History of Hungarian Jewish Forced Labour in Vienna, 1944/45

In 1944, after the German occupation of Hungary, the Hungarian government deported nearly 440,000 Jews from the country between May and July. Most of them arrived in Auschwitz. At the end of June 1944, 15,000 Jews from four Hungarian collection camps (Baja, Debrecen, Szeged, and Szolnok) were not deported to Auschwitz, but to Strasshof, an Austrian transit camp near Vienna. The history of forced labour in Vienna and its surroundings in 1944-1945 is still an entangled episode of the Holocaust in many aspects. The deported families had to work in Vienna and in Lower Austria on farms, in trade, and particularly in war industry. The joint international project of the University of Szeged (Hungary) and the Wiesenthal Institute in Vienna (Austria) aims to reconstruct the sites of Hungarian-Jewish forced labour in Vienna and its surroundings with the help of archival, and museum resources, and survivor testimonies. It also aims to include this chapter of the Holocaust into the history of those companies and settlements, which were involved in the forced labour during 1944-1945. Furthermore, by accurately exploring the process of deportation, it aims to integrate the history of the deported into the commemorative practices of the settlements in southern Hungary from which the deportees came. In order to achieve these goals, we plan to develop the Wiesenthal Institute in Vienna interactive website (http://ungarische-zwangsarbeit-in-wien.at/) and its database in English, Hungarian and German. The website will hopefully be usable in education (primary, secondary schools, and higher education), as well as in scientific research and in commemorative events of settlements and companies that were involved in the forced labour.

The joint international project of the University of Szeged (Hungary) and the Wiesenthal Institute in Vienna (Austria) aimed at reconstructing the sites of Hungarian-Jewish forced labour in and around Vienna, using archival and museum sources and survivors' testimonies. A further aim was to integrate this chapter of the Holocaust into the history of the companies and settlements that took part in forced labour between 1944 and 1945. It also sought to incorporate the history of the deportees into the commemorative practices of the municipalities in southern Hungary from which the deportees came, by accurately tracing the deportation process. To achieve these goals, the interactive website of the Wiesenthal Institute in Vienna (http://ungarische-zwangsarbeit-in-wien.at/) and its database have been made available in English in addition to the existing Hungarian and German, and new sites have been added. Our research results have been published in scientific articles and memorial volumes, and the latter have been presented to the wider public, especially to survivors and their descendants, as well as to university students, at book presentations. The website has been used increasingly in recent years in education (primary, secondary and higher education as well), in scientific research and in commemorations of the Austrian municipalities and companies that once employed forced labourers.