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The Holocaust in Austria
Jews were systematically persecuted, plundered, and killed by German and Austrian Nazis in the Holocaust from 1938 to 1945. Pervasive persecution of Jews was immediate after the German annexation of Austria, known as the Anschluss. An estimated 70,000 Jews (nearly 40%) were murdered and 125,000 fled Austria as refugees.
In the 1930s, Jews flourished in Austria, with leading figures in the sciences, the arts, business, industry, and trades of all kinds. At the time of Anschluss with Nazi Germany in 1938, the Jewish population of Austria was approximately 192,000, mostly in Vienna.
Austria had a powerful legacy of antisemitism which found its full expression in Adolf Hitler. In 1895, the Austrian anti-Semite Karl Luger won the majority of the seats in the Vienna municipality and was appointed mayor of the Austrian capital. In 1922, intending to mock vicious antisemitism in Vienna where Jewish university students were routinely attacked, the Austrian Hugo Bettauer wrote a futuristic novel entitled, The City Without Jews, which turned out to be tragically prescient.
From 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the annexation of Austria became one of Germany's foreign policy goals. Austria was incorporated into the Third Reich on March 13, 1938, the day after German troops entered Austrian territory greeted by cheering Austrians with Nazi salutes and Nazi flags. A law was published, declaring Austria "one of the lands of the German Empire" under the name "Ostmark". On April 10, an Anschluss referendum was held in Austria. According to official Reich data, with 99.08% of the population voting, the Anschluss was approved by 99.75%.
Persecution of Jews was immediate, and of stunning violence, after Anschluss. German racial laws were enacted in Austria, under which Jews were disenfranchised. According to these laws, 220,000 people were now considered Jews in Austria, larger than the previously accepted figure of 182,000. A forced reorganization of Jewish communities was carried out, led by Adolf Eichmann. All Jewish organizations and newspapers were closed and their leaders and management imprisoned. Jews were no longer allowed on public transport. Many regular Austrians joined the Nazis in terrorizing Jews. In acts of public humiliation, Jews were forced to wash sidewalks and public toilets, at times with toothbrushes or their bare hands. In one instance, a number of Jews were rounded up on the Sabbath and forced to eat grass at the Prater, a popular Viennese amusement park. Jewish faculty members of Medical University of Vienna were dismissed.
During Kristallnacht in November 1938, anti-Jewish pogroms took place throughout Germany and Austria. Synagogues were desecrated and destroyed, houses and shops belonging to Jews were looted.
On August 8, 1938, the first Austrian concentration camp is established at Mauthausen.
Jewish property was seized by Austrians as part of the Holocaust. There was a massive transfer of homes, businesses, real estate, financial assets and artworks from Jews to non-Jews. A well-organised machinery of plunder, storage, and resale, involving the Gestapo, the Vugesta, the Dorotheum auction house, various transporters, and museums in Vienna moved artworks and other property seized from Jews into the hands of non-Jews.
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The Holocaust in Austria
Jews were systematically persecuted, plundered, and killed by German and Austrian Nazis in the Holocaust from 1938 to 1945. Pervasive persecution of Jews was immediate after the German annexation of Austria, known as the Anschluss. An estimated 70,000 Jews (nearly 40%) were murdered and 125,000 fled Austria as refugees.
In the 1930s, Jews flourished in Austria, with leading figures in the sciences, the arts, business, industry, and trades of all kinds. At the time of Anschluss with Nazi Germany in 1938, the Jewish population of Austria was approximately 192,000, mostly in Vienna.
Austria had a powerful legacy of antisemitism which found its full expression in Adolf Hitler. In 1895, the Austrian anti-Semite Karl Luger won the majority of the seats in the Vienna municipality and was appointed mayor of the Austrian capital. In 1922, intending to mock vicious antisemitism in Vienna where Jewish university students were routinely attacked, the Austrian Hugo Bettauer wrote a futuristic novel entitled, The City Without Jews, which turned out to be tragically prescient.
From 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the annexation of Austria became one of Germany's foreign policy goals. Austria was incorporated into the Third Reich on March 13, 1938, the day after German troops entered Austrian territory greeted by cheering Austrians with Nazi salutes and Nazi flags. A law was published, declaring Austria "one of the lands of the German Empire" under the name "Ostmark". On April 10, an Anschluss referendum was held in Austria. According to official Reich data, with 99.08% of the population voting, the Anschluss was approved by 99.75%.
Persecution of Jews was immediate, and of stunning violence, after Anschluss. German racial laws were enacted in Austria, under which Jews were disenfranchised. According to these laws, 220,000 people were now considered Jews in Austria, larger than the previously accepted figure of 182,000. A forced reorganization of Jewish communities was carried out, led by Adolf Eichmann. All Jewish organizations and newspapers were closed and their leaders and management imprisoned. Jews were no longer allowed on public transport. Many regular Austrians joined the Nazis in terrorizing Jews. In acts of public humiliation, Jews were forced to wash sidewalks and public toilets, at times with toothbrushes or their bare hands. In one instance, a number of Jews were rounded up on the Sabbath and forced to eat grass at the Prater, a popular Viennese amusement park. Jewish faculty members of Medical University of Vienna were dismissed.
During Kristallnacht in November 1938, anti-Jewish pogroms took place throughout Germany and Austria. Synagogues were desecrated and destroyed, houses and shops belonging to Jews were looted.
On August 8, 1938, the first Austrian concentration camp is established at Mauthausen.
Jewish property was seized by Austrians as part of the Holocaust. There was a massive transfer of homes, businesses, real estate, financial assets and artworks from Jews to non-Jews. A well-organised machinery of plunder, storage, and resale, involving the Gestapo, the Vugesta, the Dorotheum auction house, various transporters, and museums in Vienna moved artworks and other property seized from Jews into the hands of non-Jews.