Out of Nazi Germany in Time, a Gift to American Science

When Adolf Hitler became Germany’s Reich chancellor in 1933, Dr. Gerhard Schmidt knew his world was crashing around him. A highly cultured assimilated Jew, he studied medicine, trained in biochemistry, and attained a faculty position at the Univ. of Frankfurt. Two months after Hitler’s rise, Dr. Schmidt lost his position, his father, and his country. He began a 7-year odyssey, with short-term research fellowships in Italy, Sweden, Canada, and the U.S. He was recruited to the Tufts Univ. School of Medicine in 1940. Dr. Schmidt remained at Tufts for the rest of his career, and was elected to the U.S. National Acad. of Sciences in 1973. He considered his post-Germany successes in science and family a victory over Nazism. Photos.