Willy Katz

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Willy Katz (born December 17, 1878 in Brieg ; † January 13, 1947 in Dresden ) was a German medic. From 1939 he was the only approved Jewish medical practitioner (he was no longer allowed to call himself a doctor) in Dresden and one of 22 demonstrably approved Jewish doctors in Saxony. After initial skepticism, Victor Klemperer made friends with him and reported several times in his diaries about Katz.

Life

Villa Borsbergstrasse 14, Willy Katz's practice

Willy Katz was born in Brieg near Breslau in 1878 , but the family moved to Berlin, where Katz graduated from the Sophien-Gymnasium in 1897. He studied medicine in Berlin and Vienna until 1905 and successfully completed his doctorate in the following year at the University of Greifswald . He then worked as an assistant doctor to his uncle Ludwig Katz at the ear clinic in Berlin and became senior physician in sanatoriums in Homburg vor der Höhe and Wiesbaden . He also worked as a doctor in Mainz. From 1909 Katz worked as a general practitioner with his own clinic in Dresden, which after a change of location was finally at Borsbergstrasse 14 .

Katz took part in the First World War as a medical officer in the reserve - an experience which for him represented "the greatest and most beautiful event ... as an adventure and as a complete commonality with the Germans", as Victor Klemperer noted in his diary in 1943. He was awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class ; in 1937 he received the silver badge of honor from the Reichsbund Jüdischer Frontsoldaten. In addition to his work as a general practitioner, Katz was active in numerous clubs and devoted himself particularly to sports medicine. As the head of the sports medical advice center, he made "outstanding contributions to the development of a sports medical advice system in Dresden."

After the National Socialists came to power , Katz initially retained his license to participate in the First World War. In October 1933 he married his partner, who was not Jewish and, despite harassment and hostility, later refused to divorce Katz. Katz's work as a doctor became increasingly difficult; He was excluded from professional and scientific associations, as a physician who was not part of the Nazi Medical Association, he was no longer allowed to carry out expert opinions and finally lost his medical license on September 30, 1938, like all Jewish doctors, and had to close his practice. During the Reichskristallnacht in 1938, Katz was arrested several times.

In July 1939, the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians of the Greater Dresden District Office informed the Dresden health insurance funds that Katz had been hired as a "medical practitioner" for Dresden's Jewish workers:

“Since a large number of Jews were brought back into the work process and are therefore compulsorily insured with the health insurance companies, it is inevitable to hire a Jewish doctor to look after these members. We therefore have Dr. med. Willy Katz [...] informed that he should take over the treatment of compulsory Jewish insured persons with immediate effect. "

- Announcement from the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians of the Greater Dresden District Office in 1939

Katz was thus the only licensed Jewish medical practitioner in Dresden (he was no longer allowed to call himself a doctor) and one of 22 certified Jewish medical practitioners in Saxony after 1938, of which 18 worked in Leipzig, two in Chemnitz and one in Görlitz. As head of the “Jewish Health Center” he reopened his practice on July 7, 1939 at Borsbergstrasse 14, where he was under constant surveillance by the Gestapo . Katz was responsible for treating the workers in his practice, although he had a bad repute among the Jews of Dresden . Klemperer noted in his diary in 1942 that Katz was considered a "shit", from whom he had heard that he "would not declare anyone unable to work out of fear." "The Jew Katz should be impossible," noted Klemperer in March 1942, but noted in May 1942 that Katz "apparently has a very difficult position between the surveillance Gestapo and the Jews [and] a very bad press among those dependent on him". Klemperer and he had been on the word "D" since May 1942, even if Klemperer still had a bad impression of him at the time. In July 1942, Klemperer and Katz got to know each other better, had intellectual conversations, talked about their military service and became friends. From this time on, Klemperer tried to “balance” between Katz and the patient.

Grave of Willy Katz on the Tolkewitz urn grove

Katz was a school doctor at the Jewish school and a doctor at the Henriettenstift . He was responsible for the medical supervision of the more than 30 so-called "Jewish houses" in Dresden. In addition, from November 1942 until the forced laborers were deported in March 1943, he was employed as a camp doctor at the Hellerberg Jewish camp . During this time he campaigned for better hygienic conditions in the camp; Klemperer reports in his diary how Katz found a midwife for a pregnant woman in the camp, how he organized bathtubs for the camp and campaigned for an “improvement in the latrines”.

After the Wannsee Conference in June 1942, Katz was obliged to examine the Jews who remained in Dresden for “walking ability”. He had to accompany at least ten deportations from Dresden to the Theresienstadt concentration camp as a doctor. He was able to save a few people from deportation.

After the end of the war, Katz continued his work as a doctor, although he was physically and mentally badly damaged, he was chronically ill with tuberculosis . He was appointed by the new state government as a medical officer in Striesen and Blasewitz and proposed in 1946 as head of the municipal health department. In the winter of 1945, Katz was already suffering from pneumonia and pleurisy , of which he died in January 1947. He was buried in the Tolkewitz urn grove ; Victor Klemperer gave the funeral speech. Katz's tombstone was restored in 2011 from donations. Willy Katz's preserved estate, including some of his medical instruments, has been in the Washington Holocaust Museum since 1990 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ January 27, 1943 . In: Victor Klemperer, Walter Nowojski (Ed.): Diaries 1943 . 2nd Edition. Structure of Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 1999, p. 20.
  2. ^ Albrecht Scholz: Jewish Doctors in Dresden in the 20th Century . In: Dresdner Geschichtsverein (Ed.): Between integration and destruction. Jewish life in Dresden in the 19th and 20th centuries . Dresdner Hefte , No. 45, p. 71, FN 22.
  3. ^ A b Caris-Petra Heidel: The doctor and sports medicine specialist Willy Katz . In: Ärzteblatt Sachsen , No. 11, 2013, p. 474.
  4. ↑ Shown in: Caris-Petra Heidel: The doctor and sports medicine specialist Willy Katz . In: Ärzteblatt Sachsen , No. 11, 2013, p. 475.
  5. ^ Caris-Petra Heidel: The doctor and sports medicine specialist Willy Katz . In: Ärzteblatt Sachsen , No. 11, 2013, p. 473.
  6. ↑ February 15 [1942], Sunday morning . In: Victor Klemperer, Walter Nowojski (Ed.): Diaries 1942 . 2nd Edition. Structure of Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 1999, p. 23.
  7. ^ February 26, 1942, Thursday evening . In: Victor Klemperer, Walter Nowojski (Ed.): Diaries 1942 . 2nd Edition. Structure of Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 1999, p. 34.
  8. ↑ March 8 [1942], Sunday morning . In: Victor Klemperer, Walter Nowojski (Ed.): Diaries 1942 . 2nd Edition. Structure of Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 1999, p. 41.
  9. ↑ May 18 [1942], Monday morning . In: Victor Klemperer, Walter Nowojski (Ed.): Diaries 1942 . 2nd Edition. Structure of Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 1999, p. 87.
  10. ↑ July 5 [1942], Sunday towards evening ; July 26th, Sunday morning . In: Victor Klemperer, Walter Nowojski (Ed.): Diaries 1942 . 2nd Edition. Structure of Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 1999, p. 156, p. 180.
  11. ↑ May 9 [1944], Tuesday towards evening . In: Victor Klemperer, Walter Nowojski (Ed.): Diaries 1944 . 2nd Edition. Structure of Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 1999, p. 52.
  12. ↑ January 7th [1943] . In: Victor Klemperer, Walter Nowojski (Ed.): Diaries 1943 . 2nd Edition. Structure of Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 1999, p. 8.
  13. ↑ Restoration of the tomb of Dr. Willy Katz / Urnenhain Tolkewitz, 2011 ( Memento from February 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), bildhauerin-baerbel-hempel.de, accessed on February 8, 2016.
  14. ↑ Dr. Willy Katz collection on the museum's website, accessed June 12, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Katz, Willy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Jewish physician
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Brieg
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1947
Place of death Dresden