Source Edition: Jewish responses to Nazi persecution in Austria

There is a growing awareness in Holocaust Studies of the crucial importance of an integrated history of the Holocaust that takes into account not only the acts of the perpetrators but also the various Jewish perceptions and reactions within different communities in the "German Reich" and the occupied territories throughout Europe. Recent comparative Holocaust research has shown that the implementation of Nazi policy often differed considerably from one region to another. These differences had a considerable impact on Jewish life and the chances of survival in different areas of occupied Europe, therefore leading to multifaceted reactions within the Jewish population. Building on this research, the project "Responses to Persecution" will focus on Jewish responses in Austria and, in particular, Vienna, where the overwhelming majority of the Jewish population lived. In doing so it will show Jews as agents rather than as anonymous, passive victims, whilst also analyzing the specificities of the Nazi persecution of Austrian Jews. Research on the Holocaust in Austria was for a long time primarily focusing on the perpetrators and on sources created by Nazi authorities. There are, however, exceptions most notably the publications of Jonny Moser, Herbert Rosenkranz and Doron Rabinovici. In the 1990s, the Austrian Resistance Archive (DÖW) published an important selection of its rich collection of source materials dealing with the persecution and resistance of different political, religious and ethnic groups. These editions were ground-breaking at the time and are still standard works. However, there has been considerable progress in Holocaust research since their publication today different questions are asked and new perspectives are used for the analysis of sources. The aim of this project is to collect, present, annotate and analyze a wide range of sources reflecting Jewish responses to Nazi persecution in Austria. These sources comprise official and semi-official correspondence, reports, questionnaires, Jewish organizations bulletins, letters, diaries, postcards as well as photographs taken by Jews and by non-Jewish organizations established for the aid of the suffering Jewish population and articles in the Jewish press. Furthermore, the project will analyze autobiographical texts, reports and interviews produced after the war. In this aspect, the source edition is unique, since it presents the Jewish perspective of persecution in the Austrian context. This project will not only extend the range and number of documents explored but will also analyze and present this material in the context of recent Holocaust research and innovative methodical approaches under the guiding principles of gender, generation and class as well as agency, survival strategies and resistance. The material will be presented in an annotated and concisely contextualized compilation in two volumes, presenting approximately 350 documents each. Volume I will deal with segregation, expulsion and robbery in the years 1938-1940 and Volume II with deportation, destruction and survival of those remaining in the years 1941-1945.

The project is a collection of significant source materials that document the reactions of the Jewish population of Austria to Nazi persecution. What is new is that the collection gives an overview over the whole area of Austria showing the system of persecution as well as its local particularities. The project presents not only ego-documents like diaries, letters, memoires and transcripts of interviews but also reports from the Jewish press and of Jewish institutions to Nazi authorities, objects like tickets, certificates for occupational retraining, photographs etc. that represent Jewish fate. Each of the seven chapters of the collection has a summary introduction, in addition each source is presented with a commentary stating its personal and historical importance. The sources reflect the suffering of the Jewish population under the expulsion from economic, cultural and social life and the fight for their existence and efforts to find possibilities for emigration. They also show that the Jewish population was under enormous pressure by Nazi authorities as well as the civilian population. This becomes particularly clear when looking at the small provincial communities that were extinguished within two years. At the same time the sources show Jewish self-assertion like efforts to flee the country legally or illegally The systematic robbery of Jewish property and the professional expulsions resulted in the impoverishment of the Austrian Jews. Although provincial communities also tried and helped their members according to their means a strong system of welfare institutions existed only in Vienna. There the community not only offered assistance to emigrate, but also ran a hospital with a network of ambulant doctors as well as homes for the old, the disabled and for children. The buildings of these later institutions were often confiscated by Nazi authorities and the homes had to be relocated.The emigration of Austrian Jews was accelerated by the pogroms after the Anschluss and in November 1938. The source collection shows that there, too, were differences between Vienna and the provinces. The pogrom after the Anschluss was most devastating in Vienna, but the Novemberpogrom was also particularly brutal in some provincial towns like Innsbruck. It was the de facto end of Jewish communal life outside of Vienna.The source edition ends with the prohibition of emigration in October 1941. At this time the communities outside of Vienna no longer existed. Although during the first part of the year emigration was still possible, the first deportations to Poland took place in February and March 1941. In October 1941 the systematic deportations and the destruction of the Jews of Austria started.