The formal contributions of the European university system to American medicine and medical education before World War II are well documented. Less so is the personal dimension of the international teacher-student encounter, which included friendships that were sometimes intimate and long-standing. One such example is offered by University of Vienna rhinologist Markus Hajek, whose long friendship with his American student Roy Philip Scholz is recorded by surviving archival sources. Hajek's letters to Scholz document their relationship over a period of more than 30 years, including many examples of mutual aid and shared sorrow. Ultimately Scholz was part of an international committee of students and admirers organized by the English laryngologist Sir St. Clair Thomson to rescue their professor from Nazi-controlled Vienna on the eve of World War II.