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Anti-Semitism and National Socialism destroyed the existence of many individuals. Their names and biographies disappeared into oblivion. The bequest of ophthalmo--historical papers by Ms. Jutta Lauber, daughter of the Austrian ophthalmologist Hans Lauber (1876-1952), allowed us to trace the fate of the Jewish ophthalmologist Oskar Fehr (1871-1959). In the first decades of the 20th century Oskar Fehr was an internationally renowned ophthalmic surgeon and pathologist. Disregarding political adversities and ignoring personal losses and hardships he dedicated his life to the service of human health.

The lives of Carl Koller (1857-1944), Sigmund Lustgarten (1857-1911) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) are characterized by several interesting similarities. In their early achievements in medical research they were pathfinders of the first successful local anesthetic: cocaine. All three became later victims of antisemitism. Attention is paid to their personal relationship during their time in Vienna, on occasion of the 140th anniversary of their birth.

Medicine and literature are related because they research the same subject: man. Physician and writer in one person may be traced throughout the centuries. The writings of the Austrian romancier and dramatist portray the physician in an outstanding position. The artistry and power of his words culminate in a monstrous scolding of physicians sprayed over the rhetoric targets and the audiences ending in a unison disqualification of physicians per se. The unremitting insults originate in the early youth of the writer who suffered from pulmonary disease and lived through the chaos of post-World War II medicine. At the same time they constitute an attempt at self preservation. In his gasp for breath, literally and metaphorically, he faces an ignorant and restricting environment of which he must free himself. Otherwise he would fall victim to suffocation by the world's indolence and his own perseverance. His chagrin at physicians is uttered strongly in a verbal barrage unheard of hitherto. In a bellicose effort to break-up good form into shrill dissonances he irritates and provokes the reader. He shatters conventional thinking and is able to reconsider and question petrified opinions. Such inner self examination is an important basis not only of the conduct of physicians.