Dr. med.
Isidor Sandbank
1875 - 1943

Isidor (Gerson Isak) Sandbank was born on June 19, 1875 in Czernowitz, the son of merchant Manuel Sandbank and his wife Henriette, née Schor. His brother Ascher (Alfred) was born on December 16, 1876. The family professed the Jewish faith. Czernowitz, located in Bukovina, belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918 and is now part of Ukraine.

After attending the K.K.Obergymnasium in Czernowitz and graduating on June 20, 1893, Isidor Sandbank received a Freiherr Eskeles scholarship to study at the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna from the winter semester of 1893/94 until the summer semester of 1898. Isidor Sandbank’s passed his medical exams on July 18, 1898, on April 17, 1899, and on July 18, 1899. He received his doctorate in medicine on July 24, 1899.

Education and place of work

Little information regarding Isidor Sandbank’s further education exists. In 1901, he was accepted into the Central Association of Balneologists of Austria.

The Vienna address book from 1901 lists Isidor Sandbank’s as a MD, with the same address as his father. In 1904, he appears in the address book as doctor (“Doktor der gesamten Heilkunst”) at Komödiengasse 6 in Vienna’s 2nd district. In brackets, the address books mentions that Isodor Sankbar spent “Summer in Marienbad.” He kept his Vienna address until 1938.

Every year in early summer, the Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift (Vienna Medical Weekly) reported that Dr. Isidor Sandbank had opened a practice in Marienbad (now in the Czech Republic). The last mention was documented in 1937.

On May 8, 1902, he married Paula (Polina) Luttinger, who was born on August 31, 1880, in Vienna. Their son Walter was born on March 29, 1903 in Vienna.

During World War I, Isidor Sandbank served as a civilian doctor in the reserve hospital No. 2. In 1916, he was awarded the Second Class Medal of Honor with the War Decoration by the Red Cross. Isidor Sandbank was honored in 1918 with the Golden Cross of Merit with the Crown on the Ribbon of the Medal of Bravery in recognition of his outstanding and self-sacrificing services in the medical corps during the war.

Isidor Sandbank was involved in the Zionist movement in Vienna, which proven by a lecture he gave at the local Zionist cultural group in 1925.

Nach 1933

After Austria’s annexation to the German Reich, Isidor Sandbank was subjected to hostility from the National Socialists for being a Jew. The same regulations for Jews in the German Reich were quickly applicable in Austria. From October 1, 1938 onwards, registered general practitioners and specialists of Jewish origin were prohibited from practicing medicine. According to the Vienna Medical Association’s index card, Isidor Sandbank resigned from the Austrian Medical Association on September 8, 1938.

Isidor and Paula Sandbank were Czech citizens and were thus in possession of passports issued by the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Vienna on March 22, 1936. On October 1, 1938, police files document a registration in France for the Sandbank couple.

Isidor and Paula`s nationalities were listed as Czech. Their son Walter, who was born in Vienna in 1903 and arrived in Nice a few days later, is listed as German. They subsequently changed their place of residence several times and starting in October 1939 they lived at 11 Rue Guiglia in Nice.

Walter Sandbank managed to obtain an entry visa for the USA. He was able to flee to the USA on the ship SS Champlain from St. Nazaire on May 19, 1940. Walter Sandback tried multiple times from the United States to send money to his parents and to obtain visas for them, which was unfortunately unsuccessful.

Italian troops occupied parts on the southeastern Mediterranean coast of France. These Italian troops did not participate in deportations, which were organized by the Nazis in the rest of France from 1942 onwards. Jurisdictional disputes between France, Germany, and Italy protected Jewish refugees and residents in these Departments in 1942 and 1943. However following Mussolini’s removal from power and Italy’s unilateral armistice with the Western Allies, the two Departments were immediately occupied by German troops. With the occupation of the German troops, the deportation of the Jews began immediately. Due to limited or no support from the French police in the deportations, less than 2,000 of the approximately 25,000 Jews living there were deported. In fact, the civilians in small towns supported and hid many of the Jews.

The GESTAPO arrested Isidor Sandbank and his wife at the end of November 1943. The couple was taken from Nice to Drancy. Isidor and Paula Sandbank were deported on transport 63 to Auschwitz on December 17, 1943. They were murdered there after their arrival on December 20, 1943.

Sandbank’s brother Ascher (a merchant) was still listed in the 1940 Vienna address book. He died in 1940 and was buried in his parents’ grave in Vienna’s Central Cemetery.

The “Reichsanzeiger” of May 3, 1944 announced that Isidor Sandbank’s assets were forfeited due to the loss of his Protectorate citizenship on November 2, 1942. This included the Villa Busch in Marienbad, where Sandbank had maintained his practice and residence during the summer months for many years.