirschbaum WR. Letter to Dr. Louis Boshes, June 12, 1970. Archives of the Chicago Neurological Society. Boshes Library of the Neurosciences. UIC Neuropsychiatric Institute, Chicago, IL, USA.
42 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-6: Kafka, Victor.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid.
47 Ibid.
48 StAHH 352-10 239 Hamburg Medizinalkollegium Personalakte, Victor Kafka.
49 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-6: Kafka, Victor.
50 Ibid.
51 Ibid., p. 304.
52 Ibid.
53 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-6: Kafka, Victor.
54 StAHH 352-10 239 Hamburg Medizinalkollegium Personalakte, Victor Kafka.
55 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-6: Kafka, Victor.
56 StAHH 352-10 239 Hamburg Medizinalkollegium Personalakte, Victor Kafka.
57 Kafka, V to Nonne, M, 16 May 1939, Hamburg State Archive, Nachlass M. Nonne (Peiffer, Citation2004, p. 555).
58 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-6: Kafka, Victor.
59 Swedish Riksarkivet Archive File from the State Aliens Commission (Statens Utlänningskommission) on Victor Kafka.
60 Ibid.
61 Swedish Riksarkivet Archive. Files from the Swedish Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (Socialdepartementet) on Victor Kafka.
62 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-6: Kafka, Victor.
63 Ibid.
64 Swedish Riksarkivet Archive. Files from the Swedish Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (Socialdepartementet) on Victor Kafka.
65 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 395-6: Kafka, Victor.
66 Swedish Riksarkivet Archive File from the State Aliens Commission (Statens Utlaenningskommission) on Victor Kafka.
67 Swedish Riksarkivet Archive Files from the Swedish Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (Socialdepartementet) on Victor Kafka.
68 Ibid.
69 StAHH 361-6 I 233: Kafka medical faculty personnel file.
70 StAHH 351-11 12215: Wiedergutmachungsakte Kafka.
71 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 409-10: Wohlwill, Friedrich.
72 StAHH 351-11-5442 Wohlwill.
73 StAHH 352-3 IV C70 Wohlwill.
74 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 409-10: Wohlwill, Friedrich.
75 StAHH 352-3 IV C70 Wohlwill; StAHH 361-1 IV 1125 Wohlwill.
76 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 409-410: Wohlwill, Friedrich.
77 Number 1458, Wohlwill to Nonne, 28/12/1934, StAHH Nachlass M. Nonne (Peiffer, Citation2004, pp. 944–946).
78 Ibid.
79 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 409-10: Wohlwill, Friedrich.
80 StAHH 352-3 IV C70 Friedrich Wohlwill.
81 StAHH 622-1-55-B-5 Familie Lippmann.
82 StAHH 352-3 IV C70 Wohlwill.
83 StAHH 622-1-55-B-5 Familie Lippmann.
84 Ibid.
85 Ibid.
86 Leo Baeck digital collection, papers of Richard Loewenberg. Letter from Friedrich Wohlwill, Hawthorne, Massachusetts, 17 June 1952 to Richard Loewenberg.
87 Ibid.
88 Ibid.
89 Ibid.
90 StAHH 352-3 IV C70 Wohlwill.
91 StAHH 361-1 IV 1125 Wohlwill.
92 Ibid.
93 StAHH, 351-11-27713, p. 195; Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte, Munich, Akte Loewenberg; Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 396-10: Loewenberg, Richard.
94 The Good Templars are an international organization, currently called “IOGT International” (International Organization of Good Templars), dedicated to alcohol and illegal drug abstinence.
95 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 396-10: Loewenberg, Richard.
96 Ibid.
97 Ibid., p. 355.
98 Ibid., p. 326.
99 Ibid., p. 326.
100 Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte, Muenchen, Akte Loewenberg.
101 Oxford Bodleian SPSL file 396-10: Loewenberg, Richard.
102 Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte, Muenchen, Akte Loewenberg; Leo Baeck collection, papers of Richard D. Loewenberg.
103 Ibid.
104 Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte, Muenchen, Akte Loewenberg.
105 Ibid.
106 Ibid.
107 Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte, Muenchen, Akte Loewenberg; Leo Baeck collection, papers of Richard Loewenberg.
108 Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte, Muenchen, Akte Loewenberg.
109 Petition for Naturalization 98809, Loewenberg, Richard. National Archives and Records Administration, Northern Division, San Bruno, California.
110 Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte, Muenchen, Akte Loewenberg.
111 Ibid.
112 Leo Baeck collection, papers of Richard Loewenberg.
113 Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte, Muenchen, Akte Loewenberg.
114 Leo Baeck collection, papers of Richard D. Loewenberg (AR 6005), statement of family member of Loewenberg (Ernst?), undated.
115 Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte, Muenchen, Akte Loewenberg.
116 StAHH, 351-11, 27713.
117 File from the “Devisenstelle“ of the “Oberfinanzpraesident Hamburg“, StAHH/OFP 314-15/F1204.