E ven after Dr. John Schwarz retired in 1984 after practicing medicine for 45 years in his Weehawken home office, former patients would flock to him for help or just to say hello.
Schwarz died this past Oct. 30 at the age of 94.
“I remember going around town with my grandfather and feeling like I was walking around with a local celebrity,” said Jordan Young, his grandson, last week.
“He was a very gentle soul and when he died it left a void in the world,” said Jeanette Schwarz Young, his daughter. “There is a spot in the world that is now empty.” Fleeing Nazi-occupied Austria Dr. Schwarz was born Hans Schwarz on May 24, 1914 in Moedling, Austria. While studying medicine in University of Vienna, he met and married his wife, who was also a medical student.
The Schwarzes fled Nazi-occupied Austria the day before Krystallnacht (“Crystal Night”), Nov. 9, 1938, when the Nazis burned Jewish homes and synagogues throughout Austria and Germany, killed 91 people, and imprisoned thousands in concentration camps.
Hiding money in their gloves and hair, the Schwarzes fled to Switzerland, where they finished medical school at the University of Basel.
The following year, they were sponsored to come into the United States. During a time where anti-German sympathies ran high in the States, Schwarz changed his first name from Hans to John.
The Schwarzes had no idea who sponsored them, and unfortunately at the time, some immigrants were only sponsored so that they could be put to work in labor camps in America. This turned out to be the case for Schwarz and his wife, who wound up in a camp in Randolph, N.J., but after a short time managed to escape. Doctor’s calling The Schwarzes settled into Hoboken, and Schwarz started his internship at St. Mary Hospital, now Hoboken University Medical Center. He also began to work with Dr. Henry Kindell, who had an office in Weehawken. Schwarz ended up raising his three kids in town and practicing there for the rest of his career.
After Kindell’s retirement, Schwarz bought the house on corner of Hauxhurst Avenue and Highwood Terrace. Always on call Young remembers her father always on call throughout her childhood, even attending to patients at 2 a.m. in his bathrobe and slippers.
“I learned to drive because he would take house calls,” said Young. “He was a person that would do something just because it was the right thing to do.”
After doing morning rounds and operations at St. Mary, Schwarz would come home to do office hours. He would have dinner with the family around 5 p.m., then go back to see more patients.
“We were lucky to get 10 minutes at dinner with him,” said Young.
A general practitioner and abdominal surgeon, Schwarz was also a pioneer in the medical field during the ’50s to ’60s in his specialization of cancer chemotherapy, now known as oncology.
“He was a pioneer of treating patients post-surgery after the tumor was removed,” said Young.
In addition, Schwarz would also help patients who wouldn’t have financial means, and gave them vaccinations and medications for as little as $1.
“He would charge what you could afford,” said Young. “It was never in his head to charge to make a lot of money, only to provide for his family.”
Schwarz was always learning about new advancements in medicine by listening to audio tape lectures. Pushed kids to learn new things Schwarz also wanted his own children to constantly learn something new, and played tapes of different languages and had them learn a new vocabulary word a day.
“When I was a little girl, he decided we should learn Spanish,” said Young. “We would hide in the bathroom so we wouldn’t have to listen to the tapes, but then he put a loud speaker in the bathroom.”
After her father retired in 1984, Young and her 4-year-old son Jordan moved into the house, and Jordan became the apple of his grandfather’s eye.
“I remember when I was 6 years old, he had me sit on his lap – he had a big Seville at the time – and let me steer the car,” said Jordan.
Jordan also joined his grandfather in trips to museums and the Metropolitan Opera. Jordan, now 22, also remembers that his grandfather still had former patients visiting him even after retirement.
“He was a humanitarian that did not want acknowledgement for it,” said Young. Dozens of Weehawken residents and prominent politicians attended Schwarz’s funeral last week at Eden Memorial Chapels in Fort Lee.
He is survived by his three children, 11 grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren. q Comments on this piece can be sent to: current@hudsonreporter.com.