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Episode 17: “Hopefully It’s Not Too Late By Then”

The Story of Robert Bachrach and Leo Hochner

bachrach hochner collage
Robert Bachrach (left) and Leo Hochner (right). Photograph of Robert Bachrach taken by Trude Geiringer, Elisabeth F. Gay and Joseph Gay Family Collection, AR 25169. Photograph of Leo Hochner, Courtey of Tom Agoston.
man with horse
Photograph of Leo Hochner, Courtesy of Tom Agoston.
LETTER Bachrach-Hochner Victor Sattler Brief an Elisabeth Feitler 4.10.1938
Letter from Robert Bachrach to Elisabeth Feitler in which he tells Feitler that he is one of the doctors authorized to treat non-Aryan patients. This is a reference to the 1938 Law restricting the work of Jewish physicians. Leo Baeck Institute Archives, Elisabeth F. Gay and Joseph Gay Family Collection, AR 25169.

Robert Bachrach is a buttoned-up doctor and dedicated researcher. Leo Hochner is a bon-vivant and art connoisseur who breeds small dogs. Both bachelors, they are part of a close network of friends from Vienna who are scattered across the globe after the Nazis take power in Austria. When Robert takes his life in New York after a humiliating arrest under New York’s anti-gay laws, he directs his final words to Leo, who was still trapped in Nazi-occupied Budapest. We follow the traces they left in the LBI archives to uncover an incredible story of heartbreak and heroism. For Robert, escaping the Nazis didn’t mean an end to discrimination, persecution, or fear.

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