Klaus Dreyer

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Klaus Dreyer , in Israel Jaakow Dror (born June 25, 1909 in Cologne , † March 1999 in Ramat Gan ) was a German-Israeli occupational medicine specialist. Trained in Germany, as a Jew he was refused a license to practice medicine after 1933 as a result of Nazi legislation . He emigrated to Palestine in 1936 and from 1942 worked for the Hagana and the Palmach . After the end of the Israeli War of Independence and after further studies, he later became Professor of Occupational Medicine at Tel Aviv University .

origin

Klaus Dreyer was the son of the dermatologist and urologist Dr. Albert Dreyer (* August 15, 1868 in Verl - † April 9, 1934 in Cologne) and his wife Hanna (* June 22, 1877 in Cologne - † May 21, 1967 in Ramat Gan ), the daughter of the ophthalmologist and medical officer Dr. med. Julius Samelsohn, who is one of the founders of the ophthalmic institute for the poor in Cologne (the predecessor of the later university eye clinic). Albert Dreyer was a member of the constituent assembly of the German Society for Urology on September 16, 1906 in Stuttgart .

In addition to Klaus, the couple Albert and Hanna Dreyer had another son: Fritz (born June 8, 1912 in Cologne). Both brothers were hockey players at the Cologne-Marienburger Sportclub . "For 1935 Fritz Dreyer is named as a player of the Jewish hockey club Hakoah Cologne and after a tournament in Hamburg as a member of the German Jewish national team." April 1935 took part in the 2nd  Maccabiade in Tel Aviv and later one of the founding members of the Bar Kochba Haifa club , whose hockey department he headed. Klaus Dreyer writes that his brother emigrated to Palestine in January 1936 and to the USA with his family in the early 1950s.

education

After graduating from high school, Klaus Dreyer studied medicine in Freiburg, Munich, Bonn and Cologne. In 1932 he passed the exam at the University of Cologne and received his doctorate with a thesis "On the influence of three years of sporting activity on the youth's organism". He was then able to work as a medical intern in the university clinic, but after the seizure of power in 1934 he was refused a license to practice medicine . Dreyer then completed internships with various doctors and in the Jewish hospital in Cologne . Up until this point, religion does not seem to have played a major role in his life. He regarded himself as a German citizen of the Jewish faith and rejected a solution to the Jewish question outside of Germany. Dreyer was one of the founding members of a sports club in 1920, presumably the Cologne-Marienburger sports club mentioned above . He described his exclusion from this sports club as his greatest trauma that happened to him in 1933. Like his brother, he became a member of the Jewish sports club Hakoah Cologne and was involved as a coach. He describes Hakoah Cologne as a Zionist sports club, but makes it clear: “There was no talk of Zionism, which I had fought all my life.” Nonetheless, he only speaks a few lines about the fact that he was in the vicinity of this sports club and his intensive work there started to develop an interest in Zionism. “I read and learned about Judaism and religion, and also started learning the Hebrew language.” As early as the early 1980s, he had known: “The year 1933 changed me due to my experiences at work, in sports and in everyday life from a 'self-confident German Jew' to a believing supporter of the Zionist idea. ”It remains to be seen where the differences between him as a“ believing supporter of the Zionist idea ”and Zionism, which he claimed to have fought all his life, ran.

Dreyer's seriously ill father died in early April 1934, and he took a job as a physical education teacher for the Bar Kochba sports club in Memel and also ran a holiday camp for the Lithuanian Maccabi in Schwarzort , today's Juodkrantė . He used this time to deepen his knowledge of Zionism and to learn Yiddish . While looking for another job as a sports teacher, he met Hans Beyth in Berlin . He established contact with Hugo Rosenthal , which led to Dreyer's appointment as a physical education teacher at the Jewish school home in Herrlingen .

Jewish country school home in Herrlingen

Dreyer was employed primarily as a physical education teacher in 1934, but was fully involved in the educational work of the school outside of his lessons. “That meant that, in addition to my“ specialist ”role as a sports teacher, I would take on joint responsibility for the educational management of the“ Bubenhaus ”in which I lived (renamed“ Ramban House ” during my time in Herrlingen ) had. ”He was able to rely on his experience“ in gymnastics and sport in schools and sports clubs as pupils, instructors, voluntary trainers and leaders of summer camps ”.

Due to his lack of a license to practice medicine, Dreyer could not work as a doctor in the Landschulheim, except for occasional first aid services. Thus Herrlingen was not important for his professional development, but for his religious and ideological. The time there was for him an "important educational station on the way to Erez Israel ", helped him to a better "understanding of being a Jew" and led to a deepening of his relationship "to Judaism, the people and religion and to Zionism". A “by-product” was also the deepening of his knowledge of the Hebrew language.

"For me there is no doubt that Hugo Rosenthal's influence, together with life in the Herrlinger community, had a decisive influence on my personal development and my path in Israel."

At the beginning of 1936, Klaus Dreyer came into contact with the Jewish scout association Makkabi Hazair . He was offered the leadership of a youth Aliyah group, and after two preparatory camps, he emigrated to Palestine in mid-1936 with 30 youths and another “female leader”.

Excursus: Ilse Wachsmann

The aforementioned “Führer” always remains nameless at Dreyer, although he was later married to her and they had a son, Michael Dror-Dreyer (* 1940). In his extensive book about the beginnings of Naharija , Klaus Kreppel goes into more detail on this relationship between Klaus Dreyer and Ilse ("Ille") Wachsmann (* 1915 in Zabrze (Hindenburg) in Upper Silesia ) and describes its exemplary character:

“This was preceded by a biographical-political odyssey through National Socialist Germany and the British Mandate Palestine. Also through their professional shifts in later Israel, through personal separations and family reorientations, Klaus and Ille Dreyer embody an emigrant fate that only found inner balance and calm at a late stage. They are an example of failure and new beginnings and for remaining in Israel, but accepting a high degree of flexibility and mobility. "

In 1934, after graduating from high school, Ilse Wachsmann did an internship as a nanny in the Jewish children's home in Bad Kreuznach , which was run by Sophie Sondhelm . Afterwards she came to Alt Karbe via the Makkabi Hazair , where she was trained as a group leader (Madrich / Madricha) together with Klaus Dreyer. Then the two went to Palestine with a group.

In 1937 Klaus Dreyer and Ilse Wachsmann married and moved to Naharija, where in 1940 their son Michael ("Mol") was born. Like her husband, Ilse Dreyer also had to take on additional work because the farm was not producing enough (see below). She looked after children and worked as a domestic help, including for the parents of Kurt Weill and his brother Nathan, who had emigrated to Palestine .

Klaus and Ilse Dreyer's marriage ended in divorce in the early 1940s. She later married another settler from Nahariya, Justus Meyer, with whom she raised her son Michael. Klaus Dreyer, however, continued to take care of his son's development. Ilse Meyer trained as a kindergarten teacher and later took over the management of the WIZO kindergarten in Naharija. She was also known and recognized for her educational and therapeutic puppetry. Her third marriage was to the veterinarian Erich Arie Dayan.

Palestine and Israel

At the beginning of July 1936 Dreyer and his companion arrived at the Kibbutz Ramat-David (southeast of Haifa , near Nazareth ) ( location ), where they were divided between two Kwuzot . Klaus Dreyer lived and worked here, had heavy physical work to do, but felt good. Gradually, however, his function as the leader of a group brought over from Germany came to an end, and at the same time Ilse Wachsmann was only willing to marry him if he were ready to leave the kibbutz. This marriage took place in 1937; it was followed by the attempt to build a new life as a farmer.

From February 1937 Dreyer explored several possibilities and met Richard Strauss, a friend from Herrlingen. He already lived in Nahariya and advised Dreyer to become his neighbor on his own piece of land. Dreyer followed this advice and moved to Nahariya, where he became a farmer. He met a few friends from college again, including two who were now working as auxiliary cops. Under rather primitive conditions he set about building up agriculture, but since it did not produce enough income, he had to work as a day laborer to secure his livelihood.

“During the years 1937-41 I worked for days as a construction worker, building roads, as a gymnastics and substitute teacher at school, as a lifesaver on the beach, delivering milk for neighbor Strauss and finally with the horse, in which I was involved with a quarter , for plow and transport equipment.
All of this in addition to growing vegetables, tending and watering the fruit trees, tending and milking the goats and keeping some chickens, ducks and rabbits. In addition, there was frequent night watch and work building the fence around Nahariah, because of the newly flared riots. "

After the beginning of World War II, Dreyer wanted to volunteer for the British Army, but found no use. In 1940 he had a son, and in 1941 a local Hagana commander induced him to teach first aid courses. This marked the beginning of his return to the medical profession. From November 1941 he worked as a doctor, first for a construction company, then for the Hagana and finally for Palmach , which was founded in May 1941 . For two years, from 1942 to 1944, Dreyer headed the Palmach's medical service and was primarily responsible for training paramedics. This was also the time of his separation from Ilse Dreyer, his first wife.

After the end of the Second World War and a year of advanced training at the hospital in Afula , Klaus Dreyer worked for Kupat Cholim , the health insurance company founded by Histadrut . After a few substitute jobs , he was responsible for medical care in the Safed district and the care of the health insurance fund “Beit Bussel”. He completed further medical training courses and sold the farm in Nahariya to buy a plot of land by the sea. His mother, who had arrived in Haifa by ship in 1946, also moved here. In Afula he also met his later second wife, Hannah Goldschmidt (born March 6, 1921 in Frankfurt am Main - † 2009), who worked here as a sister and midwife.

The beginning of the Israeli War of Independence led Klaus Dreyer to return to the Hagana service in autumn 1947 . This was also the time when he took the name Yaakov Dror . According to Lucie Schachne, he was employed as a senior physician on various war fronts from 1948 to 1949. He first built a school for paramedics, married Hanna Goldschmidt in January 1948, became chief physician at Palmach in March 1948 and, after its dissolution, chief physician on the southern front under Yigal Allon . In the same year he profited from the expulsion of the Arab population from Haifa, because he received “from the 'administration of abandoned enemy property' a beautiful, formerly Arab apartment for rent on the Carmel slope [..], with a view of the harbor Bai and Western Galilee ”. In November 1948 he became chief physician for the Israeli Northern Front, and in December he became the father of a daughter (Daniela). In October 1949, Jaakov Dror finished his active military service.

After the establishment of the State of Israel, Dror returned to the headquarters of the Kupat Cholim in Tel Aviv in 1950. In February 1951 he became the father of another son (Gabriel). During this time he began to be interested in "occupational medicine, a subject that was not developed in Israel," and in November 1951 he was able to travel to the USA for a year to study occupational medicine. After his return in 1952, the Kupat Cholim entrusted him with developing the occupational medicine department for all of Israel. At the same time, he was in charge of the occupational medicine service of the health insurance fund for Haifa and Northern Israel. Since 1954 he has been a regular participant in the international occupational medicine congress , which takes place every three years . In 1952 he also became the father of another son.

As a member of the military reserve, he took part in the Sinai campaign in 1956 . In 1957 he visited Germany again for the first time, including his hometown Cologne.

“My feelings remained basically those of hurt pain. I never looked up old friends, classmates, etc. and my expectation that they might look for me was disappointed. Even when I visited the department for occupational medicine at the University of Cologne, I did not reveal that I had graduated from this university in 1932/33. "

In 1959 the family, which also included the two mothers, moved to Ramat Gan near his place of work in Tel Aviv. It is impossible to say exactly when he started his academic career as an occupational physician. He himself writes: “With the establishment of the medical faculty of Tel Aviv University, I became the representative of occupational medicine at it, after having previously studied the subject at the faculty in Jerusalem as well as in non-academic courses for nurses, industrial and safety engineers and had taught others. ”From 1972 he was professor of preventive medicine / occupational medicine and head of the institute for occupational medicine he founded at Tel Aviv University . After his retirement in 1979, he remained associated with the Israeli Ministry of Labor as an occupational health expert before finally retiring from professional life in 1989.

Dror claimed of himself that he had never been active in domestic politics. He acknowledges that Israel must live normally and in peace with its neighbors and must not rule any minorities. Against the background of this statement, it sounds strange that he sees the Six Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973 only as opportunities for extended travel. These wars "first let us get to know the occupied territories and the Sinai Peninsula, then Egypt".

Works

  • About the influence of three years of sporting activity on the youth's organism. (On the basis of measurements and re-measurements of lawn games and athletics practicing young members of a sports club.) . Paffenholz, Cologne 1932, (medical dissertation of December 22, 1932).
  • From medical student to agriculture to professor of medicine . In: Shlomo Erel s. A. (Ed.): Jeckes storytelling. From the life of German-speaking immigrants in Israel . LIT Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7589-X , pp. 98-109. The text was written in 1992.

estate

  • The estate of Klaus Dreyer / Jaakow Dror is in the archive of the Museum des Deutschsprachigen Judentums Tefen (GF 0063). According to Kreppel, this also includes the complete correspondence between Hannah and Jaakow Dror from 1948. "It provides an internal insight into everyday history of the siege months of Nahariyya between the UN partition resolution on November 27, 1947 and Israel's declaration of independence on May 15, 1948."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bocklemünd Jewish cemetery. A trip to Cologne eternity
  2. ↑ Thorsten Halling, Friedrich Moll, Dirk Schultheiss, Peter Rathert: The German Society for Urology and the New Beginning in Düsseldorf after 1948 (PDF)
  3. ↑ a b Jewish hockey athletes in the German Empire in the 1930s - a reminder on the occasion of the Maccabiade 2015 in Berlin (PDF)
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Klaus Dreyer-Dror: From medical student to agriculture to professor of medicine
  5. ^ A b c Jewish doctors from Germany and their part in the development of the Israeli health system: Jaakow Dror
  6. ↑ a b c d e Klaus Dror (Dreyer): One and a half years of gymnastics teacher in the Herrlingen country school home (1934-36) as a preliminary stage to Aliyah . In: Lucie Schachne: Education for spiritual resistance: The Jewish Landschulheim Herrlingen 1933–1939 , dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-7638-0509-5 , pp. 102–103
  7. ↑ Makkabi Hazair and the Landwerk Ahrensdorf ( Memento of the original from December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hachschara-ahrensdorf.de
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g Parcel 472: Dreyer (Dror) . In: Klaus Kreppel: Nahariyya and the German immigration to Eretz Israel , pp. 450–456.
  9. ↑ Who is Sophie Sondhelm
  10. ↑ The Madrich / Madricha as educator / educator
  11. ↑ Dreyer uses this term (singular = Kwuza ) for two smaller settlement units that were subordinate or assigned to the kibbutz Ramat-David .
  12. ↑ Nothing is known about the beginnings of this friendship, which means that it is also unclear whether it was related to the Jewish rural school home in Herrlingen . The graduate economist Dr. Richard Jakob Strauss (* 1909 in Ulm - around 1975 in Israel) and his wife Hilde (* 1911 in Laupheim - around 1950 in Israel) were among the first settlers in Nahariya and founded a small company for milk processing, which became one of the largest in Israel Food groups emerged, the Nahariya Dairy Strauss Ltd. emerged. The company belongs to the Unilever group, but the descendants of Richard and Hilde Strauss still hold leading positions in it. ( Richard J. Strauss . In: Stadtarchiv Ulm (Hrsg.): Evidence for the history of the Jews in Ulm. Memories and documents , Ulm 1991, pp. 40–42. Other sources: Strauss Eiscreme in Ramat Gan ( Memento des Originals vom 4 December 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. & MB weekly newspaper of Irgun Olej Merkas Europe (PDF) Tel Aviv, July 15th 1983, No. 27, p. 4: A successful family foundation: Nahariya Dairy Strauss Ltd. ). For the history of Irgun Olej Merkas Europa see: Marianne Zepp: "There is no rebuilding here" @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.goethe.de
  13. ↑ a b Lucie Schachne: Education for Spiritual Resistance: The Jewish Landschulheim Herrlingen 1933–1939 , dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-7638-0509-5 , p. 259
  14. ↑ Jewish doctors from Germany and their part in the development of the Israeli health system: The health system in Erez Israel
  15. ↑ Historical Sites of Safed including the History of Beit Bussel ( Memento of the original from December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.safed-home.com
  16. ↑ It is difficult to judge whether Dror's active military service was always purely medical. There are references on the Internet to a Dror battalion within the Golani Brigade (Amiram Ezov: Arab army vs. a Jewish kibbutz: the battle for Mishmar Ha'emek, April 1948. In: Israel Affairs , 2016, Vol. 22, No . 1, pp. 96–125, doi: 10.1080 / 13537121.2015.1111633 ), for which Yaakov Dror, the district commander , was responsible. However, there is little to suggest that this commander of the 14th Battalion of the Golani Brigade (see: Battalion commanders during the transition from "Hagana" into becoming IDF and during the War of Independence ) was Klaus Dreyer-Dror. Amiram Ezov makes several references in his article to Rachel Dror, apparently the widow of Jaakov Dror mentioned in his article. However, this name does not match the two wives of Klaus Dreyer-Dror (Ilse and Hannah) or the name of his daughter (Daniela). On the page " A list of districts, regions, cities, field companies, Palmach and Gadna Commanders " the name Jaakov Dror is linked to the original name Krovant , for which no further biographical details can be found.
    It is possible that the Jaakov Dror mentioned by Amiram Ezov is the same who is mentioned as "leader of the regiment" in connection with the conquest and destruction of the Arab town of Lubia (Lubya) ten kilometers west of Tiberias . ( The battle of al-Shajara and the occupation of Lubya, 9-10 / 6/1948 ) Klaus Dreyer-Dror himself does not mention any military actions in which he could have been involved.
personal data
SURNAME Dreyer, Klaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dror, Yaakov
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Israeli occupational physician
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH March 1999
Place of death Ramat Gan