David Frankfurter - Background, Family and Education

Background, Family and Education

Frankfurter was born in Daruvar, Croatia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), to a Jewish family, father Mavro and mother Rebekka (née Pagel) Frankfurter. His father was rabbi in Daruvar and later the chief rabbi in Vinkovci. The Frankfurter family moved to Vinkovci in 1914. Frankfurter was a sickly child and suffered an incurable periostitis for which he underwent seven operations between the ages of six and twenty-three, but his doctors feared he would not live a normal lifespan. He graduated from elementary and later secondary school, in 1929, with good success. After completing his basic education he began a study of medicine. His father sent him to Germany to study dentistry, first in Leipzig and then in 1931 to the town of his ancestors Frankfurt.