We have given satisfaction
Medical studies at the University of Berlin
Max Kleinmann was born in Berlin in 1909, the son of Galician Jews. He initially attended the Jewish Boys' School in Gro?e Hamburger Stra?e for three years and then transferred to the K?nigst?dtische Gymnasium. In 1929, he began studying medicine at Berlin University. He did not have to pay tuition fees as he had successfully passed the examinations required for a waiver.
He was a member of a colourful student fraternity, the "Dahlemia", which also held duels. According to Max Kleinmann in his retrospective, he had no problems with his non-Jewish fellow students; anti-Semitism played no role in his personal relationships. He also had a good relationship with his professors.
Violence against Jewish students
Max Kleinmann describes the year 1932 as the end of normality at the university. The National Socialist movement became noticeably stronger and led to a split in the student body in favour of or against the National Socialist German Student Association.
After the Nazi leadership had called for boycott actions against "Jewish businesses" on 1 April 1933, violent actions against Jewish students also took place at Berlin University on this day. Friends warned Max Kleinmann not to enter the campus as he was particularly at risk due to his nose, which conformed to the anti-Semitic cliché of a Jewish physiognomy. They also advised him to emigrate quickly afterwards, while others suddenly distanced themselves from him in 1933.
Continuation of studies in Italy
Max Kleinmann had volunteered as an emigration assistant for the Jewish community. In May 1933, he emigrated to Italy himself to continue his studies there. One day after his arrival, he learnt from the press about the book burning at Berlin University.
In Milan, the Jewish community initially supported him, but he still had financial problems and the university refused to recognise his study documents. Shortly afterwards, he moved to Pisa, where the conditions at the university were more favourable.
Max Kleinmann quickly had to learn Italian because, unlike in Germany, exams had to be taken every six months. He even found a lucrative job with the adjutant to the Italian king, who was looking for a native German speaker. In July 1935, he completed his studies - after a delay of just one year - with a doctorate.
Military service and odd jobs
In 1934, Max Kleinmann's German citizenship was revoked and his passport confiscated. As a stateless person, he travelled to Germany again the following year to visit his sick mother. When he was asked to report to the Gestapo, he quickly left the country again.
Although he was not an Italian citizen, he was drafted into Italian military service in the summer of 1935 and worked as a pathologist in the military hospital in Genoa. A benevolent superior arranged for Max Kleinmann to receive a salary allowance so that he could eat kosher food at lunchtime, and he had days off on Jewish holidays.
When Max Kleinmann left the military in 1938, he was no longer offered a job as a doctor due to the anti-Semitic legislation that was now also in force in Italy. By chance, he found work as a butcher on an Italian steamer travelling the route from Genoa to New York. He did not take this opportunity to emigrate to the USA, as he was already married and his wife had remained in Italy.
War and post-war period in Italy
After Italy entered the war in June 1940, Max Kleinmann was arrested and - according to his recollection - taken to an Italian camp in Salerno near Naples. From the summer of 1940, several camps were set up in Italy for "enemy aliens", allegedly "dangerous" Italian citizens, but also foreign civilians. Max Kleinmann survived a typhus epidemic that had broken out in the camp and, thanks to his good contacts in the Italian army, was able to join his wife, who was being held as a civilian internee in southern Italy.
After the fall of Mussolini in September 1943, northern Italy was occupied by German troops and deportations of Jews began under the new radical fascist government. Fortunately, Max Kleinmann and his wife were spared because southern Italy had been liberated by the Allies shortly beforehand.
After the fall of Italian fascism in 1943, Max Kleinmann first worked for the League of Nations, then as a doctor for the American occupation administration and was finally granted Italian citizenship in 1945. In Bari, Milan and Genoa, he organised the emigration of Jews from Italy as a liaison officer for the Jewish aid organisation "Joint". In Switzerland, he organised blank affidavits for the USA, which he distributed in consultation with the American consulate. In the end, he and his wife also travelled from Italy to the USA in this way in the summer of 1948.
As a doctor in the USA
In New York, the Kleinmann family initially moved into a flat in a poor neighbourhood on the East Side. Max Kleinmann found work in a hospital and passed the state examination after four years. He opened his own practice in a New York neighbourhood where German and Italian were spoken, and also took on night shifts at the hospital. His wife worked in the practice's office. After ten years, they could afford to buy a house.
Max Kleinmann died in 2008 in Flushing, New York.