I think I have posted it before, but this funny story of Uncle Josef military medical career, as written by cousin Arthur Fischler in his memories (Kiczy, Dr. Scharfstein, was my grandfather nickname):
"Uncle Josef (my Aunt Betty’s husband) and Uncle Kiczy, both, had studied medicine in Vienna.
When the first World War broke out, Josef who had already completed his second year, was drafted by the army as “sanitation officer” (Austrian title) and Kiczy, who had been studying medicine only for a year and a half, became a “assistant sanitation officer”, both in the Austrian army.
When the war was over, Uncle Kiczy continued studying medicine and got his degree, whereas Uncle Josef, stopped studying and became a businessman.
The Austrian-Hungarian Empire had ended and both were now Rumanian citizens. Can you imagine Uncle Josef’s surprise when one day the army called on Dr. Josef Hellwing, officer of the Rumanian Army Reserves, to appear at such and such regiment? And in uniform! And thus began his succession of sorrows. He had to go to the regiment every so often and of course, he had to buy a uniform. He had expended much money and wasted a lot of time trying to explain that he actually was not a physician and that he knew nothing of medicine (an more or less to leave him alone), but the typical answer was always: “your army card says you are a physician, and you will remain being one.”
But then came 1940 and although Rumania had not entered the war yet, large troops were being concentrated. And "Dr." Josef Hellwing was drafted and appointed battalion physician. You can imagine the headaches and responsibility of this poor quasi-physician in charge of 5,000 soldiers!!! All he could prescribe them was aspirin and laxatives. But once, he got a 10 day vacation and he went home (to Czernowitz). In this time span, the Russians invaded and put an end to his “medical-military career” in the Rumanian army.
He stayed home and as I told you, they took his factory from him. But ... the Russian army realized they had a military physician at hand and summoned him. He explained that he was not a physician; that he knew nothing about medicine, but they told him the same thing he had been told previously: “ This states you are a physician.” And he was put to work once again, but this time, he was demoted to “Assistant physician”. When the war came to an end, so did his medical career with the Russian army.
Without having graduated as a physician, Josef had been a physician in THREE armies! ... And NO ONE had taken my Uncle Kiczy into account, who was actually a physician."
Oren Saraf
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-119444022-34370314_at_list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-119444022-34370314_at_list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Sylvie Gsell
Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2015 7:14 AM
To: Shelley
Cc: Seidenstein Sidney; Czernowitz Genealogy and History
Subject: Re: [Cz-L] Army service
My great grand uncle Dr Fabian Stern was in the army as doctor.
Sylvie
Envoyé de mon iPad
Le 11 juil. 2015 à 02:54, Shelley <shemit65_at_gmail.com> a écrit :
Just curious. How many of you had soldiers in Austro-Hungarian army
in WW I who were officers or useful professionals, like doctors?
Shelley
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Received on 2015-07-13 08:00:21