Out of Nazi German in Time, a Gift to American Science: Gerhard Schmidt, Biochemist

When Adolf Hitler became Germany’s Reich Chancellor at the end of January 1933, Dr. Gerhard Schmidt knew his world was crashing around him. A highly cultured assimilated Jew, feeling basically secure in post-World War I Germany, he studied medicine in Tübingen and Frankfurt, trained in biochemistry with Professor Gustav Embden, and attained a faculty position at the University of Frankfurt. Three months after Hitler’s rise, Dr. Schmidt lost his position, his father, and his country. He began a seven-year odyssey, with short-term research fellowships in Italy, Sweden, Canada (Queen’s University), and the United States (Rockefeller Institute and Washington University in St. Louis). He was recruited to the Boston Dispensary and Tufts University School of Medicine in 1940 by Dr. Siegfried Thannhauser, a physician of great distinction and a fellow German refugee of Jewish origin. Dr. Schmidt remained at Tufts for the rest of his career, and was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1973. He considered his post-Germany successes in science and family a victory over Nazism.

A native of Saskatoon, Canada, B. David Stollar graduated from the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine in 1959 and interned at its Royal University Hospital. He moved to the United States for postdoctoral research training at Brandeis University, followed by two years of service in the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. In 1964 he joined the faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine, where he pursued research and teaching for 41 years. During a sabbatical year he was a senior fellow of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. His research was primarily on biochemical aspects of immunology, particularly in relation to autoimmune disease.