1938–1945: Seizure of Property

As early as March 1938, immediately after the so-called Anschluss (“annexation”) of Austria to the German Reich, apartments and shops belonging to Jews were looted or destroyed (“wild” Aryanisation). In the first weeks following the Anschluss, assets owned by Jews or political opponents were seized and held by the Nazi authorities and administration.

The Decree on the Declaration of Jewish-Owned Property as of 27 April 1938 (RGBl I 1938, p. 414) obliged all persons classified as Jewish under the Nuremberg (Race) Laws to disclose any property and assets—where the value exceeded RM 5,000—to the Nazi authorities through the submission of a Declaration of Property.

By 1945, in Vienna alone 65,000 apartments, including social housing, had been “Aryanised” in this way—and were not returned after the Second World War.

Finally, the 11th Decree on the Reich Citizenship Law of 25 November 1941 stripped any Jews living abroad of their German nationality and with that all their assets. This decree also applied to Jews who had been deported to the occupied territories, the ghettos, and the concentration and extermination camps.