Page Six

THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, july 2, 1943

The Cause of lierzi's Death

By DR. S. R. LANDAU

MOTTO: Before his departure for the Reichenau Sanatorium Dr. Herzl
left a single sheet of paper on which he jotted down in English one line from
the burial service, clearly' indicating that he felt that death teas imminent, The
broken sentence read: In the midst of life we are hi death."

C

OMPLETE data on the
causes for Dr. Herzl's tragically un-
timely death are still lacking. Inso-
far as conclusions may be drawn
from the existing material, largely
autobidgraphic—from Herzl's diar-
ies, his letters to friends, observa-
tions of visitors and statements of
his attending physicians, — Herzl
suffered from a heart ailment
which in the opinion of the spe-
cialists who treated him was at-
tributable to organic heart failure.
With some physical care, avoid-
ance of tiring trips and physical
strain—so inescapably bound up
with his wholehearted leadership
of the Zionist movement—the final
catastrophe might have been post-
poned. •
But Herzl did not permit him-
self any rest. To take but one ex-
ample out of many: On June 17,
1896, soon after the appearance of
Herzl's "Jewish State" for which I
arranged the first publicity notices,
I was with Herzl at his parents'
home to help with the preparations
for his trip to Constantinople
where he had hoped to be received
by the Sultan Abdul-Hamill. The
initial steps thereto were laid by
the Polish diplomat, Michael von
Nowlinski, the Sultan's diplomatic
agent to whom I had introduced
Herzl. Herzl was attending to his
luggage when he went suddenly
pale, wavered and fell unconsci-
ous. I called his parents who con-
tacted their house physician, a rel-
ative of theirs, Dr. Bernard Beck.
Under his treatment Herzl recov-
ered rapidly. I attached no further
importance to this occurrence but
Herzl himself made the following
notation in his "diary", under June
17, 1896:

"Dr. Beck, my parents' house
physician, examined me and found
a heart condition induced by ex-
citement."

Granted Self No Rest

And still Herzl granted himself
no rest. A few days later he pro-
ceeded to Constantinople from
where he sent me a detailed re-
port on June 28, 1896. Unfortun-
ately, the audience with the Sultan
did not materialize. The • Sultan
only took cognizance of Herzl's
presence and sent him a decora-
tion. After that still no rest . . .
From there on Herzl proceeded di-
rectly to London with a stop-over
of just a few hours in Vienna to
see his parents and to hold a con-
ference at the South depot with
Dr. Schnifer and myself. Ten days
later he sent me an exhaustive re-
port from London on the confer-
ences and the stormy meetings
that had taken place.
To these exertions of which I
give here but one example were
added the deep disappointments on
the collapse of his highest aspira-
tions: rejection of his proposals by
Baron Hirsch and Baron Roth-
schild (Paris and Vienna) ; the un-.
successful audience in Jerusalem
with Kaiser Wilhelm the Second;
the cold negative attitude dis-
played by Baron Hirsch's ICA,—
this proved too much for the man
who made a great historic mission
his life's purpose.

Then came the decisive event
in Herzl's life: Uganda, England's
gift to the Jews, offered Herzl the
chance of seeing his life's dream
come true, at least in part. But this
was met with violent denunciation
by the Russian Zionists at the
Sixth Zionist Congress (in 1903);

then came the Kharkov "revolt" of
the opposition and finally the stor-
my meeting of the Action Com-
mittee in Vienna (April—May
1904) -which was to lead to recon-
ciliation. In the interests of the
great cause Herzl agreed to con-
cede.
In vain did he seek improve-
ment in his condition in Franzens-
bad, on doctor's orders. Subse-
quently, the physicians stated that
the carbo-dioxide baths must even
have harmed him so that the weak-
ened heart could not fight the
pneumonia contracted in the Reich-
enau Sanatorium. He expired on
July 3, 1904 (24 Tamuz, 5664).
A few days earlier Herzl took
leave from the gentile friend of the
Zionist movement, the Reverend
William Hechler, chaplain of the
Vienna British Embassy with the
famous words: "Greet Palestine
for rne. I gave my heart's blood
for my people."

Trace Course of Disease

Here we 1ATiSh to trace the course
of the disease from the available
chronological data.
In his very interesting book
"The School Years of Theodor
Herzl" (1860-1895) Prof. Leon
Kellner described Herzl's child-
hood and youth in Budapest.
Kellner has nothing to say with
regard to any heart condition. And
yet something was wrong in the
physical make-up of this tall,
broad - shouldered, young man
seemingly brimming over with
good health. Between the ages of
twenty and twenty two he had
been called three times before the
military draft commission in Vien-
na and each time he had been
found "unacceptable" for military
service. The examining commis-
sion confirmed these findings
(Nussenblatt, "Juedische Welt",
Prague, July 31, 1936).
Here we have the indication
that the army physicians had es-
tablished a heart murmur by oscu-
lations and had come to the con-
clusion that Herzl was suffering
from organic heart failure (vitium
cordis).
But neither then nor in the years
to follow do we find any references
to Herzl's complaints about his
heart.

First Heart Attack

On June 17, 1896, immediately
before his trip to Constantinople
came the first heart attack and the
first notation in his "diary". And
this was followed by shorter or
longer descriptions of Herzl's

EDITOR'S NOTE:

This Saturday, July 3, will
mark the 39th anniversary of the
death of Dr. Theodor Herzl,
founder of the World Zionist
Organization. In this article, Dr.
S. R. Landau, who was Dr. Herzl's
first secretary and who was in
almost daily contact with the
great leader and his family, de-
scribes the cause of his death. Dr.
Landau is a refugee from Nazi
Germany. He recently arrived in
the United States and residei in
New York. This article is printed
by special arrangement with. Dr..
Landau and American Ose Re-
view, where it first appeared.
American Ose Review is the or-
gan of OSE—American Commit-
tee for Protection of Health of
the Jews.

symptoms with
the indication
of accompany-
ing circum-
stances which,
irrespective of
Herzl's p e r-
sonal fate,
were of his-
t o r i c signifi-
cance.
On june 24,
1897 we read:
"M y nervous
state a t any
rate makes me
wish that there
will be no ex-
citing discus-
sions. Within
the last few
days I have
had enough excitement with Ben-
edict (the Chief-Editor of the
"Neue Freie Presse"—S. L.). The
heated conversations cause me dai-
ly heartaches."
Then on March 12, 1898: "I am
tired, my heart is not in order."
At the third and fourth Zionist
congresses (1899 and 1900) Herzl
suffered several heart attacks and
had to be attended by physicians.
On June 21, 1900, Herzl reports
in his diary:
"Yesterday during a conversa-
tion with some people in the office
of "Die Welt" I experienced brain
anemia. I felt I was losing consci-
ousness and my perceptions be-
came dulled ...The doctor recom-
mended two-three days of rest."
A year later, on June 5th, 1901,
we find a notation from Paris:
"Last night, again, an attack of
brain anemia. I was riding through
the Bois (de Boulogne—S. L.)
when I became unconscious in the
carriage. First I stretched myself
out in the grove on two chairs,
then I returned home with greatly
lowered consciousness. Today I am
better again but my nerves are
shattered."
Growing premonitions of death
led Herzl to the following obser-
vation in his "diary": "I can vis-
ualize death. A growing lowering
of consciousness in which precise-
ly the feeling of this diminution is
most painful."

Examined Testaments

Another source of Herzl's own
observations on his heart ailment
is provided by his testaments —
they were registered with the pro-
per regional court Waehring in
Vienna but were withheld from
publication on the instructions of
the Zionist Action Committee.
Only in the year 1937 was I given
the possibility of examining these
testaments, and with the omission
of the purely personal parts, I
published them in my forthcoming
book "Storm and Stress of Zion-
ism—Before, With and About
Herzl" (pages 177-179).
They prove that Herzl was com-
pletely aware of the full implica-
tions of his heart disease as far
back as February 1897. He begins
his testament with the introduc-
tions: "Since. I believe that my
heart is bad and since it behooves
me to be prepared for death, I
wish to bring my affairs in order."
His testament with a codicil but
without any references to his
heart condition followed on May 25,
1900. Shortly thereafter, on July
14, 1900 Herzl wrote another codi-
cil in the form of a letter to Moriz
Reichenfeld, whom he appointed
his children's guardian. The intro-
duction to this letter reads: "My

dear friend, my indisposition of the

previous week has again brought
close the thought of death." Herzl's
last testament of March 5, 1903 ; in-
structs that his remains be trans--
ferred to Palestine "by the Jewish
people." This wish, alas, has not
been carried out to this day.
In December 1903 Herzl's condi-
tion became very acute. Prof. Sin-
ger, who treated him, expressed
himself as follows: "A pale, tired,
sick man. I had to recognize that
death lay in wait for him. His
pulse was irregular, his heart was
already -weakened and there were
marked manifestations of oedema."
In medical . terms—decompensation
Ivith arhythmia.

On May 9, 1904, under the im-
pression of the negotiations with
the Kharkov delegation, Herzl ex-
pressed himself thus to Dr. Kat-
zenelson, member of the Action
Committee:

Faces Death Calmly

"Why should we deceive our-
selves? It is all over with me.
am no coward and face death
calmly, so much the more . .
since the last years of my life have
not been spent in vain. I served
the movement not too badly.
What do you say . . . This is no
time for jokes. It is all in dead
earnest."
What followed closely thereupon
is well known. The unsuccessful
treatment in Franzensbad and the
last futile attempt to save himself
at the Edlach sanatorium in Sem-
mering. Unfortunately—all in vain.
The Vienna specialists Ortner and
Singer who were called in were
helpless in the face of the chronic
inflammation of the heart muscle
and the pneumonia which set in.
Herzl's last clays are pictured by
his friend, the famous Vienese
dramatist Herman Bahr, in an ar-
ticle in the "Welt" entitled "Rem-
iniscences":
"
. I heard that Herzl was ill.
Herzl lay in Edlach. I went there
with Joseph Redlich. The roses
were in bloom. Herzl was lying in
the garden surrounded by his fam-
ily and friends. He lay all wrapped
up, stretched out on a reclining
chair, his proud features were all
most unchanged, only a few white
strands appeared in his thick-black-
beard. We were not to excite him,
so we joked with anxious hearts.
When evening fell he began to
shiver and allowed himself to be
carried into the house. When he
was put to bed I was called in. He
wanted to see me once more. Here
I stood at his bedside. He sat up-
right, the yellowish face with the
black beard in the white linen. All
banter was gone from him; in his
eyes stood death, he knew it

He died three days later."

