John was raised a secular Jew in Berlin and enjoyed life before the Nazi takeover. He was finishing medical school and ready to intern in 1933, when the Nazis forbade Jews to work in a hospital. John’s father was fired from his job as an insurance doctor, and neither could find patients. So John went to England, then to Padua, Italy, seeking to finish his medical studies. In Naples he passed the state board exam for physicians. Soon his sister and her daughter joined him in Capri, where they experienced persecution.
His sister’s husband, also a doctor, had gone to Chicago on a visa, so John checked with the American Consulate. They advised John to get Italian passports or be sent back to Germany. In 1938 German Jews in Italy had to register with the police. During a visit by Hitler, every Jew was temporarily imprisoned. At last, John and his relatives took a ship to New York and moved to Chicago. There Dr. Herzfeld completed his credentials, joined the Army as a private, and met Elsa. They married in 1943. John fought in the Pacific, and in 1944 received citizenship and a promotion. After the war he and Elsa moved to Nashville, where he continued a medical career for 30 years. Later they moved to Montgomery, Alabama.
