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Portrait of Adolf Eichmann, 1940. (Photo courtesy of USHMM.)
On August 20, 1938, following the Anschluss (German annexation of Austria),
Adolf Eichmann established the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna, Austria. The office was created to give the SS the capability to determine the fate of the Jews. Hitler became so satisfied with Eichmann’s Vienna model that he had similar offices opened in Berlin, Prague, and Amsterdam. At that time there were approximately 192,000 Jews in Austria.
The Vienna office was in the Rothschild Palace. The purpose of the office was to force Austrian Jews to emigrate while expropriating their assets. Jewish wealth was estimated at 3 million Reichsmarks. The Nazis demanded that wealthy Austrian and foreign Jews pay for those Austrian Jews who could not afford to emigrate. Foreign Jews were petitioned for funds and entry visas, both of which were needed during the process of emigration. For Austrian Jews, the SS levied a fee in proportion to one’s wealth.
Growing antisemitism caused many Jews to attempt to flee. In many cases, Jews were reluctant to leave Austria their homes, jobs, friends, and family. Moreover, they did not have anywhere to go since few countries were willing to accept Jews. Half of Austria’s Jews fled before the war began in September 1939. Between 1939 and 1941, about 25,000 Jews emigrated, and from 1941 to 1942, less than 2,000 were able to escape. That Jews initially were allowed and encouraged to leave signifies that at that time, the Nazis were courting a territorial solution of the “Jewish problem,” as opposed to a plan of annihilation, the “Final Solution”, which was implemented beginning in 1941.
The Jewish community provided assistance to those Jews who tried to emigrate. The offices of the Jewish community were closed following the Anschluss, and were later re-opened, and again dissolved on November 1, 1942. The Council of Elders for the Jews of Vienna was instituted in place of the Jewish community leadership. On March 31, 1943, the SS closed the Central Office for Jewish Emigration. By the end of the war, 65,000 Austrian Jews had been murdered.
Have students focus on the significance of the creation and role of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna. How did the office represent a policy of “territorial solution” to the Nazis perceived “Jewish problem” in the Reich? Students should explore the difficult decisions that Austrians Jews had to make. What choices did Austrian Jews have, if no one wanted to take them in and they were forced to leave? How did they respond? Were countries that refused Jewish refugees complicit in causing the suffering and persecution of Jews? |
