Ruqayyah Snyder
Vienna, the capital of Austria, has a dark history of Nazi occupation. In March 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, an event known as the 'Anschluss', which saw the imposition of severe restrictions on racial and ethnic minorities, particularly the Jews. The Viennese Jewish population was targeted with anti-Semitic legislation, resulting in the closure of businesses, deportations, and mass emigration. The city suffered from aerial bombing and ground fighting during World War II, and the Nazis exploited and exterminated thousands of Jews. The Soviet Union liberated Vienna in 1945, but the city endured looting and attacks by liberated slave laborers and prisoners of war. Today, Vienna has memorials and landmarks that serve as reminders of its Nazi past, and the country continues to grapple with its complicity in the Holocaust.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Date of Nazi annexation | 11 March 1938 |
| Date Vienna became focal point of Jewish emigration | Summer 1939 |
| Number of Jews in Vienna in 1938 | 170,000 |
| Number of Jews in Vienna in 1942 | 8,000 |
| Number of Jews exiled from Austria | 130,000 |
| Number of Jews assassinated in Austria | 65,000 |
| Number of Austrians drafted into the Wehrmacht | 1.3 million |
| Number of drafted Austrians who never returned | 242,000 |
| Number of Austrians who joined the Nazi Party | 700,000 |
| Percentage of Austrian population that joined the Nazi Party | 10% |
| Number of women raped by the Red Army in Vienna | Between 70,000 and 100,000 |
| Number of casualties suffered by the Red Army in Austria | 94,185 |
| Number of Austrian deaths caused by the guillotine in Landesgerichtsstraße 11 | 1,200+ |
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What You'll Learn
Vienna's Jewish population
Vienna has a long history of Jewish presence, dating back to the 12th century. By the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century, Vienna had become a prominent centre of Jewish culture and education, with a significant Jewish population. In 1936, there were 176,034 Jews in Vienna, making up 8% of the city's total population. The Jewish community was well-integrated into Viennese society, with many Jews working as doctors, lawyers, businessmen, bankers, artists, and journalists.
However, this thriving Jewish community was soon to face unprecedented hardship and suffering. In March 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria in what became known as the Anschluss. This marked the beginning of a dark period for Vienna's Jewish population. Soon after the annexation, Jews were subjected to public humiliation, their properties and businesses were looted and vandalised, and they were forced to wear the yellow star. The Nazis quickly applied German anti-Jewish legislation in Austria, aiming to exclude Jews from economic, cultural, and social life. The Nuremberg Racial Laws enacted by the Nazis robbed Jews of their property and civil rights.
The pogrom of November 1938, known as Kristallnacht or the "Night of Broken Glass", was a particularly brutal episode. Members of the Nazi Party, joined by civilians, formed mobs that torched synagogues and prayer houses and vandalised Jewish businesses. By May 1939, roughly 130,000 Jews had fled Vienna, leaving behind their property and facing an uncertain future. Those who remained in Vienna became victims of the Holocaust, as the Nazis resolved to completely annihilate the Jewish population.
By the end of World War II, approximately 60% of Austria's Jewish population, or 120,000 people, had survived the Holocaust. In the postwar years, the Austrian government was slow to address the issue of restitution and compensation for the surviving Jewish community. In the 1980s, there was a shift in thinking, and in June 1991, Chancellor Vranitzky publicly acknowledged the participation of Austrian citizens in the crimes of Nazi Germany. Today, Vienna's Jewish community continues to flourish, with a registered population of 7,000 Jews and a total population of around 15,000, including unaffiliated Jews.
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Nazi anti-Jewish legislation
During the first six years of Hitler's dictatorship, from 1933 until the outbreak of war in 1939, Jews in Germany were subject to more than 400 decrees and regulations that restricted all aspects of their public and private lives. These laws were issued by the German administration and affected all Jews, but state, regional, and municipal officials also issued exclusionary decrees in their own communities. Hundreds of individuals at all levels of government throughout the country were involved in the persecution of Jews.
The first wave of legislation, from 1933 to 1934, focused on limiting the participation of Jews in German public life. The first major law to curtail the rights of Jewish citizens was the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of April 7, 1933, which excluded Jews from working in the Civil Service. This was followed by the Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities on April 25, 1933, which limited Jewish students in German schools to a maximum of 1.5% of the total intake. On September 29, 1933, the Hereditary Farm Law was passed, banning Jews from owning or running farms.
In 1935, the Nazis passed the Nuremberg Laws, which served as the legality for the arrests and violence against Jews that followed. These laws denied basic human rights to millions of Jews, Gypsies, and other minority groups. They forbade Jews from citizenship and prohibited sexual relations and marriages between Jews and "Aryans". The Nuremberg Laws also defined anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual practised Judaism or belonged to the Jewish community.
In 1936, during the Winter and Summer Olympic Games, the Nazi regime toned down its public anti-Jewish rhetoric and activities to avoid international criticism and discourage tourism. However, in 1937 and 1938, German authorities again stepped up legislative persecution of German Jews. In August 1938, German authorities decreed that by January 1, 1939, Jewish men and women bearing first names of "non-Jewish" origin had to add "Israel" and "Sara," respectively, to their given names. All Jews were required to carry identity cards indicating their Jewish heritage, and their passports were stamped with an identifying letter "J".
Following Kristallnacht ("The Night of Broken Glass") on November 9-10, 1938, Nazi legislation barred Jews from all public schools and universities, as well as cinemas, theatres, and sports facilities. In many cities, Jews were forbidden to enter designated "Aryan" zones. The government required Jews to identify themselves in ways that would permanently separate them from the rest of the population, and their property was confiscated and rations reduced.
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The Soviet occupation of Austria
In the aftermath of World War II, Austria was jointly occupied by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, and France. The country was divided into four occupation zones, with Vienna being subdivided among all four Allies. The historical centre of Vienna was declared an international zone, with occupation forces changing every month. The Soviet zone included Burgenland, Lower Austria, and the Mühlviertel area of Upper Austria, north of the Danube.
The Soviet Union's occupation policies in Austria were shaped by the Moscow Declaration of 1943, which proclaimed that Austria was Germany's first victim but also complicit in Nazi aggression. The Soviets did not create a separate socialist government in their zone, unlike in East Germany. Instead, they adhered to the view that Austria was a victim of Germany, and the country avoided some of the harshest aspects of Germany's fate. The Soviets brought in NKVD troops to "mop up" Vienna and issued directives to their soldiers to respect Austrian civilians and not confuse them with German occupiers.
However, the Red Army engaged in systematic sexual violence against Austrian women, and repression against civilians harmed the army's reputation. Throughout 1945 and 1946, Soviet command struggled to contain desertion and plunder by their soldiers. The Soviets also controlled Austrian oil fields in their zone and insisted on broadcasting news from their zone in a specific "official" version, causing tension with the Austrians and other occupying forces.
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Austrian resistance to Nazis
Austrian resistance to the Nazis was launched in response to the rise of fascism across Europe and, more specifically, to the Anschluss in 1938 and the resulting occupation of Austria by Germany. An estimated 100,000 people participated in this resistance, with thousands subsequently imprisoned or executed for their anti-Nazi activities. The Austrian resistance groups reflected the spectrum of political parties before the war, with armed resistance groups, communist groups, groups close to the Catholic Church, Habsburg groups, and individual resistance groups in the German Wehrmacht.
The symbol and voice of Austrian resistance was Crown Prince Otto von Habsburg, who helped around 50,000 Austrians, including tens of thousands of Austrian Jews, flee the country at the beginning of World War II. During his wartime exile in the United States, Otto and his younger brothers founded an "Austrian Battalion" in the U.S. Army, although it never saw combat. In addition to the Habsburg groups, the most spectacular individual group of the Austrian resistance was the one led by the priest Heinrich Maier, which informed the Allies early on about the mass murder of Jews and provided them with plans and production facilities for V-2 rockets, Tiger tanks, and aircraft.
The Austrian National Socialists linked to Hitler received only 779 votes in the 1927 General Election and failed to enter Parliament in 1930. However, in the following years, they gained votes at the expense of the various German national groups, and in 1938, Austria yielded to German pressure and became part of Hitler's Germany without military resistance. This was due in part to the Austrian chancellor's view of Germans as "brothers" and his reluctance to shed "German blood."
Despite the majority of Austrians participating in the Nazi war machine, a small minority actively resisted Nazism. This resistance took the form of issuing counter-Nazi political leaflets, collecting donations for families of those arrested, providing the Allies with information, and occasional sabotage of key civil and military installations. Most armed resistance was undertaken in Carinthia, where Carinthian Slovenes formed a nucleus of the resistance after targeted deportations and forced Germanisation by the Nazis in 1942. In addition to armed resistance, numerous individuals risked their lives to provide support to Jewish families during the Holocaust, including hiding individuals, managing their property, and aiding their escape from persecution.
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Nazi remnants in Vienna
Vienna, like many other cities, still bears the scars of World War II and the Nazi regime. The city was liberated by the Allies in 1945, but not before the Nazis had left their mark on the city and its people.
The Annexation of Austria
On 13 March 1938, Hitler stood on the terrace of the Neue Burg in Vienna and announced that Austria was now part of Germany. This event, known as the "Anschluss", was greeted enthusiastically by thousands of Austrians in the square below. The terrace, inaccessible to the public, remains a painful reminder of this low point in Austrian history and can be viewed from Heldenplatz Square.
The Impact on Vienna's Jewish Population
Vienna had a thriving Jewish community before the war, with around 170,000 Jews living in the city in 1938. However, the Nazis quickly applied anti-Jewish legislation, closing Jewish-owned businesses and community offices, and confiscating property. The November pogroms of 1938, known as Kristallnacht, saw the destruction of Vienna's synagogues and the crystallisation points of Jewish religious and social life. The Nazis, with the help of the SS Captain Adolf Eichmann, established a Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna, leading to the emigration of nearly half of Austria's Jewish population by May 1939. Systematic mass deportations to detention camps and occupied territories began in the autumn of 1939, with thousands murdered in mass shootings. By October 1942, only about 8,000 Jews remained in Austria.
The Vienna Offensive
Vienna was a key target for the Soviets during World War II. The Vienna Offensive, which lasted from 16 March to 15 April 1945, involved fierce urban combat and street-to-street fighting. The city suffered repeated Allied bombing, and by the time the Soviets captured it, many buildings and facilities had been damaged or destroyed.
Memorials and Reminders
Today, Vienna has several memorials and remnants from the Nazi era. The synagogue at Seitenstettengasse 4, which survived the pogroms, serves as the spiritual and cultural centre of Jewish life in the city. Stephansdom Cathedral bears a symbol of the largest Austrian resistance movement on its wall. The former regional criminal court, Landesgerichtsstraße 11, operated under Nazi jurisdiction from 1938 to 1945, with an execution room that saw over 1200 people guillotined. Stubenring 1, the former site of the Nazi military courts, now bears a plaque explaining how thousands were tried and sentenced to death.
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Frequently asked questions
The Nazis applied German anti-Jewish legislation to Vienna, aiming to exclude Jews from economic, cultural, and social life. By the summer of 1939, hundreds of Jewish-owned factories and thousands of businesses had been closed or confiscated. Mass deportations of the Viennese Jewish population began in the autumn of 1939. By October 1942, only about 8,000 Jews remained in Austria.
Vienna suffered repeated Allied bombing from 1943 onwards, and by the end of the war in April 1945, fighting was taking place in the heart of the city. The city was also looted and civilians were attacked by Soviet soldiers.
After World War II, an Allied Control Council was established for Austria. Austria regained its independence on May 15, 1955. However, the country has been criticized for not fully recognizing its role in the Holocaust and for not taking responsibility for the actions of Austrians during the Nazi regime.
