Austria's Border Changes: World War Ii Impact

Austria's borders changed several times during World War II.

In the lead-up to the war, Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938, in an event known as the Anschluss. This was supported by a large majority of Austrians, and the country was incorporated into Germany the following day.

After the war, Austria was divided into four occupation zones, jointly occupied by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, and France. Vienna was also subdivided, with the central district being collectively administered by the Allied Control Council.

In 1955, Austria was granted full independence, and the last occupation troops left.

The Anschluss: The German Annexation of Austria

The Anschluss, which took place on March 13, 1938, was the annexation of Austria into the German Reich. The idea of a united Austria and Germany, or "Greater Germany", had been proposed after the unification of Germany in 1871 excluded Austria. The proposal gained support after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, and by the 1920s, it had strong support in both countries, particularly from Austrian citizens of the political left and center.

After Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933, unification became associated with the Nazis, for whom it was an integral part of their "Heim ins Reich" ("back home to the realm") concept. Nazi Germany's agents cultivated pro-unification tendencies in Austria and sought to undermine the Austrian government, which was controlled by the Austrofascist Fatherland Front and opposed unification. In 1934, Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated by Austrian Nazis during an attempted coup. The defeat of the coup prompted many leading Austrian Nazis to go into exile in Germany, where they continued their efforts to unify the two countries.

In early 1938, Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg announced that there would be a referendum on a possible union with Germany. Hitler threatened an invasion and pressured Schuschnigg to resign. On March 12, 1938, the German army crossed the border into Austria unopposed by the Austrian military. A plebiscite was held on April 10, in which 99.7% of the vote was in favour of the Anschluss. However, the population's true opinions are unknown, and it has been estimated that about 70% of Austrians would have voted to preserve Austrian independence.

The Anschluss was the first act of territorial aggression and expansion by Nazi Germany, and it demonstrated the regime's disdain for the post-World War I European order. It violated the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain, which expressly forbade the unification of Austria and Germany. The other European powers did not punish Nazi Germany for violating these treaties, and their acceptance of the Anschluss allowed Hitler to continue his expansionary policies unchecked.

The annexation of Austria transformed the country almost overnight. In the following days, weeks, and months, Austrian and German Nazis carried out the Nazification of Austrian life, and Austrians participated in the persecution of the country's Jewish population, the enactment of Nazi policies, and World War II. The Anschluss was not inevitable, but certain historical factors and events facilitated these processes.

The Camp System in Austria

The Mauthausen concentration camp was established in the summer of 1938, after the German annexation of Austria. Mauthausen became the main Nazi camp in Austria. It was built near an abandoned stone quarry, along the Danube River, about 12.5 miles southeast of Linz. The Germans designated the Mauthausen concentration camp a category III camp, indicating that it was a special penal camp with a harsh regimen. Inmates in the punishment detail, for example, were forced to carry heavy stone blocks up 186 steps from the camp quarry. The steps became known as the "Stairway of Death."

During the war, forced labour using concentration camp prisoners became increasingly important to German armaments production. In the summer and fall of 1944, subcamps under the administration of Mauthausen were established near armaments factories throughout northern Austria. The staff at Mauthausen administered more than 60 subcamps, including Gusen, Gunskirchen, Melk, Ebensee, and Amstetten. Thousands of prisoners were worked to death.

In addition to Mauthausen and its subcamps, other camps in Austria extended from Lochau in the west to Strasshof in the east.

The Kristallnacht Pogroms in Austria

On the night of 9–10 November 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes.

The violence was instigated primarily by Nazi Party officials and members of the SA (Sturmabteilung) and Hitler Youth. Nazi officials disguised the organised nature of the pogroms, describing the actions as justifiable and spontaneous responses to the assassination of a German diplomatic official, Ernst vom Rath, in Paris. This unprecedented violence against the Reich's Jews generated international outrage.

During the pogrom, some 30,000 Jewish males were rounded up and taken to concentration camps. This was the first time Nazi officials made massive arrests of Jews specifically because they were Jews, without any further cause for arrest.

In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, the Nazi regime ordered the Jewish community to pay a 1 billion Reichsmark "atonement tax" and rapidly enacted many anti-Jewish laws and edicts.

The violence of Kristallnacht took place throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops.

In Vienna, a Jewish home was vandalised during Kristallnacht, and the Neue Weltgasse synagogue was set on fire.

Austria's Border Changes During World War II

Austria's borders changed several times during and after World War II.

In 1938, Austrian-born Adolf Hitler annexed Austria to Germany, which was supported by a large majority of Austrians.

After the German defeat in World War II, the German identity in Austria was weakened. Ten years after the Second World War, Austria again became an independent republic as the Second Austrian Republic in 1955.

Deportations from Austria

During World War II, the Nazis deported thousands of Jews from Austria to occupied Poland and elsewhere in occupied eastern Europe. The Nazis also deported thousands of Jews to concentration camps in Germany.

The systematic mass deportations from Vienna, as elsewhere in Greater Germany, began in October 1941. The Nazis established centres where Jews were to be assembled before deportation. About 35,000 Jews were deported from Vienna to ghettos in eastern Europe, mostly to Minsk, Riga, and Lodz, and to ghettos in the Lublin region of Poland. Most Jews sent to Minsk and Riga were shot by detachments of the Einsatzgruppen shortly after arrival. Over 15,000 Viennese Jews were deported to Theresienstadt. Thousands of Jews were also sent to concentration camps in Germany. By November 1942 only about 7,000 Jews remained in Austria, mostly those married to non-Jews. Some Jews remained in hiding.

In addition to the deportations, the Nazis also carried out mass killings of Jews in Austria. In November 1938, the November 1938 Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") pogroms were particularly brutal in Austria. Most of the synagogues in Vienna were destroyed, burned in full view of fire departments and the public. Jewish businesses were also vandalized and ransacked.

In 1942, the Nazis deported Judith and Tobias Dichter, a Jewish couple from Vienna, to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. In September 1942, they were deported to Maly Trostinets, a German killing site near Minsk, where they were killed on arrival.

The Austrian Resistance

One notable resistance group was led by the priest Heinrich Maier. This group sought to re-establish a Habsburg monarchy after the war and played a significant role in providing the Allies with information on the production sites of weapons and aircraft. They also maintained contact with Allen Dulles, head of the U.S. OSS in Switzerland, and their intelligence contributed to key operations. The Maier group was also one of the first to report the mass murder of Jews, utilising contacts at the Semperit factory near Auschwitz.

In addition to armed resistance, numerous individuals provided support to Jewish families during the Holocaust, risking imprisonment or death. Among these individuals were Rosa and Anton Stallbaumer, who were arrested by the Gestapo in 1942 and sent to concentration camps. Anton survived, but Rosa died in Auschwitz at the age of 44.

Another notable resistance group was the Austrian Freedom Front, a partisan group led by the Communist leader Franz Honner and supported by the USSR. By the end of the war, the Austrian Freedom Front had become the only armed movement in Austria.

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