Martha Geiringer
Martha Geiringer was an Austrian biologist who worked at the Biological Research Institute in Vienna from 1935 to 1938. She was forced to leave due to being Jewish during the Anschluss, the German invasion of Austria. She was executed in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Early life and education
Geiringer was born in Vienna to Wilhelm who owned a coffee house and was a distant cousin of Gustav Mahler, and his wife Irma, née Körner. She studied biology and sociology at the University of Vienna from 1931. In 1935, she worked on her doctoral research under Hans Przibram at the Biologische Versuchsanstalt in the Vienna Academy of Sciences. The BVA had been founded in 1902 to work on developmental and theoretical biology including biophysics and biochemistry.Career
Geiringer was conducting experimental studies on the metamorphosis of Bufo vulgaris and examining the role of hormones. She had examined the role of adrenaline as a synergist of thyroxin. She was forced to leave on account of her Jewish origins after Nazi Germany annexed Austria in March 1938.Escape
Along with her sister Gertrude, who was also a biologist, they escaped to Belgium, and she tried to work at the University of Ghent with support from professor Alfred De Waele. Her passport was due to expire in February 1939 and would not be extended by the German government. Her sister emigrated to England with assistance from their brothers Alfred, who worked in the Reuters news agency, and Erich, who became a physician. Martha refused to move to England and stayed in Ghent with resistance member and physician Yvonne Fontaine. Fontaine and Geiringer were in a relationship.Geiringer then was assisted to make a trip to the Philippines, where she considered having a marriage of convenience with a Viennese exile. This failed, and she returned to Genoa on 6 April 1940, hoping to make her way back to Belgium. The consulate in Milan, however, refused as she was not a refugee. Just before Mussolini declared war on France, she reached Nice illegally and was detained. She returned to Ghent with assistance from Fontaine.