Escaping Nazi Germany: Jewish refugee dentists and their post-emigration careers in the United States of America.

This study is the first to examine the collective of dental lecturers and scientists who emigrated from Nazi Germany to the United States of America. We pay special attention to the socio-demographic characteristics, emigration journeys, and further professional development of these individuals in the country of immigration. The paper is based on primary sources from various German, Austrian, and United States archives and a systematic evaluation of the secondary literature on the persons concerned. We identified a total of eighteen male emigrants. The majority of these dentists left the "Greater" German Reich between 1938 and 1941. Thirteen of the eighteen lecturers were able to find a position in American academia, mainly as full professors. Two-thirds of them settled in New York and Illinois. The study concludes that most of the emigrated dentists studied here succeeded in continuing or even expanding their academic careers in the USA, although they usually had to retake their final dental examinations. No other destination country for immigration offered similarly favorable conditions. Not a single dentist decided to remigrate after 1945.

From unskilled worker to full professor: The eventful life and career of the Jewish pathologist Herman Medak (1914-1991).

The Jewish pathologist Herman Medak (1914-1991) went down in medical history as a pioneer in the early detection of oral carcinomas. As a longtime full professor of oral pathology at the University of Illinois, he influenced several generations of students and young researchers. His many experimental studies attracted special attention, as did his "Atlas of Oral Cytology" (1970). Largely unknown, however, is the fact that the Viennese-born scientist had to flee from the Nazi regime immediately before his medical state examination and thus arrived in the United States without a qualifying professional degree. This article attempts to fill the existing research gaps and to reconstruct Medak's life and work. It sheds light on Medak's years of study in Vienna, his forced emigration from Austria, his restart in the U.S. and his path to becoming a full professor of oral pathology. It also addresses the question of why Medak remained in Chicago until the end of his life and how the University of Vienna later dealt with its expelled students. The analysis is based on a large number of documents from archives in Austria and the U.S., but also on transcripts and other material from the private collection of the Medak family. These documents were supplemented and compared with the relevant secondary literature. It can be shown that Medak had to overcome considerable setbacks not only in Vienna, but also in the U.S., before he got on the road to professional success. Five factors ultimately proved to be career-enhancing: the Nimbus of the "Vienna School", Medak's unconditional striving for education, his deliberate specialization in oral pathology, his early international contacts and his willingness to adapt and acculturate. Like most other displaced scholars, Medak was widely ignored in postwar Austria. Today, the University of Vienna maintains an online memorial book that also provides information about Medak - albeit still rudimentary.

Per aspera ad astra: Life and work of the persecuted Jewish oral pathologist Joseph Weinmann (1896-1960).

Given his seminal scientific oeuvre, Joseph P. Weinmann (1896-1960) is considered a pioneer of oral pathology. He also paved the way for generations of scientists and physicians with the standard work "Bone and Bones", his textbook on oral pathology and histology, and the "Oral Pathology Program" at the University of Illinois. Far less well known is the fact that Weinmann, as a Jew, was disenfranchised by the Nazis in Vienna in 1938. Against this background, this study aims to shed light on the circumstances of Weinmann's persecution and subsequent forced emigration, as well as the further development of his career in the United States. This includes the question of which factors were decisive for Weinmann's scientific breakthrough in Chicago. The analysis draws on a variety of archival sources and contemporary printed writings. What at first glance looks like the impressive curriculum vitae of a successful scientist turns out to be a story of loss, violence, and a difficult new beginning. Joseph Weinmann first had to overcome several setbacks - disenfranchisement and expropriation by the National Socialists, a brief imprisonment before his planned escape from Vienna, and a failed immigration attempt in Great Britain - before he succeeded in an international career in the USA, which brought him, among other things, a chair and the presidency of the "American Academy of Oral Pathology". From the results, it can be concluded that Weinmann's success was not due to one specific reason, but based on many mutually beneficial factors (personal relationships, scientific prominence, favorable research environment, fortitude, adaptability, highly sought-after professional specialization).