This section analyses the most decisive part of the lives of the people interviewed for this book. It shows how their lives changed dramatically after Austriaâs incorporation into National Socialist Germany and thus offers additional explanations for why those Austrians who fled to Australia in 1938 and 1939 have been described as a âcommunity of fate.â1 We will see why they had to leave their homelands and how most of them were deprived of their family fortunes by Nazi emigration laws. We will also see how their cultural and social capital in the form of their prewar networks helped them to plan and realize their escape.
Herr Hitler had a triumphal progress through the 60 miles of Northern Austria, from the bridge at the river Inn, at his birth place Braunau, where he was greeted by 20,000 people, amid the pealing of church bells, to Linz. The crowds were so great in many places that his car was forced to proceed at walking pace. The demonstrations slowed down the Führer to such an extent that an enormous assembly waited in the bitter cold at Linz four hours longer than it was expected. The people passed the time watching the arrival of German tanks and troops who paraded alongside the Austrian soldiers in the central square and elsewhere. Broadcasters
in the city hall, where the reception to Herr Hitler had been arranged, held the attention of the multitude by numerous fiery speeches and constant repetition that the Führer was approaching and would arrive in a few minutes.3
Although not achieved with methods of which I would approve, the Anschluss that has now been effected is a historic fact; and I consider that true amends for the humiliations of 1918 and 1919, for St. Germain and Versailles [â¦]. As a Social Democrat and therefore as a proponent of nationsâ right to self-determination, as the first chancellor of the Republic of Austria I will vote âyes.â8
The events following the occupation, commonly known by the German word Anschluss, changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Austrians, including all of this bookâs protagonists. Like many assimilated Viennese Jews, most of the members of the sample group did not regard themselves as Jewish until National Socialist racial laws classified them as such and consequently deprived them of their civil rights.12 After the Anschluss, the National Socialist rulers implemented laws they had enacted over a period of five years in Germany within a short period of a few months. For Austrians identified as Jewish, the Anschluss brought a time of unending humiliation, insecurity, and pain, including incarcerations, torture, and dismissals from governmental positions.13 The early weeks after the Anschluss brought a wave of uncontrolled, privately executed plundering of Jewish properties. During this time, Viennese antisemites and Nazi sympathizers carried out thousands of illegal house searches. Many used the lawless, chaotic time to steal cash, jewellery, clothes, art, and furniture from their Jewish neighbours.14
In those early days of uncontrolled plundering and excessive violence, the authorities had not even officially and legally defined whom they considered as Jewish. The mob simply decided who could now be considered as falling outside of the protection of the law and thus could be harassed. On May 20, 1938, more than two months after the Anschluss, the Nazis legally enacted their
Even the Austrian Nazi officials were surprised by the scope and intensity of the uncontrolled, illegal house searches and the plundering that started with the Anschluss. In order to reduce these unofficially conducted raids, the city administration enacted a series of laws in April 1938 aimed at restoring its control over the processes of dispossessing Jewish citizens.18 By April 27, 4,710 Jewish Austrians had already left the country.19 Another important step in the process of dispossessing Jewish citizens was the rigorous recording of Jewish property and financial assets that started in April 1938.20 By June 30, 1938, Jews had to officially declare all of their financial assets and property worth more than 5,000 Reichsmark.21 Some 47,768 people did so.22 In July 1938, the Nazis introduced an identification card for Jewish citizens, one month later, they made it obligatory for Jews to adopt the additional first names âSaraâ or âIsrael.â In October 1938, Jewish passports were labelled with a red âJ.â23
4.1 Recalling the Anschluss
The events around the Anschluss caught most of the members of the sample group by surprise. There was only very little time between Chancellor Schuschniggâs radio announcement of the capitulation of Austria and the first appearance of the German Wehrmacht in Austria. Three major events held a prominent place in the memories of many former refugees:
- 1.Chancellor Schuschniggâs resignation speech from March 11, 1938;
- 2.The presence of German soldiers and the disturbing and frightening atmosphere once German troops had arrived;
- 3.The mobâs violent reactions toward anyone supposed to be Jewish and, more generally speaking, notions of helplessness.
I saw people in brown shirts walking through the streets. Airplanes flew over the city. At that time, I hoped someone would declare war on the Germans. I tried to get in touch with my mother. When I came to my motherâs place there was a large black car and we learned that some of the neighbors had disappeared.30
We went skiing for a long weekend and while we were in Mürzzuschlagâit wasnât very far but mountainousâwe heard that Hitler took over. So instead of even taking the train, I met some people, I knew they had their own car and we drove back with them [to Vienna] and then the tragedy started.31
I was in the city with my mother and there were different districts in Vienna and it was the first time, I think, Hitler made his speech. And I was: âwhere is my motherâ because we did not realize what was going on
at that time. We did not know anything. And we went home and then it started all [sic].32
There was always a certain amount of anti-Semitism in Austria, but of course once the Nazis marched in, it became much worse. Jews got sacked from their jobs, like my father. He was a journalist for the Neue Freie Presse newspaper in Vienna. He lost his job.33
The year 1938 was to change our lives dramatically. The political climate was very unsettled [â¦]. Luithlen [her school] had a large percentage of Jewish students and for the time being we felt reassured. However, in March 1938, the Nazis took over and Austria became part of the German Reich. Overnight, the persecution of Jews started with shops boycotted and Jews were made to scrub the footpaths. Young people paraded in the streets shouting slogans and abusing anyone who did not obviously belong. In those days, children led a sheltered life, but I was well aware that all was not well with many of our relatives. My fatherâs cousins Beppo and Willie Mahler were arrested and sent to Dachau concentration camp near Munich. On March 17, 1938, during a private lesson in my room, the Gestapo raced through our apartment looking for my father. My father came home at midday and we told him to go out again and stay away. By evening the Gestapo had not returned and during the night my father took his life.34
Hans Eisler experienced the Anschluss as a 13-year-old boy. As he explained years later, he was in his familyâs apartment in Viennaâs inner city when the first German troops appeared: âI saw German troops marching in from the balcony and I knew they were bad. However, my parents and I did not feel threatened. At last we were good Austrians, but we felt pity for the Jews in the
The picture that presented itself in the morning in town where noisy crowds gathered round the Ballhausplatz and the scenery was reminiscent of what I had read of the French Revolution. Masses of people streamed and screamed, armed themselves from somewhere, ran and stampeded. Only a bit later did we realize that many went into the Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district, mostly inhabited by Jews, to destroy, to rummage, to frighten. Planes kept on circling the city, the noise mixing with the general upheaval. And men marching, men in uniform, men along the magnificent avenue, the RingstraÃe, circling the city. In such circumstances [â¦] the atmosphere became electrified for us all, uncertainty as to what would happen next almost paralyzed us. Our lives were being unhinged. Our accounts were being controlled, the bankers must have preceded the army. The currency was being devalued. So the Germans could buy Austrian goods with their German marks. [â¦] It all happened easily amidst turmoil, shouting, noise, speeches, crowds, devastation of synagogues, graffiti, house searches. Shops were being vandalized, people were being harassed.37
You know, 1938 I can remember March 13th [â¦], I went into a street carâthe streetcar you took every day, you knew the conductor and all the
people thereânobody looked at me. Nobody looked [â¦] the conductor did not even say hello and 95% of the people had either a tie with a swastika on or a swastika on a pin for the ladies. Since I did not have anything, I was sort of an outcast and that was very scary, right on the 13th of March 1938, unbelievable.38
After the Nazis moved into Vienna, they took over all the hotels on the ring. [â¦] and outside every hotel they had guards of honor all the way from the front door of the hotel to the gutter. [â¦] Anyone walking along the ring would have to then go out on the roadway to walk round, they wouldnât break ranks. And Charles came along wearing his Austrian military uniform, which in those days would have been probably something very fancy. And they saw him walking on the road and the officer in charge said, âI donât know what this is,â called the troops to the attention, they broke ranks, so that he could walk straight through and they gave him a Nazi salute on the way. So, for a Jewish boy [â¦].39
4.2 The Perspectives of the âOthersâ: The Decline of Jewish Professional Life
My father was Jewish and my mother was Catholic, and I could not see any way of getting out of the country. I did not have much of a connection anywhere. So, I left the Jewish faith and became a Roman Catholic on 29 April 1938. I thought that could be useful. But of course, as we all know, that would have been no help at all.40
In Austria at a very early stage in my youth, I was in the Austrian Catholic Action Movement known as the Boy Scouts, and after 1933 I was a leading member. Just before Hitler came in, I was third member of the Viennese staff. [â¦] I was in the Austrian Air Force. In this position, naturally I was very exposed to political hatred. [â¦] In March, 1938 we were invaded [â¦]
I was detained for two days, arrested by the Gestapo and taken to the police court, where I was kept for about 35 days.45
Felser was informed by the police in Vienna, where he had a business as a Public Accountant, immediately after Austria was usurped by Germany that he would have to divorce his wife as she was a Non-Aryan, but before any further action was taken in this regard he made arrangements and got out of the country as soon as possible.47
I tried to ring them, but the lines were cut off. The Nazis flew down to the Sanatorium Wienerwald with a plane, threw all the patients into the snow and gathered all employees into the lounge like prisoners. My uncle hid in a room and then committed suicide. They made the sanatorium a place for pregnant Aryan woman.50
I confirm that Mr. Kurt Silbiger, born on July 19, 1907, in Vienna has worked for my company from May 15, 1928, to the present day as a salesperson and leather manipulator, during which time he has proved to be dutiful, trustworthy and industrious and performed in all respects to my greatest satisfaction. He leaves, after having received all paychecks, only because of his emigration. I wish Mr. Silbiger all the best for his future and hope he will find the life he deserves in his new homeland.54
The Nazis brought into being a whole battery of new and interlocking offices, concerned with evaluating oneâs possessions, determining the taxes, which had to be paid on that basis and deciding which of these possessions could be sold rather than be confiscated by the Nazis.56
It seems logical that my directions will trigger another wave of boycott against Jewish businesses. Because of the massive pressure against them, Jews will be willing [â¦] to sell their business for the cheapest prices. I think that it will be possible very soon to bring most of the Jewish property into Aryan hands.60
My father was picked up in the middle of the night and was imprisoned. I went to Scholl [she had asked her main trade partner for advice] and there appeared a gentleman from the Scholl Frankfurt factory. He wanted to take over our agency for almost nothing and that is why they imprisoned my father.62
Due to the respected position Adolf Böhm held in the [Jewish] community, the Nazis were anxious to win him over for their own purposes. It was suggested to him that he should work together with the authorities to give the Jews âtrust.â He was necessary to pacify the excited atmosphere. He had no choice, but he said no. They sealed his bookshelves and cut off his lifeline. He became paranoid within a short time. He closed the bank accounts, he lost his reasons [sic]. He entered a clinic. We lost touch.64
they took over the company very quickly [â¦]. Adolf Böhm had a nervous breakdown after six weeks. This must have been in about mid-April. The public records show us that he was incapacitated and then this Aryanizer called Wilner took over. So, his breakdown was used to dispossess his company.65
Nothing at all happened to us until the 10th of November. The shop was kept open until that date. Things were relatively quiet until the Kristallnacht. Early in the morning at 6am they broke up the door, they beat up my brother for being accused of sleeping with an Aryan girl, they took my parents away to a hotel at the Schwedenplatz. [â¦] My parents returned a few days later and within a week, they had to sign over their company to a Verwalter [administrator]. I believe his name was Leopold Skopelik. He had worked for my father for many years and turned out to be a Nazi sympathizer.68
As this story shows, many Germans or Austrians used the Anschluss and the dispossession process of hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens to gain advantage. This could also explain why a large part of the population did not oppose the mass dispossession, expulsion, and later murder of their neighbours. Thousands of âAryanâ citizens used the situation to enrich themselves by taking property or businesses for a very cheap price from Jewish citizens. The consequences for the Viennese economy were fatal. As a stenographic protocol of a November 1938 meeting led by Hermann Göring indicates, out of 17,000 Jewish businesses, only 3,000 to 3,500 were expected to be taken over and the businesses maintained. The others were expected to be shut down.69 A commission of historians which analysed the Nazi dispossessions in 2003, however, has recommended that the official Nazi figures concerning the
The Jewish shops are empty, their business under special control of the state, and a big lot of trades and shops passed yet in other handsâsold for a ridiculous sum of money! The number of suicides is horrendous. I finish. Mister Tandler himself has suffered very muchâand therefore I implore you to help him.73
Prior to their arrival in Australia the year mentioned [1939], they were in business in Austria, had been cruelly treated, their business and money on hand taken possession of and were driven from their place of business. [â¦] All of their property was confiscated by the Nazis, about 2,000 pounds in all.74
In those days, children led a sheltered life but I was well aware that all was not well with many of our relatives. My fatherâs cousins Beppo and Willie Mahler were arrested and sent to Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich. On 17 March 1938, during a private lesson in my room, the Gestapo raced through our apartment looking for my father. They looked in cupboards and under beds and finally said they would return. My father came home at midday and we told him to go out again and stay away. By evening, the Gestapo had not returned and during the night, my father took his life. My brother and I were not told the truth but that he had left the country.76
The Metropole was taken over by the Nazis. It was the only hotel built in recent times, so it had an adequate number of escalators, was spacious, had apartments, cellars, lofts, cool rooms. I was required to clear my motherâs apartment and the two storerooms in the loft within 24 hours.
All the goods were confiscated by the forwarding agents as by rights belonging to the 3rd Reich.78
All of the rigorous measures were aimed at outlawing Jewish companies. The government even criminalized and punished every form of support for Jewish entrepreneurs. An official decree, enacted on April 22, 1938, made it clear that every form of support for Jewish companies, particularly cooperation with Jewish partners would be âpunished with jail or an expensive fine.â79
4.3 A Cycle of Violence and Outlawing: Attempts to Survive in National Socialist Vienna
As soon as the Nazis seized power in Austria, they began to oppress and outlaw everyone they regarded as opponents of the state or as racially inferior. Austrian Jews were hit particularly hard since the Nazis implemented all the regulations and discriminatory laws they had developed in Germany over a period of five years within only a few weeks. The process of outlawing encompassed all areas of society and Jews were gradually pushed out of public spaces. In addition to the restrictive actions against Jewish workers and entrepreneurs described above, the Nazi government enacted a series of measures to prevent Jewish citizens from living normal lives.
The following official measures are just a small selection of the many restrictions and acts of discrimination and persecution Jews had to suffer in the first year of the Nazi occupation. On May 2, 1938, the University of Vienna prohibited Jews from entering the campus.80 Eighteen days later, the Nazis officially introduced the Nuremberg Laws in Austria. This brought an end to traditional school or university education for Jewish students, since they were then no longer allowed to attend learning facilities together with âAryanâ students. Instead, they were ordered to attend specially established Jewish schools, segregated from other pupils, where only Jewish teachers were allowed to teach.81
Since the annexation of Austria by Germany, the situation of the Austrian Jews is insupportable. What I have heard and seen with my own eyes in Vienna is impossible to describe. I am a Roman-Catholic and no Jew, but I am, and many other Christians with me, ashamed, that these and such vexations and torments of the Jews are possible in a Christian state. I am ashamed to confess, that the vexations of the last times in Vienna seem to be repetitions of the Jewish persecutions in the Middle Ages. Their Christian friends in Vienna cannot help them, because the terror is very strong, and hard and every work or act of a Christian to support a Jew is regarded as revolution and must be paid also by vexation and often by incarceration. Jews are compelled to scrub streets. It is forbidden for a Christian to buy in a Jewish trade: No Jew can visit yet a theatre, the opera or a musical performance.82
They evicted me from the Gymnasium [grammar school] that I went to in Döbling, when Hitler moved in. Anyhow, I had to leave in year seven in March 1938 and I was allowed to finish year seven in a school where all the other non-Aryan pupils were accommodated. But I was not allowed to enter year eight to do the matric, which was a pity.83
After the Nazi takeover, Müller [one of his teachers] and pretty much all the other teachers and boys came to school bearing their swastikas. He said, it was the policy of the new regime that all Jews had to leave the country and it was important to be frank about this and try to achieve this in a cooperative way. [â¦] I only made it to the seventh of the eight years of secondary school.84
He continued by describing how his parents wanted him to spend the time being in Austria acquiring practical skills that could be useful during his expected emigration: âthere was the abrupt expulsion from my school and the hurried plans to learn something useful, something which might have helped us in making a living in our emigration to an as-yet unknown country.â85 He further explained: âI did three courses: I learned to type [â¦]. I did a crash course in bookkeeping and propitiously, as turned out later on, a course in a medical diagnostic laboratory, run by a Doctor Löwy, a Jewish doctor.â86 Hans Eisler recalled: âI went to Stubenbastei and stayed there until 1938 and then was transferred to a private school in Grinzing. It was a private school to which many Jewish boys went because they could no longer attend the Gymnasium.â87
I felt, I could not breathe anymore. I went to a park with my sister and the Nazis threw us out [â¦]. It was a terrible situation. At one stage, I was hit across the face by a Nazi officer.89
You could not do anything; you could not say anything. I saw my mother cleaning the streets. The other thing I also learned very quickly is that people we had known all of our lives were suddenly quite openly anti-Jewish and said nasty things and told the Nazis, âThis is a Jew.â [â¦] We trusted no one, because we did not know whom to trust. Fear was the main thing.90
The Expressionist writer Paul Hirsch, who fled Vienna in 1939 at the age of 47, dealt intensively in his later writing with the outlawing and stigmatizing processes he suffered after the Nazis took over in Austria. His former homeland, he wrote in 1968, âhad become a country, where the law turned into a system of coordinates with a deadly destination in which you were stuck.â âThe process of thinking,â he continued, âhad become an activity whose laws became externally determined.â91 He also pointed out how friends and acquaintances suddenly distanced themselves from him. âThere was just fear, and particularly loneliness. If you met a friend on the streets, he turned away, seeming to try to tell you with his eyes: âPlease, do not ask to talk to me [â¦].ââ92 Hirsch also
4.4 Disaster Approaching: Remembering Kristallnacht
The participantsâ opinion about the consequences of the actions are unanimously rejection and despair about the scandalous scenes, which will severely harm the reputation of the Reich and the party. At least two high-ranking office holders have declared that every decent citizen should support another political party [than the Nazi Party], if one existed today. All the people congregated here today have ensured that pogroms and vandalism cannot be the right means to solve the âJewish question.â Also, they noted that robbery and plundering would only increase the peopleâs and party membersâ disgust and resistance. [â¦] It was declared in this meeting that the political leadership has interfered in the most brutal
manner during the recent time and that the Kreisleiter [Nazi Party district leaders] do not see and know what great damage they cause.108
âRun, run,â they shouted at us. We ran through an illuminated hallway and were herded across a courtyard 30 metres long. Soldiers beat us from both sides [â¦]. One could hear the suppressed screams of the beaten, the clattering of shoes on the stones of the courtyard and at the back of the corridor the dull blows to the back [â¦]. As I was in the middle of the courtyard, I suddenly received a strong blow on the middle of my nose, and blood ran down immediately.111
I was loathing [sic] around and on the 10th of November was the big roundup from all the Jews. I came to the police. I was arrested in my parentsâ shop. They took me. After we was two days in the police station [sic], from there, we was transferred to these old riding school [sic]. From there, I was sent to the Elisabethpromenadeâthis is a very big city jail. And after, I was transported under fixed bayonets by the ss to the [railway] station and from there directly to Dachau. I was transported in cattle trains to Dachau. It was a horrible trip. We were squashed like sardines. When we arrived in Dachau, some Jews got meschugge [crazy] and some played up meschugge.112
Those imprisoned in Dachau experienced violence that was hitherto unknown. Within a very few weeks, the number of deaths in Dachau rose to 185.113 Bruno Bush recalled his time at Dachau concentration camp as sheer horror: âThe ss punished us with Ochsenziemer [bullwhips]. After that, we had to stay in long
Things were relatively quiet until Kristallnacht, November 10th. That was when, early in the morning at five oâclock, the Nazis, the brown shirts broke up the door, they beat up my brother. They accused him of having slept with an Aryan girl. They made me fetch money from where my father said it was in the safe. I had to count it, and they then took my parents away toâI think it was a Hotel on the Schwedenplatz. They were put under custody in a hotel on the Schwedenplatz. I got pistol whippedâI still have a sign on the back of my head. My brother was taken away to Dachau. My parents were put into the hotel for interrogation. I was left on my own in the apartment, scared stiff. I hid in the toilet and the janitor downstairs in a Nazi uniform came and supplied me with food. And I remember, for three or four days, he brought me food. [â¦]. My parents returned after about a week. They had to sign over all decisions to a person named Leo Skopilik. He turned out to be a Nazi and he was made in charge of the Firma Ludwig Eisler [his fatherâs company]. He had worked for my father for many years. My father got no compensations.117
On Kristallnacht, the local policemen in Wieselburg came to arrest my brother and me. Fortunately, Dr. Trierenberg, the firmâs Aryan partner, who had taken over the running of the factories, happened to be in
Wieselburg on business. He reassured the policemen that we would not leave the house and we were left alone.118
I finally left on the evening of the third November. Six days later âKristallnachtâ took place, the night when throughout Germany Jewish shops were smashed and looted, synagogues burned down and the majority of Jewish males were arrested; some went home fairly soon, some were taken to concentration camps. They came to get me too [â¦]. Actually, rather surprisingly in view of the very thorough record keeping of the Nazi apparatus; the appropriate authorities no doubt had recorded the fact that I had left, but a lot of these actions were left to local bands, so they could give expression to their own levels of bastardy and sadism.119
4.5 A Community of Fate
The memories of the members of our sample group indicate why authors such as Marlene Norst had called Austrian refugees in Australia a âcommunity of fate.â Despite their widely comparable upbringing and the fact that most of them belonged to the urban middle classes (allowing for apparent social and educational differences), the Anschluss was the main event responsible for turning them into a community. For all of them, the German annexation of Austria changed life dramatically. They all described the events that followed March 11 as unreal and staggering. As their memories showed, they became discriminated against, oppressed, assaulted, dispossessed, and outlawed, most of them because of their Jewishness, others, because of their political convictions. What dominated all depictions in this chapter was a clear and frightening feeling of insecurity and hopelessness. The members of this group recognized that they had no basis for existence in the Nazi state. For all of them, emigration was the obvious choice for continuing, if not saving, their lives. Another striking observation that surfaced through all these depictions was the fact that friends, colleagues, and neighbours had suddenly turned away from them.
Norst and McBride, Austrians in Australia.
Rolf Steininger, Austria, Germany and the Cold War: From Anschluss to the State Treaty 1938â1955 (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), 8.
Newcastle Morning Herald, March 14, 1938, 7.
Chesnoff, Pack of Thieves, 24.
Strobl, Innsbrucker Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 123.
Sandra Paweronschitz, Zwischen Anspruch und Anpassung: Journalisten und der Presseclub Concordia im Dritten Reich (Vienna: Steinbauer, 2006), 21; Gabriele Holzer, Verfreundete Nachbarn: ÃsterreichâDeutschland. Ein Verhältnis (Vienna: Kremayr & Scheriau, 1995), 84.
Steininger, Austria, Germany, 10.
Steininger, Austria, Germany, 10.
Otmar Jung, Plebiszit und Diktatur: die Volksabstimmungen der Nationalsozialisten. Die Fälle âAustritt aus dem Völkerbundâ (1933), âStaatsoberhauptâ (1934) und Anschluà Ãsterreichs (1938) (Tübingen: Mohr, 1995), 119ff.
Jung, Plebiszit und Diktatur, 119ff.
Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, Bd. 4: Vom Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges bis zur Gründung der beiden deutschen Staaten 1914â1949 (Munich: Beck, 2003), 622.
Burger, Heimatrecht, 147.
Burger, Heimatrecht, 146.
For more information, see Gerhard Botz, Nationalsozialismus in Wien: Machtübernahme, Herrschaftssicherung, Radikalisierung 1938/39 (Vienna: Mandelbaum, 2008), 126â136.
Burger, Heimatrecht, 147.
Burger, Heimatrecht, 147. Mischling was a pejorative legal term which was used in Nazi Germany to denote persons of mixed Aryan and non-Aryan, such as Jewish, ancestry, as they were classified by the Nuremberg racial laws of 1935.
Burger, Heimatrecht, 147; Evan Burr Bukey, Jews and Intermarriage in Nazi Austria (Cambridge: University Press, 2010).
GBfLà 80/1938, Bestellung von kommissarischen Verwaltern und kommissarischen Ãberwachungspersonen vom 13. 4. 1938; GBfLà 589/1938, Bekanntmachung der Verordnung über die Einziehung volks- und staatsfeindlichen Vermögens im Lande Ãsterreich vom 18. 11. 1938.
Dietmar Walch, Die jüdischen Bemühungen um die materielle Wiedergutmachung durch die Republik Ãsterreich (Vienna: Geyer-Edition, 1971), 2.
GBfLà 102/1938, Bekanntmachung der Verordnung über die Anmeldung des Vermögens von Juden vom 26.04.1938.
Walch, Materielle Wiedergutmachung, 2.
Walch, Materielle Wiedergutmachung, 3.
Wolfgang Benz, Der Holocaust (Munich: Beck, 1999), 24.
Burger, Heimatrecht, 150.
Burger, Heimatrecht, 150.
Walch, Materielle Wiedergutmachung, 3.
unhcr, 5/4â14, Kullmann papers, [Mission to Lisbon JulyâAugust 1941] [1941â1941] [Fonds 5, series 4, box 7].
ushmm, usc Shoah Foundation Institute testimony of Viola Winkler, Oral History, vha Interview Code: 5134 (sound recording).
Winkler, âAugenblick,â 311.
ushmm, usc Shoah Foundation Institute testimony of Viola Winkler, Oral History, vha Interview Code: 5134 (sound recording).
Interview with Marie Bergel, n.d. (sound recording), n.d. (in the possession of Joan Lynn).
sjm, au022, Helen Roberts Oral History Interview (sound recording).
Reinhold Eckfeld, in discussion with the author (sound recording), Melbourne, January 2017.
Cherny, Who is Sylvia?, 13â14.
ushmm, Oral history interview with Hans Eisler, Accession Number: 2009.214.61 | rg Number: rg-50.617.0061 (audio recording).
Teltscher, The Glückspilz, 52.
slv, Annemarie Mutton, papers, ca. 1930â1987. [manuscript], ms box 2685/9â10.
lbi ny, Austrian Heritage Collection, Interview with Elisabeth Kirsten [ahc 1639] (sound recording).
Leon Smith (friend of Anton and his successor as president of the aac), in discussion with the author (sound recording), Sydney, March 2016.
Reinhold Eckfeld, in discussion with the author (sound recording), Melbourne, January 2017.
GBfLÃ, Jg. 1938, 2. Stück, ausgegeben am 15. März 1938.
naa, B883, nx181034, Anton, Charles William.
naa, B883, nx181034, Anton, Charles William.
naa, B883, nx181034, Anton, Charles William.
naa Melbourne: mp 529/3/0, Tribunal 2/Herzfeld.
naa, A6119, Felser Gerhard Richard.
naa, A6119, Felser Gerhard Richard.
Burger, Heimatrecht, 149.
sjm, au022, Helen Roberts Oral History Interview (sound recording).
Interview with Marie Bergel, n.d. (sound recording) (in the possession of Joan Lynn).
John Low, âDown the Wallaby Trackâa backward glance with John Low: From Vienna to Sublime Point,â Hut News, no. 269 (2010): 1â16, 7.
Winkler, âAugenblick,â 266.
sjm, C007, title: Bruno Bush Oral history interview (audio recording).
Authorâs translation: âIch bestätige, dass Herr Kurt Silbiger, geboren am 19.07.1907 in Wien, seit 15.05.1928 bis zum heutigen Tage als Platzvertreter und als Ledermanipulant in meinem Hause tätig war, sich während der ganzen Dauer pflichtgetreu, eifrig, ehrlich und anständig benommen hat und sich stets zu meiner vollsten Zufriedenheit in jeder Art bewährte. Sein Ausscheiden erfolgt lohnbefriedigt nur aus dem Grunde seiner Auswanderung. Ich wünsche ihm auf seinem weiteren Lebenswege alles erdenklich Gute, er möge sich in seiner neuen Heimat eine baldige Lebensmöglichkeit beschaffen, die ein hartes Schicksal ihm hier verweigerte.â Private letters to Selby, 1938 (in the possession of Eleanor Hart).
Burger, Heimatrecht, 150.
Teltscher, The Glückspilz, 50.
Authorâs translation: âGeehrte Firma, wenn einer Firma bekannt ist, dass jüdische Angestellte oder noch im Inlande befindliche ehemalige jüdische Angestellte über wichtige Industrie- und Gewerbegeheimnisse Kenntnis besitzen, möge uns dies unter Angabe näherer Einzelheiten bekanntgegeben werden.â See Private records (written documents) in the possession of Sue Copolov.
Burger, Heimatrecht, 150; Ulrike Felber et al., eds., Ãkonomie der Arisierung: Teil 1: Grundzüge, Akteure und Institutionen (Vienna: Oldenburg, 2004).
Philipp Strobl, Innsbrucker Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 136.
Authorâs translation: âEs ist anzunehmen, daà aufgrund meiner Anordnung eine erneute, sehr starke Boykottbewegung gegen die jüdischen Geschäfte einsetzt. Die Juden werden angesichts der Unsicherheit der Verhältnisse u. der Erklärung, die Sie, sehr verehrter Herr Generalfeldmarschall, heute zur Judenfrage abgeben wollen und die meine Ausführungen von vorgestern unterstreicht, voraussichtlich bereit sein, ihre Geschäfte u. Unternehmungen zu billigsten Preisen abzustoÃen. Ich glaube, daà es so möglich sein wird, unter den wirtschaftlich günstigsten Voraussetzungen einen groÃen Teil jüdischen Besitzes in arische Hände überzuleiten.â In Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes, ed., âAnschluÃâ 1938. Eine Dokumentation (Vienna, 1988), 485â555.
Arno Herzig, â1933â1945: Verdrängung und Vernichtung,â Informationen zur politischen Bildung 307 (2010).
Marie Bergel, personal communication, n.d. (in the possession of Joan Lynn).
lbi ny, Austrian Heritage Collection, Interview with Elisabeth Kirsten [ahc 1639] (sound recording).
slv, Annemarie Mutton, papers, ca. 1930â1987. [manuscript], ms box 2685/9â10.
Marianne Schulze (Bowenâs granddaughter), in discussion with the author (sound recording), Vienna, March 2017; authorâs translation: âDie Fabrik ist dann übernommen worden [â¦]. Adolf Böhm ist dann zusammengebrochen, nach etwa 6 Wochen, also irgendwann Mitte April. In den Akten findet sich dann auch seine Entmündigung und dann hatte dieser Ariseur mit Namen Wilner auch im Firmenbuch übernommen.â
naa, B884, Gustav Bratspies.
Jarolim, âDetention of Jews.â
ushmm, Oral history interview with Hans Eisler, Accession Number: 2009.214.61 | rg Number: rg-50.617.0061 (sound recording).
Stenographische Niederschrift (Teilübertragung) der Besprewchung über die Judenfrage unter Vorsitz des Reichsluftfahrtministers und Beauftragten für den Vierjahresplan, Hermann Göring, am 12.November 1938, o.D. inin: imt, Bd. xxviii, Dok. 1816-ps.
Clemens Jabloner et al., eds., Veröffentlichungen der Ãsterreichischen Historikerkommission. Vermögensentzug während der ns-Zeit sowie Rückstellungen und Entschädigungen seit 1945 in Ãsterreich: Band 1 (Vienna: Oldenbourg, 2003), 97.
Walch, Materielle Wiedergutmachung, 6.
Termination notice, 1938 (in the possession of Sue Copolov).
Letter from Prof. Dr. Greitemann to A. Behrend, May 13, 1938 (in the possession of Sue Copolov).
naa, A12217, Weiss Hans.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, April 28, 1938, 1â2.
Cherny, Who is Sylvia?, 13.
Cherny, Who is Sylvia?, 15.
slv, Annemarie Mutton, papers, ca. 1930â1987. [manuscript], ms box 2685/9â10.
Verordnung gegen die Unterstützung der Tarnung jüdischer Gewerbebetriebe, 22.4.1938, in Werner Hoche, ed., Die Gesetzgebung Adolf Hitlers für Reich, PreuÃen und Ãsterreich, Heft 27, 16. April bis 15. Juli 1938 (Berlin: F. Vahlen, 1939), 321.
döw, Kundmachung des Rektorats der Universität Wien, 2. 5. 1938, ua Wien, 662 ex 1937/38, E 18.988.
Verordnungsblatt für den Dienstbereich des Ãsterreichischen Unterrichtsministeriums bzw. des Ministeriums für innere und kulturelle Angelegenheiten, Abt. iv: Erziehung, Kultus und Volksbildung, Jg. 1938, Wien 1939, S. 35.
Letter from Prof. Dr. Greitemann to A. Behrend, 13 May 1938 (in the possession of Sue Copolov).
Reinhold Eckfeld, in discussion with the author (sound recording), Melbourne, January 2017.
Teltscher, The Glückspilz, 31.
Teltscher, The Glückspilz, 51.
Teltscher, The Glückspilz, 51.
ushmm, Oral history interview with Hans Eisler, Accession Number: 2009.214.61 | rg Number: rg-50.617.0061 (audio recording).
ushmm, Oral history interview with Hans Eisler, Accession Number: 2009.214.61 | rg Number: rg-50.617.0061 (audio recording).
sjm, au006, title: Liesel Ziegler Oral History Interview (audio recording).
ushmm, usc Shoah Foundation Institute testimony of Viola Winkler, Oral History, vha Interview Code: 5134 (audio recording).
Paul Hatvani, âZwei Prosastücke,â 71â72.
Paul Hatvani, âDas Ameisenfragment,â Literatur und Kritik 4 (1969): 336â350.
mul, ef 830.912 H669.1 A6/C, Paul Hatvani, âBeschreibung der Angst,â 1968 (unpublished manuscript).
Paul Hatvani, âDamals. Besinnung auf die Zeit des Dritten Reiches,â Konfiguartionen (1970): 19â20.
âDie LannerstraÃe herauf kommen meine beiden ehemaligen Schulkollegen M. und E., beide in ss-Uniform. Mit M. war ich noch tags vorher spazieren und des Abends in seiner Wohnung, wo ich dann von einem seiner âKollegenâ, einem ss-Mann gesehen wurde. Ich sehe den beiden entgegen und schaue recht unbekümmert und unbeteiligt drein. M. vermeidet verlegen meinen Blick.â (authorâs translation): Martin Krist, ed., Reinhold Eckfeld: Letzte Monate in Wien. Aufzeichnungen aus dem australischen Internierungslager 1949/41 (Vienna: Turia & Kant, 2002), 19.
nla, Gertrude Langer Interviewed by Barbara Blackman [sound recording], Oral trc 1171 (transcript).
slv, Annemarie Mutton, papers, ca. 1930â1987. [manuscript], ms box 2685/9â10.
slv, Annemarie Mutton, papers, ca. 1930â1987. [manuscript], ms box 2685/9â10.
Interview with Marie Bergel, n.d. (sound recording), n.d. (in the possession of Joan Lynn).
Interview with Marie Bergel, n.d. (sound recording), n.d. (in the possession of Joan Lynn).
Hans Mommsen, âDie Pogromnacht und ihre Folgen,â Gewerkschaftliche Monatshefte 10 (1988): 591â601, 592.
Nadine Deusing, âDie Reaktion der Bevölkerung auf die Judenverfolgungen in der Reichspogromnacht,â Jahrbuch für Kommunikationsgeschichte 10 (2008): 77â106, 79.
Ulrich Baumann and François Guesnet, âKristallnachtâPogromâState Terror: A Terminological Reflection,â in New Perspectives on Kristallnacht, ed. Steven Ross (West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2019), 1â24, 1.
Baumann and Guesnet, âKristallnacht,â 7.
Erinnern.at, âDas Novemberpogrom in Wienâzwei Brüder sahen sich zum letzten Mal,â accessed January 26, 2022,
Walch, Materielle Wiedergutmachung, 2.
Mommsen, âDie Pogromnacht,â 599.
âÃber die stimmungsmäÃige Auswirkung der Aktion herrschte unter den Teilnehmern nur eine Meinung: Ablehnung und Erschütterung über die Tatsache, daà bei der Durchführung Skandalszenen vorgefallen sind, die das Ansehen der Partei und des Reiches aufs schwerste schädigen. So haben u. a. zwei Hoheitsträger erklärt, daÃ, wenn es heute eine andere Partei im Reiche geben würde, es Pflicht eines jeden anständigen Menschen sei, diese andere Partei zu unterstützen. Die Versammelten gaben einmütig ihrer Ãberzeugung dahin Ausdruck, daà Pogrome und Vandalismus nicht die Mittel sind, um die Judenfrage zu lösen, und daà Schändungen, Raub und Plünderung in der Bevölkerung und in weiten Kreisen der Parteigenossenschaft nur Abscheu hervorgerufen haben. [â¦] In der Sitzung wurde festgestellt, daà in letzter Zeit überhaupt seitens der politischen Leitung in rohester Form in das Wirtschaftsleben eingegriffen wird, daà die Kreisleiter herumfuhrwerken und nicht imstande sind, zu übersehen, welches Unheil sie anrichten.â (authorâs translation): Aktennotitz des ss-Hauptscharführers Seliger über die Sitzung im Gauwirtschaftsamt wegen der Vorfälle am 10.11.1938, 12. 11. 1938, in Tuviah Friedmann, âDie Kristall-Nacht,â Haifa 18 (1972).
See Krist, Reinhold Eckfeld.
Krist, Reinhold Eckfeld, 22.
Authorâs translation: âLaufschritt, Laufschritt, brüllt man uns entgegen. Wir laufen durch einen erleuchteten Hausflur, werden weitergetrieben über einen Hof, 30 Meter lang. Man schlägt von beiden Seiten auf uns ein. [â¦] Man hört das unterdrückte Schreien der Geschlagenen, das Klappern der Schuhe auf den Steinendes Hofes und hinten im Hausflur die dumpfen Schläge in den Rücken [â¦]. Wie ich in der Mitte des Hofes bin, erhalte ich plötzlich einen starken Schlag mitten auf die Nase, und das Blut rinnt sofort hinunter.â Krist, Reinhold Eckfeld, 26.
sjm, C007, title: Bruno Bush Oral history interview (audio recording).
Myrah Adams, Benigna Schönhagen, and Thomas Stöckle, eds., Die Nacht als die Synagogen brannten: Texte und Materialien zum Novemberpogrom 1938 (Stuttgart: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung, 1998), 23.
sjm, C007, title: Bruno Bush Oral history interview (audio recording).
sjm, C007, title: Bruno Bush Oral history interview (audio recording).
sjm, C007, title: Bruno Bush Oral history interview (audio recording).
ushmm, Oral history interview with Hans Eisler, Accession Number: 2009.214.61 | rg Number: rg-50.617.0061 (audio recording).
Cherny, Who is Sylvia?, 15.
Teltscher, The Glückspilz, 56.