It's Never Too Late and You're Never Too Old To ...

Dr. Otto Loewi (d. 1961)

In 1936, Austrian scientist Otto Loewi and his lifelong friend, British scientist Sir Henry Dale, were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work on the chemical transmission of electrical impulses in the human body. 

Otto, a Jew living in Vienna, received a sizable cash prize upon being awarded to Nobel Prize.

You think you have it rough during these COVID-19 days? 

Listen to Dr. Loewi's story.

Less than two years after being awarded the Nobel Prize, on 12 March 1938, Germany invaded Austria. 

Neighbors informed Otto Loewi that afternoon that the Nazis had taken over Austria. Otto, preoccupied with his research, ignored the significance of this news.

At 3:00 am the next morning, a dozen SS troops burst into his home, dragged the Jewish scientist out of his bed, and carted him off to prison,   Anticipating he would murdered by the Nazis, Otto managed to scribble the results of his latest research on to a postcard, 

Addressing the card to a scientific journal (Die Naturwissenshaften), Dr. Loewi persuaded a prison guard to stick in the mail. 

Otto felt indescribable joy that his results would not be lost, and he anticipated death to come soon. 

But two months later Otto Loewi was released from his Nazi jail, and told he could leave the country IF he gave all his assets to the Nazis including his Nobel Prize money. The SS listened as Otto instructed his Swiss bank to transfer the funds to a Nazi-controlled bank. The money became Otto's  ransom for his life. 

Dr. Otto Loewi escaped to England without a penny to his name.

After spending time with Sir Henry Dale in London, Loewi held temporary appointments in Brussels and Oxford, before setting sailing to the United States in 1939.

He came to the United States to hold a research professorship in pharmacology at New York University Medical School. But when he arrived in New York in June 1940, at the age of sixty-seven, all he had in his possession were the clothes on his back, his visa, and his doctor’s certificate. While waiting to see the immigration officer, Otto grew horrified when he discovered the Visa had stamped on it ‘Senility, not able to earn his living’.

Fortunately the officer chose to ignore this questionable handicap, and Loewi was allowed into the United States. 

Otto Loewi was never bitter about the upheaval to his life. 

In fact, he considered that fate had been kind to him. In the United States he was able in the USA he was able to pursue his scientific endeavors during a time when his native Austrian government would have forced him to retire. 

For another twenty-one years (1940-1961), Dr. Otto Loew continued to inspire successive generations of students and spend his summers in ever-animated discussion at the Marine Biological Laboratories at Wood’s Hole.

It's never too late, and your never too old, to begin again. 

(Adapted from The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body by Francis Ashcroft, (pp. 83-84). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition)