Norbert Vogel (* 1938) was born to Jewish parents in Vienna – shortly after the annexation of Austria by the German Reich. His mother fled to Amsterdam with her son, who was only a few weeks old. In May 1943, Norbert was taken in by a Christian family in Santpoort, while his mother hid in ten different places until the liberation of the Netherlands. After the war, the two were reunited in Amsterdam. Norbert Vogel later studied medicine and worked as an internist in Rotterdam, followed by professional positions in drug research and as a medical consultant. As a retiree, he enrolled in philosophy studies at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam in 2009, which he completed in 2017 with the academic degree Magister philosophiae.
