Leslie Massey
Austria has a rich, complex, and often violent history, with the country playing an important role in both World War I and World War II. In the former, Austria-Hungary was one of the Central Powers, along with the German and Ottoman Empires, and was responsible for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which triggered the start of the war. In World War II, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, with the support of the Austrian population, and became an integral part of the Third Reich. The Mauthausen concentration camp, established near Linz, was the main Nazi camp in Austria, with forced labour becoming increasingly important to German armaments production. Today, Austria is facing its violent past through Holocaust education, with students learning about the country's history through the stories of refugees and survivors.
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What You'll Learn
The Holocaust in Austria
Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany on 13 March 1938, dramatically changing the fate of Austrian Jews. The country had a powerful legacy of antisemitism, which was fully expressed under Adolf Hitler. In 1895, the Austrian anti-Semite Karl Luger won the majority of seats in the Vienna municipality and was appointed mayor of the capital. In the 1930s, Jews flourished in Austria, with leading figures in various sectors, but after the annexation, known as the Anschluss, Jews were systematically persecuted, plundered, and killed by German and Austrian Nazis.
In the first week following the annexation, Jews were subjected to brutality, violence, and looting of their assets. Jewish women were forced to scrub political slogans from sidewalks with their bare hands or toothbrushes, and Jewish children were made to write "Jud" on the windows of their fathers' shops. Soon, anti-Jewish laws were implemented. In December 1938, the few remaining Jewish students were excluded from universities. In April, 16,000 primary and secondary pupils were moved to segregated classes and later transferred to eight Jewish schools, which were closed by the end of the school year in 1939. On 20 May 1938, the "Nuremberg Laws" were introduced, and 34,500 people not previously registered as Jews were declared "racial Jews". After 2 July 1938, Jews were banned from most public parks, and by the end of September, Jewish lawyers and physicians could no longer have non-Jewish customers. During Kristallnacht in November 1938, anti-Jewish pogroms took place across Germany and Austria, with synagogues desecrated and destroyed, and Jewish homes and shops looted. Jews were also forbidden from going out during certain times of the day and night, which facilitated mass arrests.
The first Austrian concentration camp was established at Mauthausen near Linz in August 1938, and it was one of the largest and harshest within the Third Reich. By 1942, almost all Austrian Jews had been forced to emigrate or had been deported to concentration camps. The Central Office for Jewish Emigration, led by Adolf Eichmann, organised the persecution and deportation of Austrian Jews so efficiently that their methods were copied in Germany. The deportation of Jews to death camps began in February 1941 and was accelerated after the Wannsee Conference. By November 1942, the Viennese community was officially liquidated, and only about 7,000 Jews remained in the country. The deportations continued until March 1945, and between 60,000 and 65,000 Austrian Jews lost their lives during the Holocaust.
In the post-war era, Austria's restitution programs were widely considered insufficient to address the country's wartime responsibility. In 1991, Chancellor Franz Vranitzky acknowledged Austria's co-responsibility for the suffering inflicted on its Jewish community. Since then, the country has set up several programs to address gaps in restitution and compensation, including the National Fund for Victims of National Socialism and an art restitution law. Austria has also constructed memorials to the victims of the Holocaust, such as the Shoah Wall of Names Memorial in Vienna, engraved with the names of Austrian Jews murdered during the Holocaust.
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Mauthausen concentration camp
Mauthausen was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany. The camp was built near an abandoned stone quarry along the Danube River, chosen for its proximity to Linz and the quarry, which provided granite to pave the streets of Vienna. The subcamps included quarries, munitions factories, mines, arms factories, and plants assembling Me 262 fighter aircraft. Mauthausen and its subcamps were divided into several categories based on their main function, including factory workers, construction workers, cleaning crews for bombed towns, and small camps dedicated to serving the SS.
The camp was designated a category III camp, indicating it was a special penal camp with a harsh regimen. The inmates in the punishment detail were forced to carry heavy stone blocks up 186 steps from the camp quarry, known as the "Stairway of Death." During the war, forced labour using concentration camp prisoners became increasingly important to German armaments production, and the prisoners at Mauthausen, now including women, were used as forced labourers in the arms industry. The production output of Mauthausen and its subcamps exceeded that of other large slave labour centres, making it one of the most profitable concentration camps.
During its operation from 1938 to 1945, around 190,000 people were imprisoned in Mauthausen and its subcamps, with at least 90,000 dying. Mauthausen had a high mortality rate, and prisoners at the bottom of the camp hierarchy had little chance of surviving for long. The SS started constructing a gas chamber at Mauthausen in 1941 for the systematic murder of large groups of people. In January 1941, Mauthausen was designated to incarcerate only those prisoners deemed "severely incriminated," including previously convicted criminals, "asocials," and protective detainees.
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Soviet occupation of Austria
Immediately after World War II, Austria and its capital, Vienna, were divided into four occupation zones jointly occupied by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, and France. The Soviet Union's occupation zone included the states of Burgenland, Lower Austria, and the Mühlviertel area of Upper Austria, north of the Danube. Vienna, a cultural hub, was divided among all four Allies, with its historical centre declared an international zone where the occupying forces changed monthly.
The Soviet Union's occupation of Austria lasted from 1945 to 1955, coinciding with the early years of the Cold War. During this period, the Soviet leadership agreed upon the restoration of Austria as an independent state within its pre-1938 boundaries, separate from Germany. This position was confirmed in the Moscow Declaration of 1 November 1943 by the foreign ministers of Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States. When liberation and occupation came in the spring of 1945, there was consensus among the four powers that Austria was to be demilitarised, denazified, and democratically reconstructed.
The Soviet occupation of Austria was marked by several significant events and challenges. The Red Army, which played a crucial role in the capture of Vienna from the Nazis, suffered heavy losses, including the lives of 17,000 soldiers. Unfortunately, the Soviet troops also engaged in systematic sexual violence against women in the early days and weeks following their victory. This conduct, along with repression against civilians, damaged the reputation of the Red Army. In September 1945, Moscow issued an order forbidding violent interrogations in an attempt to address these issues.
The Soviet occupation forces also faced challenges with discipline and morale among their troops. Throughout 1945 and 1946, Soviet commanders struggled to curb desertion and plunder by their soldiers. The presence of Soviet troops in Austria was deeply unpopular, leading to an 11% population decline in eastern Vienna as people fled the Soviet zone. The Soviets also exerted pressure on the Austrian government, particularly regarding control of the country's oil fields.
In 1955, Austria regained its independence through the Austrian State Treaty, in which it pledged perpetual neutrality in the Cold War confrontation between the East and West. This treaty ensured the departure of all occupation troops by 25 October 1955, marking the end of the Soviet occupation and the beginning of a new chapter for Austria as a neutral country.
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Nazi Germany annexes Austria
On March 12, 1938, German troops entered Austria, annexing the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich. The annexation was proclaimed on March 13, 1938, and Austria was incorporated into Germany. This event, known as the Anschluss, was met with enthusiasm and support from most Austrians, who welcomed the union with Nazi Germany. The Austrian population was subjected to extensive Nazi propaganda, which contributed to the growing sentiment in favour of the annexation.
The idea of Austria joining Germany had been gaining popularity in the years leading up to the annexation. The Nazi Party in Austria, despite its initial lack of electoral success, intensified its propaganda campaign, using slogans such as "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" ("One People, One Empire, One Leader") to sway public opinion. By 1936, Austrian public opinion about German annexation was divided, with some supporting the idea and others resisting it. However, by the time of the German troop incursion in 1938, the sentiment had shifted significantly towards acceptance, if not outright endorsement, of the Anschluss.
Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg attempted to maintain his country's independence in the face of growing Nazi influence. He met with Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, but was coerced into appointing top Austrian Nazis to his cabinet. Schuschnigg called for a national vote on the question of the Anschluss, hoping to resolve the issue democratically. However, before the plebiscite could take place, he succumbed to pressure from Hitler and resigned on March 11, 1938.
The annexation of Austria was not without its consequences. The Mauthausen concentration camp, established in the summer of 1938, became a symbol of Nazi oppression. Jews and Roma (Gypsies) suffered persecution, and their voting rights were abrogated. The economic and social fabric of Austria was also significantly impacted, with the country experiencing economic stagnation and political dictatorship. The aftermath of World War II saw the Soviet occupation of Austria, which brought its own set of challenges, including looting, raping, and hunger for the Austrian people.
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Austria's role in World War II
Austria played a significant role in World War II, particularly due to its annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938, known as the Anschluss. This event shaped the course of the war and had a profound impact on Austria's involvement.
In the lead-up to the Anschluss, Austria experienced a period of economic stagnation, political dictatorship, and intense Nazi propaganda. On March 12, 1938, German troops, accompanied by Hitler himself, entered Austria and received enthusiastic support from the majority of the Austrian population. Austria was swiftly incorporated into Germany, and a Nazi government, led by Seyss-Inquart, was established. The annexation was retroactively approved in a plebiscite, which was manipulated to show that about 99% of Austrians favoured the union. This event highlighted the strong support among Austrians for Germany's wartime policies, despite most not being Nazis themselves.
Following the Anschluss, Austria became an integral part of the Third Reich. Approximately 700,000 Austrians, or 10% of the population, joined the Nazi Party. The Wehrmacht drafted more than 1.3 million Austrians between 1938 and 1945, with 242,000 losing their lives. Austrians served loyally as soldiers and were complicit in Nazi atrocities on the Eastern Front. Additionally, Austrians held important positions within the Nazi administration, including senior leadership roles and death camp personnel. Mauthausen, located near Linz, became the main Nazi concentration camp in Austria, with over 60 subcamps established across the country.
During World War II, Austria witnessed the degradation of its Jewish community, with widespread threats, confiscation of property, and exile. By the start of the war in 1939, more than 100,000 Jews had fled Austria, and those who remained faced persecution and deportation to ghettos and killing sites.
After the fall of the Third Reich, the Soviet Union occupied Austria. Soviet soldiers committed numerous atrocities, including sexual assaults, robberies, and murders. The Austrian population suffered from looting, raping, and hunger, and their daily calorie rations were drastically reduced. The Soviet occupation, which lasted until 1955, came with significant economic costs, as Austria was obliged to pay reparations and support the Red Army.
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Frequently asked questions
Vienna is a great place to start for WWII history. The city has a number of sites and museums dedicated to the war, including the Museum of Military History, Heldenplatz, and various flak towers. You can also visit the Haus des Meeres aquarium/zoo, which is housed in one of the towers. Outside of Vienna, you can visit the camp in Mauthausen, and Hitler's mansion on the Obersalzberg.
Vienna has a rich history that dates back to the era of the Roman Empire, so you can start by visiting the Roman Museum, which has relicts on display from the Roman settlement of Vindobona. The Museum of Military History will also provide insight into Austria's history during WWI, as it showcases military artefacts, weaponry, and documents from the time between the wars.
Vienna was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, so many sites in the city are related to the Nazi occupation. For example, the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien was a court that operated under Nazi jurisdiction from 1938 to 1945, and an execution room inside saw over 1200 people guillotined. Heldenplatz, or "Heroes' Square", was where Hitler held a rally to announce the ceremonial "Anschluss" of Austria.
