Dr. med.
Hans Meyer
1891 - 1971

“I was born on June 4, 1891, in Berlin, the son of Alex Meyer, a merchant who died in 1914, and his wife Hanna, née Mühlendorf, and I am of the Jewish faith. After preschool, I attended the Sophien-Gymnasium in Berlin, where I received my high school diploma in the fall of 1909. With the exception of the second semester, which I spent in Heidelberg, I studied medicine exclusively in Berlin […].

In the spring of 1912, I passed the preliminary medical examination with a ‘good’ grade, in August 1914 I passed the state medical examination with a ‘good’ grade, and on February 3, 1915, I was licensed to practice medicine. From September 1914 to February 1915, I was assigned to the Metz military hospital, and since February 1915, I have been serving as a field doctor with the von Bredow Dragoon Regiment“ Hans Meyer wrote in his dissertation. In June 1916, Meyer received his doctorate from the University of Berlin with his thesis ”On the Biology of Twins.”

Education and place to work

Hans Meyer took part in World War I from 1914 until November 1918. Due to illness, he was assigned to garrison duty in 1916.

From 1919 to 1929, he worked as an assistant physician at the Third Medical University Department   of the Charité under Alfred Goldscheider and at the First Medical Department of the Charité under Wilhelm His Jr. From February 1920, he also ran a practice in Berlin, initially at Berliner Strasse 15, and from 1924 to 1935 at Nassauische Strasse 61. Hans Meyer treated patients who required inpatient diagnosis or therapy at the hospital founded by the Red Cross on Landhausstrasse in Berlin-Wilmersdorf (Landhausklinik) and at Professor Dr. Unger’s private hospital on Derfflingerstrasse in Berlin.

In 1928, Meyer became the trusted physician and staff doctor at BEWAG Berlin (Berliner Städtische Elektrizitätswerke AG). This role took up a considerable part of his work.

On November 12, 1921, Hans Meyer married Anna Levy in Frankfurt. She was born on April 14, 1898, in Metz, and was studying music at the time. Her parents, Eduard and Bella Levy, lived in Frankfurt am Main. Anna Meyer became an opera singer. Hans Meyer himself was an enthusiastic music lover.

In Berlin, Hans Meyer was close friends with the jewish physician Robert Lesser, who, like Meyer, was born in Berlin in 1891. Lesser had been practicing at Köpenicker Strasse 174 in Berlin since the mid-1920s.

1933 – 1971

After the National Socialists seized power, Meyer experienced the early humiliations and persecution of the Jewish population. He was dismissed from his position as medical examiner at BEWAG in Berlin in 1933. The number of his patients declined significantly. He was able to continue his private practice on Nassauische Strasse in Berlin until 1935.

The living conditions for Anna and Hans Meyer deteriorated continuously after 1933. After the Nuremberg Laws (“Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor”) were enacted in September 1935, the couple decided to flee Germany. The escape was planned and arranged in consultation with Meyer’s friend Robert Lesser, who initially traveled to Great Britain with his wife Elisabeth and daughter Renate, then from Liverpool to the USA/New York in early February 1936, and from there to San Francisco.

Hans and Anna Meyer left Berlin at the end of 1935 and traveled via Paris and Cherbourg to New York in January 1936 on the White Star Line ship “Majestic” (see compensation file, D 5). On February 8, 1936, the couple traveled onward through the Panama Canal on the ship “California” and reached San Francisco on February 24, 1936.

Meyer had to take language courses in California. He also completed a 13-month internship at a hospital affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). After intensive preparation, Meyer passed the American state examination in June 1937. His wife contributed to the household income by doing temporary work during their first two years in the USA. After receiving his license to practice medicine, Hans Meyer opened a private practice in San Francisco in January 1938 (see M 29 of the compensation file). In San Francisco, the Meyer and Lesser couples continued their friendship and maintained close contact. Hans and Anna Meyer lived in San Francisco at 63 Seal Rock Drive, near what is now the Veterans Administration Medical Center on the west coast of the city.

In June 1937, Hans Meyer’s mother, Hanna (Johanna) Meyer, born on December 20, 1862, also arrived in San Francisco. She was able to flee from Germany to Switzerland and then travel from Le Havre, France, to the United States.

From November 1944 to 1946, the 53-year-old Meyer was conscripted into American military service, which he performed at the US Veterans Administration’s tuberculosis institute in Walla Walla, Washington.

Hans Meyer ran his practice in San Francisco from 1946 onwards, together with a colleague from 1950. In 1958, Meyer gave up his practice due to illness. In 1962, he stayed in southern Germany for medical treatment at Bühler Höhe.

Hans Meyer died on July 30, 1971, at the age of 80 at the San Francisco French Hospital. A short notice appeared in the San Francisco Explorer two days later. His wife Anna Meyer, née Levy, died on September 6, 1989, at the age of 91 in Tiburon, Marin County, California. The location of the couple’s grave is not known so far.

Hans A. Meyer’s older brother Ernst Meyer, born on September 7, 1889, was deported from Berlin-Wilmersdorf in November 1940 at the age of 41 and murdered in the Chełmno concentration camp in occupied Poland.

Eduard and Bella Levy, Anna Meyer’s parents, were able to flee from Frankfurt to England in 1939 and arrived in the US in 1940. They also lived in San Francisco. Anna Meyer’s sister Paula Kaufmann-Levy was also able to flee Germany (Mannheim) and reach San Francisco in 1940.