1938–1945: Persecution of Jews

According to estimates, in March 1938, approximately 201,000 people were living in Austria who were considered Jewish by Nazi definition. Of these, 181,882 were members of Jewish communities in Austria, the majority – 167,249 – in Vienna. The pogrom-like riots, arbitrary arrests, as well as the private and institutional raids, professional exclusions and social ostracism that took place immediately after the “Anschluss" (“annexation”) to the German Reich triggered a massive exodus. The Jews’ loss of rights, which happened overnight, constituted a significant difference to the situation of persecution in Germany which had been escalating at a substantially slower pace since 1933. During the years 1938/39, the Jewish population was expelled from the Austrian provinces to Vienna. The beginning of war in September 1939 marked a turning point in the Nazi policy of Jewish persecution, in the course of which important escape routes were blocked. In the years 1941/42, the majority of the remaining Jewish population was deported from Vienna. Jews were also taken from countries that were allegedly a refuge from the Nazis. A total of more than 66,000 Austrian Jews became victims of the Shoah.