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Leopold Freund is regarded as the “Founder of Radiation Oncology” as he performed probably the first successful radiotherapy intervention in Vienna (1896) treating a hairy nevus in a child and publishing his results in 1897. While many are aware of this achievement, there is a another dimension of his story which is opaque to most people. As a Jew in Vienna he became a victim of Nazi policies immediately after Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938, emigrated to Brussels and was persecuted again after the German invasion of Belgium.

Archival material was collected from national, city and university archives in Vienna, Austria as well as national and city archives in Brussels, Belgium. The academic career of Leopold Freund and his radiotherapy of a hairy nevus of a 5-year-old girl were reconstructed. However, a special focus was placed on Leopold Freund’s struggle to obtain a Visa to emigrate after the “Anschluss” of Austria to the German Reich and the humiliation he and his wife sustained until their emigration in 1939.

All assets of Leopold Freund and his wife Stefanie, née Abeles, were frozen in 1938. Nonetheless, the couple tried to emigrate from Vienna. A colleague of Leopold Freund in Brussels, Félix Sluys, advocated for them to obtain a Visa for Belgium. At the same time, the Freunds had to leave their apartment in the 1st district of Vienna (close to the Stephansplatz) and move to the less representative area of the 19th district. In December 1938 the police searched the apartment due to “suspicious behavior” and arrested Leopold Freund, who was released only three days later. In August 1939, after paying an enormous “Reichsfluchtsteuer” (“Tax for fleeing from the Reich”), the Freunds were finally able to immigrate to Brussels. The house they had owned in Vienna is registered as “expropriated” in the Land registry. While Leopold Freund passed away in Brussels on January 7th 1943, his wife Stefanie survived the German occupation of Brussels in hiding. No restitution took place after 1945 and even today, no memorial can be found at the house where they resided in Vienna.

Leopold Freund’s story is typical of assimilated Jewish doctors in Western Europe during the period of National Socialism. It was only due to his scientific merits that he could obtain a Visa for Belgium in 1938. When remembering and honouring Leopold Freund for his scientific and medical achievements and for laying the groundwork for radiation therapy, the European radiation oncology community should be aware of his Jewish identity and the story of persecution under the Nazi regime which is linked to his narrative.