Austria after the Anschluss

March 13, 1938, with the Anschluss, Austria, renamed Ostmark, is placed under the authority of the Gauleiter Josef Bürckel, endowed with the title of Commissioner for the attachment of Austria to the Reich. 190,000 Jews then reside in Austria where the persecutions against them, particularly in Vienna, become more significant than in Germany: public humiliations, better organized expropriations, faster forced emigration. Even before the entry of the Wehrmacht into the territory and despite the authorities' efforts to moderate it, violence rages: the streets are the scene of scenes of violence and bullying, apartments and businesses belonging to Jews are looted. The violence ends on April 29, when Bürckel threatens to punish the guilty.
A few days after the Anschluss, Himmler visit the quarries of Mauthausen, 24 km from Linz and 145 km from Vienna. The first 300 detainees, Austrian and German prisoners of common law from Dachau, arrived in Mauthausen on 8 August 1938.

The acceleration of persecutions

After the Anschluss in March 1938, anti-Jewish measures were promulgated at a redoubled pace. The first important step in this process is the law of 28 March abolishing the legal status of Jewish communities granted in the 19th century. At the same time, the aryanization measures are intensifying. The law of 26 March 1938 obliges all Reich Jews to declare their entire fortune to the authorities, under penalty of criminal prosecution. Under the terms of Article 7 of this decree, Goering, who is responsible for the four-year plan, may dispose of the declared assets "in accordance with the needs of the German economy". From April to November 1938, the services of the Reich thus deducted two out of seven billion marks of "declared Jewish goods".
The shopkeepers and artisans are ordered to cease all commercial activity before 1 January 1939. Finally, the exemptions in favor of lawyers and Jewish veterans are removed. In July 1938, Jewish doctors had to apply for licences and limit their practice to an exclusively Jewish clientele. The idea of marking progresses with the obligation to carry on passports the first names Sara and Israël (August 18, 1938). At the beginning of October 1938, the letter 'J' is affixed to the identity documents at the instigation of Switzerland. A series of raids takes place in Berlin during the summer as police checks become more frequent. 1,500 Jews are interned in concentration camps. Destruction of property, evictions from certain villages and the desecration of places of worship also take place. The synagogues of Munich (June 9), Nuremberg (August 10) and Dortmund (September) are blown up.

The fate of Austrian Jews

On 20 August 1938, the Central Office of Jewish Emigration was set up under the responsibility of Stahinsofar, in reality controlled by Eichmann himself. He first undertook to expel the Jews beyond the borders, particularly in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Switzerland. According to German sources, about 5,000 Austrian Jews were hunted between March and November 1938. In October 1938, Himmler orders to gather all the Jews from the Austrian provinces in Vienna. During the summer of 1938, Austrian Jews tried to take refuge illegally in neighboring countries and as far as the United Kingdom. The Gestapo sends several groups of Jews to Finland, Lithuania, and the Netherlands from where they are sent back. Protests from foreign countries are multiplying and illegal entry or expulsion to the West becomes more difficult. Less than 6 months after the Anschluss, 45,000 Austrian Jews emigrated. In May 1939, more than 100,000 Jews, or nearly 50% of Austrian Jews, left in turn.

Crowd greeting Adolf Hitler during the Anschluss. Austria, March 1938.
Cr said photographic: Shoah Memorial/CDJC.

Sc ne d'humiliation Vienna o of the Jews are forced to clean the ground of a street. Vienna, Austria, after March 1938.
Cr said photographic: Shoah Memorial/CDJC.

Dachau concentration camp: ports are building a new camp S.S. c t of the munitions factory. Germany, June 28, 1938.
Cr said photographic: Shoah Memorial/CDJC.