Alfred Alexander

Who was Alfred Alexander?

Dr. Alfred Alexander was the President of the Berlin Association of Doctors during the 1930s. He was a leading researcher into the cure for leukemia. One of his patients was Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick. In 1935 he and his family fled Nazi Germany to England, where he established a medical practice, with a clinic in Harley Street. He died in 1950.

Alfred Alexander was married to Henny Alexander and had four children: Bella Jakobi, Elsie Harding, Hanns Alexander and Paul Alexander, all of whom lived in England after leaving Nazi Germany. Alfred was awarded the Iron Cross for his medical service at Saverne during World War I.

For his 50th birthday party, he received regards from the glitterati of Berlin, including eminent scientist Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize winner James Franck, artists Rudolf Grossman, Hans Purrmann and Emil Hertz, writers Leonhard Frank, Rudolf Kayser, Alfred Polgar, Walter Hasenclever and Jozsef Lengyel, and a large group of actors, dancers, singers and musicians.

As father to the war crimes investigator, Hanns Alexander, Dr. Alfred Alexander is featured in the book Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Kommandant of Auschwitz by Thomas Harding.