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JEWISH HERITAGE EUROPE
An Online Resource Centre
AUSTRIA 1
Modern Austria, with Vienna its chief settlement, emerged in the tenth to twelfth centuries, and a synagogue existed in Vienna by 1294. By the 14th century, the city was a centre of Jewish learning, but in 1420-1 the Jews were expelled from most of the country and those few who remained were restricted to ghettos. There was a massacre of Jews in Vienna. The fate of Austria’s Jewish communities fluctuated over the next four centuries; landmarks included an Edict of Privileges for Jews, in 1624, and the Edict of Tolerance issued by Joseph II in the eighteenth century.
Jews lived separate from non-Jews, however, until the Revolution of 1848; the period also saw a large influx of Jewish migrants from the Czech and Galician lands of eastern-central Europe. By the early 1900s, Vienna had the third-largest Jewish population in Europe; Austrian Jews were world leaders in the arts and sciences, and pioneers of new forms of Jewish cultural expression.
Jews became scapegoats for defeat after the collapse of the Habsburgs in 1918. The German annexation of Austria, the Anschluss, occurred in March 1938. In November of that year, in an event known as Kristallnacht, the Nazi regime ordered the overnight destruction of Jewish property and buildings. By 1945, one-third of Austria’s Jews, about 65,000 out of 180,000 people, had been killed; the culpability of Austrians in these events remains a sensitive subject.
Today, only about 2,000 of Austria’s 12,000 Jews are descendants of the pre-1938 population. The community is largely composed of émigrés from behind the former Iron Curtain and their descendants; there is also a significant community of Iranian Jews.
This website includes summary accounts of Jewish heritage in Vienna and outside Vienna.
For lists of Jewish cemeteries, including a database of individual burials throughout the country, museums and currently-functioning synagogues, see the website of the Austrian Jewish community:
www.ikg-wien.at/static/etis/html/start.htm
Several useful guides to Jewish Vienna and Austria are available from the Jewish Welcome Service (Stephansplatz 10) and the bookstore of the Jewish Museum (Dorotheergasse 11), both in Vienna.
Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien:
Address
Website
Jewish Welcome Service:
Address
Stephansplatz 10
A-1010 Vienna
Bell, Bethany. ‘Austria’s delayed Holocaust memorial’, BBC News, 25 October 2000, at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/989255.stm (accessed December 2008).
Bernstein, Richard. ‘A Cemetery Mirroring the History of a City’s Jews’, at:
New York Times, 13 May 2003 (accessed December 2008).
Dorfman, Rivka and Ben-Zion.
Synagogues without Jews, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2000.
Espenshade, Regina. ‘Something Unusual Is Happening in Austria’, International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, at:
www.jewishgen.org/austriaczech/towns/Austria/stadtschlaining.html (accessed December 2008).
Fehl, Philipp. ‘The
Stadtempel of the Jews of Vienna: Childhood recollections and
history,’
Artibus et Historiae: An art anthology, 17 (IX), 1988, 89-126.
Frank, Ben G.
A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe (Second Edition), Gretna: Pelican, 1996.
Frankel, Josef.
The Jews of Austria; Essays on their life, history, and destruction,
London: Valentine Mitchell, 1967.
Freidenreich, Harriet Pass.
Jewish Politics in Vienna, 1918-1938, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1991.
Genée, Pierre.
Wiener Synagogen 1825-1938, Vienna: Löcker, 1987.
Gutkas, Karl. ‘Die Synagoge in St. Pölten,’
Mitteillungsblatt der Museen Oesterreichs,
11, 1984, 73-75.
Gruber, Samuel D. ‘Archaeological Remains of Ashkenazic Jewry in Europe: A new source of pride and history’, in Leonard Rutgers, ed.,
What Athens has to do with Jerusalem: Essays on classical, Jewish, and Early Christian art and archaeology in honor of Gideon Foerster, Louvain: Peeters, 2002, 267-301.
Hacken, Richard. ‘The Jewish Community Library in Vienna: From dispersion and destruction to partial restoration’, at:
www.dartmouth.edu/~wessweb/LBI47-10-Hacken.pdf (accessed November 2007).
Helgert, Heidrun. ‘Die spätmittelalterliche Synagogue in Wien (13-15 Jahrhundert)’, in De Boe, G., and Verhaeghe F., eds.,
Religion and Belief in Medieval Europe: Papers of the ‘Medieval Europe Brugge 1997’ conference, 4, Zellik: Instituuut voor het Archeologisch Patrimonium, 1997, 185-199.
Hohenems Jewish community, Jewish quarter, synagogue, cemetery, museum:
www.jm-hohenems.at/ (accessed December 2008).
New York Times, 17 January 1988 (accessed December 2008).
Jellinek-Mercedes, Guy (Ruth Hassell, trans.).
My Father Mr. Mercedes. London: G.T. Foulis, 1966.
Hohenems Jewish Museum, information booklet, unattributed, 1996.
Jeschke, Hans Peter. ‘The Monument and Memorial Landscape of the Concentration Camps at Mauthausen-Gusen: Topography and system of Nazi terror in the region of Mauthausen-Gusen’,
Cultural Landscapes in the 21st Century, UNESCO Seminar, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: University of Newcastle, 11-16 April 2005, at:
www.ncl.ac.uk/unescolandscapes/files/JESCHKEHansPeter.pdf (accessed December 2008).
Jewish Welcome Service.
Jewish Vienna – Heritage and Mission, booklet, Vienna City Administration, undated; online at:
http://b2b.wien.info/data/juedischesWien_englisch.pdf (accessed December 2008).
Kalmar, Ivan Davidson. ‘Moorish Style: Orientalism, the Jews, and Synagogue architecture’,
Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, and Society, 7(3), 2001, 68-100.
Keil, Martha (ed.,).
Restoring History: St. Pölten’s Jewish Past, St Pölten: Institut für Geschicht der Juden in Österreich, 2001.
Krinsky, Carol Herselle.
The Synagogues of Europe, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1985,
186-199.
Lohrmann, Klaus.
Jewish Vienna: Culture map, Berlin: Jüdische Presse, 2003.
Magnus, Naama. Neues von der Synagoge Kobersdorf,
David 71, December 2006, at:
www.david.juden.at/kulturzeitschrift/70-75/71-magnus.htm (accessed December 2008).
Milchram, Gerhard, ed. Undated,
Museum Judenplatz for Medieval Jewish Life in Vienna, Vienna: Judisches Museum der Stadt Wien.
Reiss, Johannes. ‘30 Jahre Österreichisches Jüdisches Museum in Eisenstadt / The 30th Anniversary of the Austrian Jewish Musuem in Eisenstadt’,
Juden in Österreich. Gestern-Heute/Jewish Austria. Past-Presence. St Pölten: Institut für Geschicht der Juden in Österreich, 2002, 48-54.
Reisz, Matthew.
Europe’s Jewish Quarters, London, Sydney, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
Stalzer, Alfred.
Jewish Vienna: Heritage and Mission, Vienna: Vienna Tourist Board, 1995.
--. ‘Eine Beinahe Unendliche Geschichte – Zum Verlauf des Judenplatz-
Projekts’,
Perspektiven, 6 July 2000, 20-23.
--. ‘Judenplatz: Place of Remembrance. Memorial – Museum – Excavations –
A commemorative entity’,
Juden in Österreich. Gestern-Heute/Jewish Austria. Past-Presence, St Pölten: Institut für Geschicht der Juden in Österreich, 2001, 38-41.
Unknown. ‘Restoring History: The renovation of the ceremonial hall at the Jewish cemetery in St Pölten’,
Juden in Österreich. Gestern-Heute/Jewish Austria. Past-Presence. St Pölten: Institut für Geschicht der Juden in Österreich, 2001, 42-47.
Various contributors.
A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust, Florida Centre for Instructional Technology, 1997-2006, at:
http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/default.htm (accessed December 2008).
Wise, Michael Z. ‘Vienna’s Buried Easter Story: Synagogue razed in pogrom to be
excavated’,
Washington Post, 30 March, 1991.
Young, James.
The Texture of Memory: Holocaust memorials and meaning, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1993.
Other links:
Austrian Jewish museum, Eisenstadt:
www.ojm.at (accessed December 2008).
Baden, synagogue and Jewish community:
www.juedischegemeinde.at/ (accessed December 2008).
Hoehenems, venue in former synagogue:
www.salomonsulzersaal.at (accessed December 2008).
Innsbruck Jewish community, synagogue and cemetery:
www.ikg-innsbruck.at/home_en (accessed December 2008).
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, cemetery project:
www.jewishgen.org/cemetery/w-europe/austria.html#L (accessed December 2008).
Kobersdorf synagogue, photos:
www.sagen.at/fotos/showphoto.php/photo/4810/cat/640 (accessed December 2008); also see Magnus 2006.
Kobersdorf synagogue:
www.forschungsgesellschaft.at/emigration/orte/kobersdorf_e.htm (accessed December 2008).
Linz synagogue:
www.ph-linz.at/LuF/be/synagoge/ (accessed December 2008).
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp memorials (two homepages within a single site):
http://en.gusen-memorial.at/index.php (accessed December 2008) and
www.mauthausen-memorial.at/ (accessed December 2008).
Mauthausen, Holocaust monuments:
www.scrapbookpages.com/mauthausen/Memorials/index.html (accessed December 2006);
http://andrejkoymasky.com/mem/holocaust/ho08.html (accessed December 2008);
also see various contributors 1997-2006 and other Mauthausen websites.
Mauthausen Memorial, photos:
http://faculty.berea.edu/gowlers/remembering/mauthausen.htm (accessed December 2008).
Mauthausen-Gusen Memorial Committee and others:
www.gusen.org/ (accessed December 2008).
Mauthausen-Gusen, photos then and now:
www.thirdreichruins.com/mauthausen.htm (accessed December 2008).
Pölten, synagogue and Institute for Jewish History in Austria:
www.injoest.ac.at/ (accessed December 2008).
Vienna, Arnold Schöenberg Centre:
www.schoenberg.at/default_e.htm (accessed December 2008).
Vienna, Documentation Centre of Austrian resistance:
www.doew.at/english/content.html (accessed December 2008).
Vienna, Sigmund Freud museum:
www.freud-museum.at/e/index.html (accessed December 2008).
Vienna, Memorial for the Victims of the Gestapo:
www.doew.at/english/exhibition/morzin.html (accessed December 2008).
Vienna Jewish cemetery:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Cemetery,_W%C3%A4hring (accessed December 2008).
Vienna, Jewish documentation centre:
www.vwi.ac.at/index_eng.htm?hauptebene_englisch/organisation.htm~mainFrame and
www.wiesenthalarchiv.at/ (both accessed December 2008).
Vienna, Holocaust Victims’ Information and Support centre:
www.restitution.or.at (accessed December 2008).
Vienna, Jewish museum:
www.jmw.at (accessed December 2008).
Vienna Jewish community:
www.ikg-wien.at/static/etis/html/start.htm (accessed December 2008).
Vienna Judenplatz museum:
www.jmw.at/en/museum/museum-judenplatz.html (accessed December 2008); and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judenplatz_Holocaust_Memorial (accessed December 2008).
Vienna, Tempelgasse synagogue, images:
www.esra.at/en/temple.asp and
www.dartmouth.edu/~wessweb/LBI47-10-Hacken.pdf (accessed December 2008).
(Updated December 2008)
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