Corridor

Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria and Adolf Hitler’s march into his former homeland in March 1938 were greeted with widespread euphoria. The event is commonly known as the “Anschluss”.

In terms of ideology, the Nazis were able to count on deeply entrenched antisemitic beliefs: racial antisemitism rooted in centuries of anti-Jewish sentiment had formed a part of daily social and political life since the late 19^th century.

The months following March 1938 were characterised by repeated outbreaks of antisemitic violence, which were similar in nature to pogroms and received broad popular support and approval. Jews were forced to scrub the roads and pavements to remove political slogans calling for Austrian sovereignty and denigrating Nazism. This took place in public as a gloating audience looked on.

In spite of this, after 1945 Austria perceived itself as the “first victim” of the Nazi regime. This perception, which negated Austria’s shared responsibility for Nazi crimes, continued to be perpetuated for many years and only started to be gradually revised from the 1980s onwards.

Hostility towards Jews and anti-Jewish stereotypes and prejudice had been rife in Austria since the Middle Ages. Even at that time, financial chicanery had given rise to pogroms that were then justified by false allegations against the Jews (such as ritual murder, desecration of the Eucharist, poisoning wells). The Church viewed the Jews as the murderers of Christ and, consequently, it was the driving force behind the propagation and perpetuation of anti-Jewish sentiment.

With the advent of early capitalism, the claims made against the Jews also evolved. Usury, a term generally used to mean the taking of interest, became an accusation levied against Jews within the context of anti-capitalist criticism. The Jews were increasingly equated with big business, even though the majority made a living from the small-scale trading of goods and not from the money lending business. Pre-modern era hostility towards Jews was ultimately aimed at converting Jews to Christianity. Ever since Martin Luther, it had been a subject of debate whether there was an innate “Jewish nature” which could not be overcome through baptism.

The Enlightenment laid the foundation for the integration of the Jews, but only for those who were of economic benefit to the state. The equal rights demanded for the Jewish population in the course of the revolution of 1848/49 for were finally achieved in 1867. At the same time a new form of hostility towards the Jews began to proliferate: racist antisemitism. This built on “traditional” hostility towards Jews, integrated it into the modern science of race studies, and turned the familiar stereotypes into “scientifically quantifiable” characteristics of a “Jewish race”.

From the late 19^th century onwards, antisemitic ideology permeated all classes of society. In Austria it was first seized on by the Christian-Social mayor of Vienna, Karl Lueger, and, later on, by all political parties to varying degrees. The Nazis placed racist antisemitism at the centre of its political agenda, which culminated in the expulsion and annihilation of European Jewry.

The “Anschluss” of Austria to the German Reich and the subsequent introduction of the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 had far-reaching consequences for the Jewish population, who were progressively stripped of their civil rights. The weeks following Adolf Hitler’s march into his former homeland were marked by pogrom-like riots against the Jewish population: Jews were forced to scrub Austrofascist slogans denouncing the “Anschluss” from the streets in so-called scouring actions as a largely gloating crowd looked on. Jewish shops were defaced, looted and destroyed.

The “Anschluss” of March 1938 saw the Austrian people divided into two groups: those who “belonged” and those who were excluded from society from that time on. Those who belonged ranged from people who supported the regime through silent complicity, to those who played an active role in the crimes of the Nazi regime. The other group, the excluded, included political opponents, Jews as defined by the Nuremberg Laws, Roma and Sinti, Jehovah's Witnesses and people deemed by the Nazi system to be asocial, homosexual, criminal or professional criminals, as well as those with hereditary illnesses or considered “unworthy of life”.

Post-war footage of Aspang Railway Station in Vienna
From 1939 to 1942 the majority of trains used to deport Jews from Austria to the concentration camps departed from Aspang Railway Station. Later on, the “transports” mainly left from Vienna’s Northern Railway Station, like those carrying Roma and Sinti. People were also deported to the death camps from other railway stations throughout Austria.

Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Vienna 1938
Photo: unknown
Antisemitic riots, Stockerau 1938
Photo: unknown

Beginnings

After World War I, polarisation among social groupings and political factions began to grow in Austria, like in many European countries. Democracy and parliamentarianism became increasingly unpopular. Violent clashes between the various political factions shaped the political climate. This made way for the rise of the Austrian Nazi Party, which became a mass movement in the early 1930s and pursued its goals with brute force.

Despite being outlawed in June 1933, it continued to spread terror and propaganda, culminating – under massive political, economic and military pressure from Germany – in the “Anschluss” to the German Reich on 13 March 1938, which was greeted with euphoria by many Austrians. The invasion of the German Wehrmacht in March 1938 marked the onset of Nazi rule in Austria.

Nazi tyranny was swiftly established in Austria. The Nazi regime legalised violence and oppression and incited hatred against its enemies. Brutal attacks on Jews and political opponents had already taken place during the days surrounding the “Anschluss”. In contrast, broad sections of the Austrian population profited from the new system and welcomed the persecution measures it entailed. New career opportunities opened up for them. The anti-Jewish measures reached a climax marked by the organised pogrom on 9/10 November 1938, in which virtually every Austrian synagogue and prayer house was destroyed, innumerable shops were looted and people abused and murdered. In Vienna alone, almost 5,000 Jewish men were arrested and deported to concentration camps.

The end of World War I also marked the end of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The breakup of the vast economic region and the underdevelopment of the agricultural sector resulted in repeated famines, which led to rioting and unrest. Inflation and unemployment reached devastating proportions.

From 1927, violent clashes between political groups escalated into a latent civil war. In parallel to developments in Germany, the early 1930s also saw the rise of the Nazi Party in Austria, where it recorded enormous gains in the provincial parliament and municipal council elections in the spring of 1932. This led to a fragmentation of the bourgeois bloc and a marked shift to the right. Consequently, there were calls for an authoritarian state and the abolition of the party state and democracy. At the same time, from autumn 1932 onwards, the government under Engelbert Dollfuß began to circumvent the National Council by using the “War Economy Enabling Act” to achieve its goals, until 4 March 1933 when it took advantage of a voting error to gradually abolish the democratic system. From then on it ruled by means of illegal emergency decrees and established a dictatorship modelled on Italian fascism (“Austrofascism”). In May 1933, the Austrian Communist Party was banned from all and any activities. Following violent clashes in February 1934 between the Social Democrats and the Austrofascist government, the Social Democratic Party was banned.

Shredded autograph photos and letters written by Hugo Bettauer (1872-1925), taken from the criminal file of his murderer Otto Rothstock (1904–ca. 1989)
The Viennese journalist Hugo Bettauer personified all of the main groups demonized by the Nazis: he was a social democrat of Jewish descent and a proponent of a more modern sexual morality. On 10th March 1925 the unemployed dental technician and Nazi Otto Rothstock shot Hugo Bettauer in his office and shredded his photographs and letters. Bettauer died a short time later. He was the first victim to be murdered by Austrian Nazis.
“If the knife is dripping with Jewish blood – does anybody care? – poster advertising the Nazi Party’s candidacy for the Viennese local elections on 24.4.1932
From the late 19th century onwards, Christian hostility towards Jews was increasingly supplanted by economic and racially-motivated antisemitism. Even in those days the Christian Social Party and the Mayor of Vienna, Karl Lueger, used to stir up hatred against the Jewish population. The song containing the lyric “If the knife is dripping with Jewish blood” was already popular in antisemitic circles in the 1920s and was later seized on for use in Nazi propaganda.
Front page of the “Reichspost”, 26.7.1934
On 25th July 1934 the Austrian Nazi Party attempted to stage a putsch. During the course of events, Austrian members of the SS shot and killed Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß. The next day newspapers reported on his murder, as seen here in the “Reichspost”, a daily newspaper with close ties to the Christian Social Party.
Salzburg government councillor Josef Hummel’s diary entry describing the “Anschluss” of Austria on 12.3.1938
The elaborate care that went into this diary entry demonstrates one Austrian’s zealous reaction to the Nazi assumption of power.
Propaganda leaflet for the 10.4.1938 referendum on the “reunification of Austria with the German Reich”
A referendum was held to create an ex-post legitimisation of the “Anschluss”. No expense was spared on producing propaganda for the referendum and voting was not confidential. According to the publicised results over 99 % of eligible voters had voted in favour of reunification.
Scorched Torah crown / Keter Torah from the synagogue in Währing, Vienna
On 9th and 10th November 1938 organised anti-Jewish pogroms took place throughout the German Reich and Jewish establishments were subjected to heavy raids. This crown once adorned a Torah scroll – the holiest object in Judaism – at the synagogue in Währing, Vienna. Virtually all of Austria’s synagogues and their entire collections of religious and ritual items were wilfully destroyed during the pogroms.
Handwritten curriculum vitae by Maximilian Grabner (1905–1948) incl. photos, 1939
The Viennese policeman Maximilian Grabner joined the ranks of the Austrian Nazi Party in 1932. In November 1939 he was deployed to the Katowice State Police Headquarters. Six months later he was transferred to Auschwitz where he was put in charge of the Political Department, the so-called camp Gestapo.
Handwritten curriculum vitae by Maximilian Grabner (1905–1948) incl. photos, 1939
The Viennese policeman Maximilian Grabner joined the ranks of the Austrian Nazi Party in 1932. In November 1939 he was deployed to the Katowice State Police Headquarters. Six months later he was transferred to Auschwitz where he was put in charge of the Political Department, the so-called camp Gestapo.
Personal record card for Walter Dejaco (1909–1978) from the SS Personnel Administration, 1941–1945
The Innsbruck architect Walter Dejaco joined the illegal SS in 1933. Following the “Anschluss” he began to climb the career ladder in the SS. In 1940 he was posted to Auschwitz where he helped plan the gas chambers and crematoria.
Personal record card for Walter Dejaco (1909–1978) from the SS Personnel Administration, 1941–1945
The Innsbruck architect Walter Dejaco joined the illegal SS in 1933. Following the “Anschluss” he began to climb the career ladder in the SS. In 1940 he was posted to Auschwitz where he helped plan the gas chambers and crematoria.

The bombings carried out by the Vienna SS in June 1933 set the course for the terrorist activities of the Austrian Nazi Party. Despite being outlawed on 19 June 1933, the Nazi Party continued to carry out acts of terrorism illegally, with support from Germany. This development culminated in the attempted coup of July 1934, during which Chancellor Dollfuß was assassinated by members of the Vienna SS.

Austria's relations with Nazi Germany became increasingly strained as the German Reich exerted massive political, economic and military pressure. This finally culminated in the "Anschluss" of 13 March 1938, which was greeted with euphoria by many Austrians. Upon the invasion of the German Wehrmacht in March 1938 Nazi rule commenced in Austria.

The establishment of Nazi tyranny in Austria was marked by brutal attacks on the Jewish population and the arrest of thousands of political opponents. Broad sections of the Austrian population profited from the new system, many partook in the looting and violence. The hostile measures against Jews reached a climax with the organised pogrom of 9/10 November 1938, during which virtually every Austrian synagogue and prayer house was destroyed, innumerable shops were looted and in Vienna alone almost 5,000 Jewish men were arrested and deported to concentration camps.

Beginnings Auschwitz

From 1772 to 1918, the Duchy of Auschwitz belonged to the Habsburg Monarchy, until becoming part of Poland after the end of World War I. Following the invasion of the German Wehrmacht, in September 1939 fierce fighting also broke out in the town of Auschwitz, in Polish Oświęcim. Auschwitz became part of the German Reich. The racist Lebensraum (“living space”) policy foresaw the resettlement of the resident Jewish and non-Jewish Polish population from there as well in order to make space for Germans.

On 1 February 1940, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler launched a search to find a suitable site for another concentration camp. The choice fell on the site of the former Austro-Hungarian barracks in Auschwitz, as it had a suitable railway connection.

At first, Auschwitz was mainly used as a concentration camp for Polish prisoners; they were later joined by Soviet POWs and then by other persecuted groups, particularly Jews and Roma and Sinti. From 1942 onwards, Auschwitz became the largest extermination camp for Europe’s Jewish population.

On 27 April 1940, Heinrich Himmler ordered the construction of a concentration camp in Auschwitz. The first transports carrying prisoners arrived there in late May 1940. Those prisoners and the Polish civilian population were forced to build what was later known as the main camp Auschwitz I. At that time, Auschwitz was primarily a concentration camp for Polish prisoners. In February 1941, it was expanded to include the subcamp Monowitz, where inmates were deployed as slave labourers for the German company IG-Farben. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, planning commenced for the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II) in the village of Brzezinka, approximately three kilometres from the main camp Auschwitz I. Initially intended as a camp for Soviet POWs, it soon became one of the central sites used for the extermination of European Jewry.

Photo album belonging to German Wehrmacht soldier Ludwig Hofer (1915–2002) containing private snapshots of the German war of aggression on Poland, 1939
Ludwig Hofer from Upper Austria was a corporal in the German Luftwaffe. His photo album shows the devastation wreaked by the German Wehrmacht in Poland.
Letter from Maximilian Grabner to the Auschwitz concentration camp Central Construction Office, 7.6.1941
Because the two ovens in the crematorium morgue at the “main camp” Auschwitz I were in continuous use, Grabner insisted that a second ventilator be installed to mitigate the noxious odour and prevent diseases being transmitted to the camp’s staff.
Group photo of the “Central Construction Office of the SS and the Police” at Auschwitz concentration camp, 1943. Pictured: Department Head Karl Bischoff (4th from right) and the Austrians Walter Dejaco (3rd from right) and Fritz Ertl (2nd row, 4th from left) Photographer: unknown
Walter Dejaco and Fritz Ertl (1908–1982) were the main architects at the Central Construction Office. Ertl, who had been a student of the Bauhaus school of architecture, was responsible for building construction and was the provisional Deputy Head of Central Construction. He also drafted one of the initial plans for the camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
Plan for the crematoria at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, signed by Walter Dejaco, 1942
As Head of the Planning Office, Walter Dejaco signed off on the drafts for the extermination facilities at Auschwitz II-Birkenau drawn up by prisoners. Their construction was overseen by the Salzburg civil engineer Josef Janisch (1909–1964), who was feared for his immense brutality.

Poisonous gas had been used to murder prisoners at Auschwitz from autumn 1940 onwards, initially in the main camp and, later on, also in two former farmhouses in Birkenau. In December 1941, the decision was made to integrate large gas chambers into the crematoria facilities, turning the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau into an extermination camp.

The SS Central Construction Office played a key role in the construction of the camp complex. It was in charge of the planning and execution of the construction work. A number of Austrians played pivotal roles there from the very start, particularly the architects Walter Dejaco from Tyrol and Fritz Ertl from Upper Austria. The construction of the extermination facilities was overseen by Josef Janisch from Salzburg, who was feared for his brutality.

The Auschwitz camp complex was, as such, a hybrid of concentration camp, POW camp, slave labour camp and extermination camp. In addition to the three central sections of the camp, prisoners also had to perform slave labour in about 50 subcamps.

Structures

The Nazi regime quickly developed its own organisational structures to implement its persecution and extermination policies. At the instigation of Reinhard Heydrich, the Chief of the SS Security Service in Berlin, the “Central Office for Jewish Emigration” was set up in Vienna. Under the direction of Adolf Eichmann, a model was created for the systematic deprivation and expulsion of the Jewish population. From autumn 1939 onwards, the “Central Office” was also in charge of organising and implementing deportations from Austria. The Nazi regime coerced Jewish Community functionaries into playing an active role in this mass expulsion and, later on, in the deportation of Community members.

After the “Anschluss”, the Nazi terrorism of the 1930s was replaced by state-perpetrated terror. The Nazi regime quickly created institutional structures to implement its violent measures. The Secret State Police (Gestapo) Vienna, for example, took up its work at the beginning of April 1938 in the former Hotel Métropole. With over 900 employees, it was the largest state police headquarters in the German Reich. On 1 April, the first Austrian prisoners, mainly prominent figures from the fields of politics, culture and the arts, were deported from Vienna to Dachau concentration camp.

With the outbreak of war in 1939, the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin, established on the orders of Heinrich Himmler, became the main instrument for persecuting people who had been declared opponents of the Nazi regime for “racial”, political and ideological reasons. In 1943, the Austrian Ernst Kaltenbrunner was appointed Chief of the Reich Security Main Office, which put him at the head of the extermination machinery. The persecution measures, expulsions, disenfranchisement and dehumanisation were implemented systematically and aimed, first and foremost and on a vast scale, at the Jewish population and political opponents.

After the “Anschluss”, the hostile measures taken against the Jewish population took on many forms, such as public humiliation, arrests and physical assaults, and the devastation of shops and institutions. The “illicit aryanisations” also commenced immediately: Nazi gangs roamed the streets looting and plundering, and neighbours and business partners took advantage of the opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of the Jewish population.

Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.
Registration certificate from the “Gestapo record index”, Gestapo Vienna Headquarters, 1938–1945
After the “Anschluss” the Nazi regime immediately began developing means to persecute its opponents. The Viennese Secret State Police (Gestapo) commenced its duties on 1st April 1938. With a staff of over 900 it was the largest local State Police headquarters in the entire German Reich. Its identification index contained information on up to 50,000 individuals; 11,124 of these registration certificates have survived.

The pogrom atmosphere and uncontrolled looting of Jewish property led the Nazi regime to put legal and administrative measures in place to enable the “orderly” financial disenfranchisement of the Jews. At the instigation of Reinhard Heydrich, the Chief of the SS Security Service in Berlin, the “Central Office for Jewish Emigration” was set up in Vienna. Under the direction of Adolf Eichmann, it created a model for the systematic plunder and expulsion of the Jewish population. With the establishment of the Vermögensverkehrsstelle (Property Transaction Office), dispossessions were legalised and carried out nationwide, and the “spoils of aryanisation” secured for the Nazi regime and its supporters.

The legal basis for the marginalisation of the Jewish population – occupational bans, revocation of academic titles, expropriations, discrimination and stigmatisation, deprivation of housing and expatriation – was created by passing extraordinary legislation. Following the confiscation of their entire possessions, tens of thousands of Austrian Jews attempted to flee Austria. With the outbreak of war, it became virtually impossible to escape. From autumn 1939 onwards, the “Central Office” was also in charge of organising and implementing deportations from Austria. In a particularly perfidious move, the so-called Judenräte or Ältestenräte (“Jewish Councils”) were forced to cooperate.

Before the deportations were carried out, numerous measures were taken to register the Jewish population. Jews from all over Austria were forcibly relocated to Vienna and, like the Viennese Jews, concentrated in shared apartments. The first deportations were carried out immediately after the invasion of Poland in 1939. Over 1,000 Jews with Polish citizenship were held at the Prater Stadium for several days and mistreated before finally being deported to Buchenwald. In November 1939, the so-called Nisko transport took place, the first deportation to the Generalgouvernement.

The “Central Office” worked closely with the Viennese Schutzpolizei (“Protection Police”) to deport the Jews. The Austrian Roma and Sinti were for the most part initially interned in concentration camps designated as “assembly camps”, such as Lackenbach, and deported from there. From 1943 they were also deported to Auschwitz.

Index cards for Roma detained at the concentration camp in Lackenbach who were later deported to Auschwitz, ca. 1941–1944
Discrimination of the Austrian Roma and Sinti population had already started to intensify during the 1920s. In mid-1938 the Nazi regime began to systematically strip them of their rights and place them under arrest. From 1940 onwards the so-called gypsy camps were converted into concentration camps; this was also the case in Lackenbach in Burgenland. At first the deportations from Austria were destined for the Lodz Ghetto. From February 1943 over 5,000 Roma and Sinti were deported directly to Auschwitz.
Index cards for Roma detained at the concentration camp in Lackenbach who were later deported to Auschwitz, ca. 1941–1944
Discrimination of the Austrian Roma and Sinti population had already started to intensify during the 1920s. In mid-1938 the Nazi regime began to systematically strip them of their rights and place them under arrest. From 1940 onwards the so-called gypsy camps were converted into concentration camps; this was also the case in Lackenbach in Burgenland. At first the deportations from Austria were destined for the Lodz Ghetto. From February 1943 over 5,000 Roma and Sinti were deported directly to Auschwitz.
Index cards for Roma detained at the concentration camp in Lackenbach who were later deported to Auschwitz, ca. 1941–1944
Discrimination of the Austrian Roma and Sinti population had already started to intensify during the 1920s. In mid-1938 the Nazi regime began to systematically strip them of their rights and place them under arrest. From 1940 onwards the so-called gypsy camps were converted into concentration camps; this was also the case in Lackenbach in Burgenland. At first the deportations from Austria were destined for the Lodz Ghetto. From February 1943 over 5,000 Roma and Sinti were deported directly to Auschwitz.
Index cards for Roma detained at the concentration camp in Lackenbach who were later deported to Auschwitz, ca. 1941–1944
Discrimination of the Austrian Roma and Sinti population had already started to intensify during the 1920s. In mid-1938 the Nazi regime began to systematically strip them of their rights and place them under arrest. From 1940 onwards the so-called gypsy camps were converted into concentration camps; this was also the case in Lackenbach in Burgenland. At first the deportations from Austria were destined for the Lodz Ghetto. From February 1943 over 5,000 Roma and Sinti were deported directly to Auschwitz.
Index cards for Roma detained at the concentration camp in Lackenbach who were later deported to Auschwitz, ca. 1941–1944
Discrimination of the Austrian Roma and Sinti population had already started to intensify during the 1920s. In mid-1938 the Nazi regime began to systematically strip them of their rights and place them under arrest. From 1940 onwards the so-called gypsy camps were converted into concentration camps; this was also the case in Lackenbach in Burgenland. At first the deportations from Austria were destined for the Lodz Ghetto. From February 1943 over 5,000 Roma and Sinti were deported directly to Auschwitz.
Index cards for Roma detained at the concentration camp in Lackenbach who were later deported to Auschwitz, ca. 1941–1944
Discrimination of the Austrian Roma and Sinti population had already started to intensify during the 1920s. In mid-1938 the Nazi regime began to systematically strip them of their rights and place them under arrest. From 1940 onwards the so-called gypsy camps were converted into concentration camps; this was also the case in Lackenbach in Burgenland. At first the deportations from Austria were destined for the Lodz Ghetto. From February 1943 over 5,000 Roma and Sinti were deported directly to Auschwitz.

The majority of Austrian Auschwitz victims had previously been interned in other concentration camps or were deported to Auschwitz from assembly camps and ghettos. Many were brought there from other countries, particularly from France.

The SS at the offices of the Vienna Jewish Community, ostensibly on 18.3.1938
Left: Josef Löwenherz (1884–1960)
Photographer: unknown
In the immediate aftermath of the “Anschluss” the SS gained access to the Jewish Community’s records and arrested its leading functionaries, including Josef Löwenherz, Desider Friedmann (1880–1944) and Robert Stricker (1879–1944). Josef Löwenherz was subsequently forced to continue to manage the Jewish Community under SS supervision. Desider Friedmann and Robert Stricker were murdered at Auschwitz in 1944.
Benjamin Murmelstein (1905–1989), Head of the Emigration Department of the Vienna Jewish Community, to the management of the Jewish Community Children’s Hospital, 4.9.1942
Eight-year-old Ada Blatt had fallen ill with tonsillitis and required an operation. Benjamin Murmelstein approved the operation to take place on 4th September 1942 following pressure from the Nazi authorities to make her fit for transport. Ada Blatt was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp on 24th September 1942 and then onwards to Auschwitz on 6th October 1944, where she was murdered.
Fragment of a poster produced by the Vienna Jewish Community with a “Schematic diagram of the public offices and authorities that must be attended in order to emigrate”, probably originating from 1938
After the “Anschluss” large sections of the Jewish population attempted to leave the country through the due legal channels. To obtain an emigration permit they had to sign their entire assets over to the German Reich and overcome a long series of bureaucratic hurdles.
Plaster mask of Paul Grünberg, Vienna 1939
The aim of Nazi racial research was to prove that Jews were genetically different. In late September 1939, more than one thousand Polish Jews were detained in Vienna’s main stadium; 440 of them were subjected to anthropological examinations by staff of the Natural History Museum Vienna, who recorded the results. Three days later they were all deported. One of them was Paul Grünberg. He survived the camps at Buchenwald and Auschwitz III-Monowitz.
Piece of cotton fabric printed with “yellow badges”, ca. 1941
The social exclusion of the Jewish population reached new heights in 1941 when Jews were visibly branded with the “yellow badge”. The Vienna Jewish Community was in charge of selling and distributing the “yellow badge”. All Jews over the age of six were forced to wear the badge.
“Occupant list” for the 9th District of Vienna, 1942
Resident caretakers had to keep lists of the Jewish tenants living in their buildings. From 1939 onwards, Jews who had been forced to live in a shared apartment were listed in red. The names of people who had been deported were crossed out in blue. Six of the people on this list from the buildings at the addresses Servitengasse 4 and 5 were sent to Auschwitz. None of them survived.
Album of poetry belonging to Elfriede Balsam (1931– ca. 1942), 1939–1941
Mass deportations from Austria commenced in mid-October 1941. Elfriede Balsam was eleven years old on 17th July 1942, when she was deported from Vienna directly to Auschwitz. Her poetry album is all that remains of her life in Vienna. Elfriede Balsam and her family were murdered at Auschwitz.
Album of poetry belonging to Elfriede Balsam (1931– ca. 1942), 1939–1941
Mass deportations from Austria commenced in mid-October 1941. Elfriede Balsam was eleven years old on 17th July 1942, when she was deported from Vienna directly to Auschwitz. Her poetry album is all that remains of her life in Vienna. Elfriede Balsam and her family were murdered at Auschwitz.
Message from Hermann Hostowsky (1877–1944) to his daughter Dora
written on the back of a business card, Vienna 1943
The retired military officer Hermann Hostowsky was persecuted as a Jew by the Nazi regime despite being Protestant. In 1943 he left this message for his daughter: “Dear Dora! Come immediately! They’ve come to get us! Papa”. Hermann Hostowsky and his wife were deported to Theresienstadt. In 1944 they were transported onwards to Auschwitz, where they were murdered. Their daughter Dora remained in Vienna where she survived the Nazi period.
Orders from the camp administration at Theresienstadt to make the necessary preparations for a transport to Auschwitz, 23.10.1944
On 23rd October 1944, 1,714 men, women and children were deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz. Fourteen-year-old Helga Pollak, who survived several concentration camps, was also aboard this transport. It took several hours before the transport was ready to depart; the journey itself lasted two days.
Request for reimbursement of travel expenses for overseeing the deportation of Ida Petermann (1939–1944) to Auschwitz, 20.1.1944
In 1943, Ida Peterman was officially classified as a gypsy. Youth welfare worker Johanna Dimai accompanied her on the train journey from the municipal children’s home in Salzburg to Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Ida Petermann was murdered there later that year.

Structures Auschwitz

People persecuted for being Jews as defined by the “Nuremberg Laws”, political dissidents and members of the Resistance, Roma and Sinti, Jehovah's Witnesses and people categorised by the Nazi system as homosexuals, criminals or asocial were deported from Austria, almost 8,000 were brought directly to Auschwitz. Over 4,000 Austrians were taken to Auschwitz via Theresienstadt concentration camp, and another 6,000 from the occupied territories of Europe or other concentration camps. Upon arrival they were categorised depending on the grounds for their persecution. This categorisation determined their position in the camp hierarchy and hence also their living conditions and chances of survival.

The SS generally put Jews through the “selection” process immediately upon arrival, when it was decided who would go straight to the gas chambers and who would be admitted to the camp. Austrian SS members, including a number of women, were involved in the system of dehumanization, enslavement and murder of the inmates in a wide variety of capacities.

Auschwitz had a strict hierarchy. First and foremost, the camp administration dictated the lives, conditions of imprisonment and death of the deportees. However, the guards, the camp Gestapo, concentration camp doctors and other divisions were also part of this structure of terror. Austrians held leading positions at the camp, for example Maximilian Grabner and Hans Schurz as Heads of the camp Gestapo and Maria Mandl as Head Guard of the women’s camp.

Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.
Personnel record cards issued by the Commandant’s Office at Auschwitz concentration camp for Austrian members of the SS
Austrian SS men acting in a wide range of functions played an active role in the camp system that saw the dehumanisation, enslavement and murder of the inmates detained at the Auschwitz camp complex. Only ten of these personnel record cards for Austrian SS members still exist today.

The concentration camp system also relied on a hierarchy among the inmates, who were divided into different categories. At the top of this hierarchy were the kapos, who acted as intermediaries between the prisoners and the guards and were responsible for guarding and disciplining the prisoners. Prisoner functionaries were given individual “privileges”, such as extra food rations, permission to receive parcels, to smoke or to visit the prisoners’ brothel. Jewish prisoners and Roma and Sinti were at the very bottom of the prisoner hierarchy. Despite this categorisation, ultimately the lives of all prisoners were constantly at risk.

The Auschwitz camp complex existed for a period just short of five years, and during that time the tasks performed there and the conditions changed repeatedly. Efforts to keep the industrial-scale extermination running smoothly were often impeded by improvisation and chaos. Like at other extermination sites, the genocide was to take place covertly. To achieve this, the Interessengebiet des KZ Auschwitz (“Auschwitz Concentration Camp Area of Interest”), a restricted area controlled by the SS, was established in 1941, covering approximately 40 km2.

Franz Reisz (1909–1984), “Public Flogging”,
sketch, France 1945
Kapos were prisoner functionaries appointed by the camp administration. Some of them were Austrian. Their job was to oversee and discipline the other inmates, sometimes in the form of corporal punishment. Many of them abused their positions of power, although some are known to have come to the aid of their fellow prisoners. The Viennese graphic artist Franz Reisz was incarcerated at Auschwitz from 1942. He documented the crimes committed there a short while after his liberation.
Proof of identity issued to Maria Moser (1906–1973) at Auschwitz, 29.11.1944 (certified copy dated 6.3.1948)
Maria Moser was born in Braunau am Inn in 1906. She was arrested in 1939 for being a Jehovah’s Witness. Followers of this religion had opposed the Nazi regime on religious grounds and refused to go along with the cult surrounding Hitler or perform military service. Maria Moser was deported from Ravensbrück concentration camp to Auschwitz in 1942, where, like other Jehovah’s Witnesses, she was put to work as a housekeeper for an SS family. She was, however, permitted to pass checkpoints unaccompanied. She survived several concentration camps and the death marches.
Letter written by Paul Grünberg (1923–2018) from Auschwitz III-Monowitz to the Welfare Office of the Jewish Community, undated (spring 1943)
The Viennese Paul Grünberg was transferred from Buchenwald to Auschwitz III-Monowitz in 1942. His aesthetically pleasing handwriting earned him a job in the writing office, a privileged position for a Jewish inmate. Paul Grünberg never received the package that he had requested in this letter. Packages addressed to Jewish inmates were confiscated by the SS.
Letter written by Paul Grünberg (1923–2018) from Auschwitz III-Monowitz to the Welfare Office of the Jewish Community, undated (spring 1943)
The Viennese Paul Grünberg was transferred from Buchenwald to Auschwitz III-Monowitz in 1942. His aesthetically pleasing handwriting earned him a job in the writing office, a privileged position for a Jewish inmate. Paul Grünberg never received the package that he had requested in this letter. Packages addressed to Jewish inmates were confiscated by the SS.
Quarantine list secretly compiled by Otto Wolken (1903–1975), Auschwitz II-Birkenau, January/February 1944
Nearly all prisoners were subjected to an admission procedure upon entering the camp. They were showered, deloused, shaved and assigned a prisoner number to replace their name before being sent to the quarantine camp. The Viennese physician Otto Wolken, imprisoned since summer 1943 and an inmate doctor at the camp, had to keep a record of the new admissions, of which he made surreptitious copies.
Handwritten sheet of music, “Buna Song” lyrics by Fritz Löhner-Beda (1883–1942), music by Anton Geppert, undated.
Provenance: unknown. It was most likely donated to the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau by Franz Danimann.
Fritz Löhner-Beda, who was a successful librettist and lyricist of Austrian popular music-style “Schlager” songs, was deported to Dachau in 1938. He arrived in Auschwitz III-Monowitz via Buchenwald in 1942. The “Buna Song” describes the piteous situation of the prisoners in the slave labour unit there, to which Löhner-Beda also belonged. According to his fellow inmates he was beaten to death on 4th December 1942.
Death certificate issued by the Auschwitz camp registry office for Amalia Raiminius (1873–1943), 28.7.1943
Amalia Raiminius and her family were sent to the “Maxglan Gypsy Camp” in Salzburg, in around 1940. While there, she was forced, among other things, to appear as an extra in Leni Riefenstahl’s feature film “Tiefland”. On 3rd April 1943 she was deported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau where she perished not long after her arrival, presumably as a direct result of the catastrophic conditions in the “gypsy camp” at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The Auschwitz camp registry office recorded on her death certificate that she had died “of natural causes”.

The constantly changing circumstances at Auschwitz also led to the permanent expansion and reorganisation of the camp complex. From March 1942 onwards, for example, a separate “women’s camp” for newly arrived female prisoners and a so-called gypsy camp for Roma and Sinti were created in Auschwitz-Birkenau; from September 1943 onwards the “Theresienstadt family camp” was also set up there for thousands of Jews arriving from Theresienstadt concentration camp. A separate concentration camp was built on behalf of the German industrial sector, Auschwitz III-Monowitz, where Auschwitz inmates were put to work as slave labourers.

Exploitation in the form of slave labour, looting, liquidation and murder underpinned the economy of the concentration camp system. For this purpose, a distinction was made between people who were allowed to live to perform slave labour and those who were sent to their death. Absolutely everything was put to use to serve the economic interests of the German Reich – the deportees’ belongings and the labour of those who could still work. Even the corpses of the murdered, their hair or gold teeth, were put to further use. An important facility for the SS exploitation model was the “warehouse for personal effects” known as “Canada” – at that time a general synonym for wealth – where inmates sorted the belongings of the prisoners and the dead for further use. It was run by the Austrian Franz Schebeck.

Possible Courses of Action

The Nazi regime demanded absolute compliance from the very outset. Apart from those who were excluded and persecuted from the start, the Austrian population consisted of those who fully subscribed to Nazi ideology; those who sought to benefit from the new political situation; passive bystanders or those who turned a blind eye; and a small minority who performed acts of resistance, either alone or as part of an organised group, in spite of the risk to their lives.

The ruling elite of the Nazi regime were responsible for the genocide. However, Nazi functionaries at all levels and many others played a part in executing the measures of persecution and carrying out atrocities in the run-up to Auschwitz.

The options available to those persecuted by the Nazi regime diminished rapidly. While escape was still an option at first, it became increasingly difficult. Once the deportations had begun, hiding or suicide were virtually the only options left.

The incorporation of Austria into the German Reich and the measures taken by the Nazi regime were met with approval by large sections of the Austrian population. The population consisted of those who fully subscribed to Nazi ideology or who sought to benefit from the new system; passive bystanders who looked on impassively or turned a blind eye; and those who were excluded and persecuted or who rejected the system and carried out acts of resistance against it. The ruling elite, which followed Adolf Hitler unquestioningly, felt legitimised to persecute, terrorise and commit mass murder. But it was the interplay between all levels – including a broad system of informants and spies at the bottom as well as highly dedicated individuals – that made it possible to implement the persecution measures. Above all else the disenfranchisement and deprivation of the Jewish population afforded numerous opportunities for personal enrichment and social advancement by eliminating the competition. In addition, new career opportunities arose for those loyal to the regime, often at the expense of others. Brutal assaults, arrests, acts of persecution and, later on, preparatory measures for the mass deportations became commonplace and occurred in full view of the population. Many looked on; others who did not approve of the injustices looked away without taking action.

Letter from Heinrich Himmler to Odilo Globocnik (1904–1945) expressing his gratitude and admiration for the execution of “Operation Reinhardt”, 30.11.1943
A number of Austrian Nazis played a leading role in the planning and execution of Nazi atrocities; they included Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903–1946), Head of the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin, Amon Göth (1908–1946), Commandant of Plaszow concentration camp, and Franz Stangl (1908–1971), Commandant of the death camps at Sobibor and Treblinka. Approximately 1.5 million Jews and 50,000 Roma and Sinti were murdered at those two camps and at Belzec as part of “Operation Reinhardt”, which was carried out under the command of the Austrian Odilo Globocnik.
Letter from the Mayor of Hohenems, Josef Wolfgang, to the Provincial Councillor of the District of Feldkirch, 12.7.1940
The Nazi regime could only function successfully with the help of individual fanatics who ensured that the policies of persecution were enforced within their own sphere of influence. In this letter the Mayor of Hohenems offers to cover the travel expenses for the forced resettlement of 51-year-old Frieda Nagelberg to Vienna, thereby securing the expulsion of the last Jew from Vorarlberg.
Letter from the Mayor of Hohenems, Josef Wolfgang, to the Provincial Councillor of the District of Feldkirch, 12.7.1940
The Nazi regime could only function successfully with the help of individual fanatics who ensured that the policies of persecution were enforced within their own sphere of influence. In this letter the Mayor of Hohenems offers to cover the travel expenses for the forced resettlement of 51-year-old Frieda Nagelberg to Vienna, thereby securing the expulsion of the last Jew from Vorarlberg.
Decorative belt with quill embroidery, Stumm im Zillertal/Tyrol, 1938
This belt was produced at an Innsbruck craft fair in 1938 by an upholsterer from Zillertal. The Museum of Tyrolean Regional Heritage acquired the belt in the same year. Ornamental items like this were worn as a public demonstration of personal affinity with the Nazi regime.
Excerpt from the amateur movie by Rudolf Stasser, “The Viennese Prater and its History”, silent movie, b/w, 1939–1944
Vienna’s giant ferris wheel has been one of Austria’s most recognisable landmarks ever since it first opened in 1897. It was acquired by the businessman Eduard Steiner after World War I. In 1938 the giant ferris wheel was “aryanized” and adorned with swastikas; Eduard Steiner was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944.
Quote submitted to Auschwitz concentration camp, Department of Agriculture, Katowice, by the Viennese company “Schember Waagen”, 3.12.1940
Companies had few reservations when it came to doing business with concentration camps, providing them with services or goods. Auschwitz also did business with Austrian companies, as is demonstrated by this quote for the delivery of scales. Staff of the camp’s Central Construction Office also took advantage of their positions to obtain commissions for their own companies back in Austria.
Bird skin from a magpie shot by Günther Niethammer in the vicinity of Auschwitz, ca. 1941
Günther Niethammer was born in Saxony in 1908 and built his career in Austria. In 1940 – as a result of preferential treatment – he was appointed Head of the Bird Collection at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. Later that year he signed up for war service and was deployed to Auschwitz, where he did ornithological research and prepared birds for the Natural History Museum’s collection.
Mugshots of Karl Motesiczky (1904–1943) and Ella Lingens (1908–2002) taken by the Gestapo at their Vienna Headquarters, October 1942
In autumn 1939 a resistance group began to form around Karl Motesiczky and the Lingens spouses. The group’s plan to bring two married couples, Polish Jews, over the Swiss border in 1942 was foiled when they were betrayed. Karl Motesiczky succumbed to typhoid fever at Auschwitz. Ella Lingens survived the camp as an inmate physician; her husband Kurt survived his deployment to a penal battalion of the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front.
Mugshots of Karl Motesiczky (1904–1943) and Ella Lingens (1908–2002) taken by the Gestapo at their Vienna Headquarters, October 1942
In autumn 1939 a resistance group began to form around Karl Motesiczky and the Lingens spouses. The group’s plan to bring two married couples, Polish Jews, over the Swiss border in 1942 was foiled when they were betrayed. Karl Motesiczky succumbed to typhoid fever at Auschwitz. Ella Lingens survived the camp as an inmate physician; her husband Kurt survived his deployment to a penal battalion of the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front.
Diary of the Viennese Youth Aliyah group “Kwuzah Lehawah”, 1941
Aron Menczer (1917–1943) became the leader of the Viennese Youth Aliyah in 1939. The group helped Jewish children and adolescents make preparations to emigrate to Palestine. In 1942 Menczer was deported to Theresienstadt, where he also took children under his wing. In October 1943 he volunteered to accompany a group of children, originally from Bialystok, from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz. Once there, he was sent straight to the gas chambers with the children.
Suitcase belonging to the Kurzweil family, Montauban 1942
Gisela and Bruno Kurzweil fled from Graz to Paris with their 13-year-old daughter Adele in 1938. Bruno Kurzweil was a politically active Social Democrat. When the German Wehrmacht invaded France the family fled again, this time to Montauban in the South of France. They were arrested in 1942 and deported via Drancy to Auschwitz, where they were murdered. They left their packed suitcases behind in Montauban.
Report from the “Austrian Adult Education School in Gurs”, Gurs internment camp, France 1939
Austrian Communists and Social Democrats who had fought against the Fascists in Spain were interned in the camp at Gurs from early 1939 onwards. To combat the dreary day-to-day existence in the camp the inmates organised regular classes. Hermann Langbein and Heinrich Dürmayer were among those who taught at the Adult Education School.
Self-portrait by Heinz Geiringer (1926–1945), painted while in hiding in Amsterdam between 1942 and 1944
The Geiringer family was persecuted due to their Jewish descent and fled Vienna in 1938. From July 1942 the spouses and their two children lived in hiding in Amsterdam, until May 1944 when they were denunciated and deported to Auschwitz. On 18th January 1945 Heinz Geiringer and his father Erich were transferred to the concentration camp in Mauthausen, where they were incarcerated in its sub-camp at Ebensee. Erich Geiringer perished there on 7th March 1945; Heinz Geiringer on 26th April 1945. His mother Elfriede and his younger sister Eva survived.
Telegram from the Auschwitz camp registry office to Klemens Friemel in Vienna, 6.3.1944
The political prisoner Rudolf Friemel was granted permission to marry the Spaniard Margarita Ferrer Rey at Auschwitz. Even today, it is still unknown how this unprecedented example of privileged treatment came about.
Counterfeit ID belonging to Renée Kurz (1924–2018), a member of the Zionist resistance organisation in France, “Juive de Combat”
Renée Kurz joined the Zionist Resistance shortly after fleeing Vienna to France. She only survived thanks to her forged documents. Her father Leopold was deported to Auschwitz from the South of France and murdered. Her mother and sister survived the war in hiding in France.
Flyer produced by the “Austrian Freedom Movement”, undated
The “Austrian Freedom Movement” was a Christian-Conservative resistance movement made up of several groups of the same name. Despite having different political goals, the middle-class resistance fighters were united in the fight against Nazism. Distributing flyers was just one of many forms of resistance.
Flyer produced by the Communist Resistance, undated
In Austria, the Communists were the largest group to put up resistance to the Nazi regime and they also incurred the greatest losses. By 1944, 6,300 members of the Communist resistance had been arrested by the Gestapo’s Vienna Headquarters.
Secret message written on fabric and produced in prison by Eduard Göth (1898–1944), 16.1.1943, additions made on 22.1. and 25.1.1943
Eduard Göth, a teacher from Hinterbrühl near Vienna, belonged to the resistance group “The Revolutionary Socialists”. In 1942 he was arrested for plotting an act of high treason. He sent several secret missives to his family from his prison cell. On 13th March 1944 Göth was executed at Vienna’s Provincial Court at the age of 46.
Secret message written on fabric and produced in prison by Eduard Göth (1898–1944), 16.1.1943, additions made on 22.1. and 25.1.1943
Eduard Göth, a teacher from Hinterbrühl near Vienna, belonged to the resistance group “The Revolutionary Socialists”. In 1942 he was arrested for plotting an act of high treason. He sent several secret missives to his family from his prison cell. On 13th March 1944 Göth was executed at Vienna’s Provincial Court at the age of 46.

People who did not conform to the system risked persecution themselves. Some decided to put up resistance despite the danger it posed to their lives. Their actions ranged from helping persecuted individuals and distributing anti-Nazi propaganda to putting up armed resistance. There were many fatalities, especially among the members of the Communist resistance. The Socialist resistance also suffered many fatal casualties. Following the defeat of the German Wehrmacht at Stalingrad in 1943, some sections of the war-weary and disillusioned population began question the certainty of a German victory. This being so, the resistance movement against the Nazi regime also proliferated in the final months of the war.

Those persecuted by the Nazi regime were increasingly marginalised and their possible courses of action diminished as time went on. While, at first, escape was still legally an option for many Jews – subject to the extorted surrender of their assets – with the outbreak of war it became impossible. The only options were to attempt to leave the country illegally or go into hiding as an “U-boat”. Some chose suicide as a last resort.

Following the occupation of Belgium, the Netherlands and France by the German Wehrmacht, Jews and other victims of political persecution who had fled there from Austria were under threat once more. Many were subsequently interned in interim camps such as Drancy, Gurs or Westerbork and deported from there to the concentration and extermination camps in the German Reich. Only a few managed to escape and continue their flight or survive in hiding.

Possible Courses of Action Auschwitz

The hierarchical system at Auschwitz not only assigned certain areas of responsibility and tasks to the camp staff, but also allowed individual staff members to act with relative autonomy. Many took advantage of their positions of power to torture, punish or even kill prisoners but, above all, they did so to enrich themselves personally. Prosecutions were rare.

The prisoners of Auschwitz, on the other hand, had virtually no chance stopping their dehumanisation or preserving their identity. Even though different courses of action were available to prisoners depending on their position in the camp hierarchy, life in the camp meant a permanent fight for survival for all of them. Nevertheless, some managed to organise themselves, with Polish and Austrian prisoners founding an international resistance group in the camp.

From the camp administration downwards, everyone who worked at Auschwitz was involved in the machinery of murder there to varying degrees. Not only those who sat at the controls, such as the Head of the Political Department, Maximilian Grabner from Vienna, or the Upper Austrian Head Guard of the women’s camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Maria Mandl, decided who among the prisoners would live and who would die. The entire camp staff was permitted to torture prisoners at will, punish them, murder them or arrange for them to be killed. They were more or less free to treat the inmates as they pleased. The extent to which they were individually guilty of perpetrating crimes for the most part depended on their personal belief systems and dedication. Even the large-scale theft of the deportees’ looted belongings rarely had consequences for the perpetrators. Just a tiny minority chose to protect or help the inmates.

The camp staff's daily routine also included recreation and entertainment; there were organised excursions and a cultural programme. Ensemble members from various Austrian cultural institutions such as the Burgtheater even travelled to Auschwitz for this purpose.

Bunker register for Block 11 at the “main camp” Auschwitz I, entries from 13–16.2.1943
Maximilian Grabner was Head of the Political Department from June 1940 to November 1943. It was he who decided on the nature and severity of the punishments that would be meted out, meaning he also dictated who would live and who would die. Only few survived Block 11, the so-called death block. The Austrian Max Sulzer (1883–1943) is also listed in the register – he died just three days after being sent there.
Witness testimony by Gerda Schneider at the Auschwitz trial of Maria Mandl in Krakow, 1947
Head guard Maria Mandl was arrested in Bavaria in August 1945. Survivors dubbed her “The Beast of Auschwitz”, whose crimes included holding her own unsolicited “selections”. Mandl was executed in Krakow on 24th January 1948.
Witness testimony by Gerda Schneider at the Auschwitz trial of Maria Mandl in Krakow, 1947
Head guard Maria Mandl was arrested in Bavaria in August 1945. Survivors dubbed her “The Beast of Auschwitz”, whose crimes included holding her own unsolicited “selections”. Mandl was executed in Krakow on 24th January 1948.
Witness testimony by Gerda Schneider at the Auschwitz trial of Maria Mandl in Krakow, 1947
Head guard Maria Mandl was arrested in Bavaria in August 1945. Survivors dubbed her “The Beast of Auschwitz”, whose crimes included holding her own unsolicited “selections”. Mandl was executed in Krakow on 24th January 1948.
Garrison announcement about the troop entertainment programme “A Viennese Evening” for members of the SS at Auschwitz on 23.5.1944
Alongside the normal working day at Auschwitz, a range of leisure activities was put on for members of the SS. Theatre productions and other events were held regularly. Artists from cultural institutions such as the Vienna State Opera, the Burgtheater and the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna travelled to Auschwitz to put on the production “A Viennese Evening”.
Field verdict on the theft of Auschwitz inmates’ personal belongings by Franz Hofbauer (1918–1996), 18.8.1944
Large numbers of SS men and women, including the Upper Austrian Franz Hofbauer, used Auschwitz for their own personal gain by pocketing the personal belongings confiscated from their victims. Hofbauer received a 21-month prison sentence and a fine, and he was dismissed from the SS. Sentences such as this tended to be the exception rather than the rule; transgressors were seldom held to account for their offenses.
Entry pass for Auschwitz concentration camp issued to Maria Stromberger (1898–1957) on 3.10.1942
The Carinthian nurse Maria Stromberger reported for service in Krakow in the summer of 1942. She began working in the SS sickbay at Auschwitz on 1st October 1942.
Entry pass for Auschwitz concentration camp issued to Maria Stromberger (1898–1957) on 3.10.1942
The Carinthian nurse Maria Stromberger reported for service in Krakow in the summer of 1942. She began working in the SS sickbay at Auschwitz on 1st October 1942.
Identity tag issued to Maria Stromberger as a volunteer nurse by the German Red Cross
As a nurse for the SS, Maria Stromberger managed to help inmates by sneaking them groceries or medication from SS supplies. She also supported the camp resistance movement and smuggled inmates’ letters and reports out of the camp.
Hans Schor (1913–1945), in the foreground in prison garb, Norbert Lopper (1919–2015), also in prison garb in the centre between the rows, on the ramp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, 27.5.1944
Photo: probably taken by SS photographers Ernst Hofmann, Bernhard Walter
Norbert Lopper from Vienna was persecuted for being Jewish. He was deported from Brussels to Auschwitz on 25th August 1942. In 1944 he was forced to watch as his mother Regine arrived on the ramp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The Austrian prisoner Hans Schor was a Kapo and through one of his contacts in the SS, a Viennese, he managed to spare her from being sent to the gas chambers. Norbert and Regine Lopper both survived Auschwitz.
Belt belonging to Walter Fantl-Brumlik (1924–2019)
Walter Fantl-Brumlik was born in the Lower Austrian village of Bischofstetten in 1924. From 1944 he was an inmate of the Auschwitz sub-camp in Gleiwitz. He managed to hold on to his belt that he had brought with him from home. Despite receiving many offers for it, he refused to trade it for anything. Walter Fantl-Brumlik described the belt as his “survival object”. The holes he made himself in the belt bear witness to his dramatic weight loss during his time in the camp.
Buddha statuette belonging to Margareta Glas-Larsson (1911–1993)
Margareta Glas-Larsson received this statuette as a gift from her husband Georg Glas. She managed to smuggle this valuable memento of her true love and her previous life through the admissions procedure at Auschwitz II-Birkenau and held onto it for the entire duration of her time in the camp.
Portrait of Hermann Langbein Watercolour, unknown artist, produced at Auschwitz between August 1942 and August 1944
Only very few inmates were in a position to have portraits of themselves produced in Auschwitz. A number of portraits of the “prisoner functionary” Hermann Langbein have survived. Maria Stromberger managed to smuggle one of them back to his family in Vienna. It is not known how this particular picture came to be in Vienna.
Greetings card produced by inmates to mark the marriage of Rudolf Friemel (1907–1944) and Margarita Ferrer Rey (1916–1987), 18.3.1944 Hand drawn
Rudolf Friemel’s bride, their infant son, and Friemel’s father and brother all travelled to Auschwitz for the “Wedding of Auschwitz”. Wedding photos were taken at the camp registry office and the couple was given a room in the camp brothel. Rudolf Friemel was a member of the resistance movement in the camp and helped a number of his fellow prisoners to escape. As a result of these activities, on 30th December 1944 he was hanged in the roll-call area of the “main camp” Auschwitz I, opposite Block 17.
Copy of a political treatise by Alfred Klahr (1904–1944) written in 1944 at the main camp Auschwitz I
Alfred Klahr was a leading member of the Austrian Communist Party and active in the camp resistance at Auschwitz. In 1944 he wrote this treatise about the emergence of Nazism in secret, and questioned the extent to which the German people were responsible for it. Klahr managed to escape on 14th June 1944 and attempted to make contact with the Polish Resistance in Warsaw. He was captured and shot.
Hollowed-out clothes brush used by the “Combat Group Auschwitz” to smuggle messages. In use between ca. 1942 and 1944
The international collective “Combat Group Auschwitz” was initially an alliance between the Austrian and Polish resistance movements in the camp. Hermann Langbein, Ernst Burger, Rudolf Friemel, Ludwig Vesely, Alfred Klahr, Heinrich Dürmayer and a number of other Austrians played a key role in the group. Langbein hid notes in the clothes brush describing the conditions in the camp. Maria Stromberger smuggled them to Vienna where she gave them to Langbein’s brother. This was one of many attempts by the camp resistance to let the world know what was going on at Auschwitz in the hope that it would incite somebody to intervene.

The kapos appointed by the camp administration acted as intermediaries between the prisoners and the camp staff, between victims and perpetrators. Although they were prisoners themselves, the kapos were functionaries: they not only had to help the camp staff oversee and punish the prisoners; at the same time, they had much more autonomy than their fellow prisoners. They were mostly political prisoners or so-called criminals, whose living conditions were superior to those of the Jewish prisoners or those classified as “gypsies”. Because of their position in the camp hierarchy, not to mention their connections to the SS, kapos were also in a position to save prisoners’ lives, such as the Viennese Hans Schorr, who was able to intervene on the ramp to save Norbert Lopper’s mother from the gas chamber. Other kapos, however, took advantage of their position – even to the point of committing sexual assault against other prisoners, or murder. Although kapos could themselves become perpetrators, they were nevertheless also victims who, like everyone else, had to fight against dehumanisation in the camp.

One possible course of action, especially for political prisoners, was to become organised: Heinrich Dürmayer from Vienna, camp elder at the Auschwitz main camp from September 1944 to January 1945, and Hermann Langbein, who worked in the prisoners’ record office, were just two of the Austrian political prisoners who were active in the camp resistance. They founded the international “Auschwitz Combat Group” in association with the Polish camp resistance and were in contact with resistance organisations in Poland and Austria. The group organised escapes and transmitted information about the extermination camp to the outside world in the hope it would incite the Allies to intervene. Above all, the resistance movement provided a sense of solidarity and mutual aid among its members and was one way of counteracting the inhumanity of Auschwitz.

In contrast, the Jewish prisoners and Roma and Sinti had far fewer options. A few managed to smuggle a keepsake from their former life into the camp with them, others were kept alive by love and friendship, for example, by religion, or even the determination to be able to bear witness to the atrocities later on.

The different conditions in the separate parts of the camp essentially determined the options available to those imprisoned there. Those who did not manage to secure a privileged position, such as in the record office, or who did not have an education that enabled them to be of use to the camp SS; those who did not have connections to other prisoners or to the guards, or those who were simply less fortunate were barely able to survive the inhumane conditions in Auschwitz.

Liberation

The defeat of the German Wehrmacht at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942/43 marked a turning point in World War II. Hereinafter, the military successes of the Allies began to accumulate, and the war’s battlegrounds began to edge closer to the former Austrian territory. In the cities especially, food and heating material were in increasingly short supply. The Volkssturm (“People’s Storm”) and the Hitler Youth became the last line of defence mobilised by the Nazi Party to fight the war.

With the Red Army on the advance, the SS dissolved the camps in the East and evacuated the prisoners. Many of them were sent to Mauthausen concentration camp or one of its numerous subcamps. In addition, vast numbers of prisoners and Jewish slave labourers were driven through Austria on death marches. Right up until the end of the war, atrocities and massacres were perpetrated in many places as the civil population looked on, or sometimes even participated. Civilians only provided help and assistance in isolated cases.

In May 1945, the Allies had taken control of the entire Austrian territory.

After the defeat at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942/43, the military successes of the Allies started to mount up. From August 1943, the Allied Air Force also carried out air raids on targets in Austria. In November of the same year, the Foreign Ministers of the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the USA adopted the Moscow Declaration, which declared the “Anschluss” of Austria to the German Reich “null and void”.

With the German Reich rapidly running out of provisions, the Nazi regime declared “Total War”. The Volkssturm from October 1944 and then the Hitler Youth were mobilised as the last line of defence. The poorly-equipped and inadequately trained elderly, adolescents and children were expected to demonstrate a fanatical readiness for combat.

Envelope from the last letter written by Fanny (Franziska) Vesely to her son Ludwig (1919–1944), written on 31.12.1944
On 30th December 1944, captured Austrian inmate Ernst Burger, as well as Rudolf Friemel and Ludwig Vesely who had assisted in his escape, were all executed at the “main camp” Auschwitz I. The next day, without realizing what had happened, Vesely’s mother wrote him this letter, which was returned from Auschwitz. On the envelope she noted: “Returned to sender because my son was already deceased.”
Piece of metal embossed with the inmate number of Britta (Brigitte) Lamberg (*1927), Mauthausen concentration camp, late 1944
In October 1944 Britta Lamberg, a 17-year-old from Vienna, was deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, and in late 1944 she was sent on to Lenzing, a sub-camp of Mauthausen concentration camp, where she received a prisoner bracelet with a new number. Britta Lamberg was liberated on 5th May 1945.
List of deportees on the last direct transport from Vienna to Auschwitz, 5.10.1944
Although the impending collapse of the Nazi regime was becoming increasingly apparent the deportations continued. The last transport to travel directly from Vienna to Auschwitz was made ready for departure on 5th October 1944 with 100 Jews on board. It is not known what became of them.
List of deportees on the last direct transport from Vienna to Auschwitz, 5.10.1944
Although the impending collapse of the Nazi regime was becoming increasingly apparent the deportations continued. The last transport to travel directly from Vienna to Auschwitz was made ready for departure on 5th October 1944 with 100 Jews on board. It is not known what became of them.
List of deportees on the last direct transport from Vienna to Auschwitz, 5.10.1944
Although the impending collapse of the Nazi regime was becoming increasingly apparent the deportations continued. The last transport to travel directly from Vienna to Auschwitz was made ready for departure on 5th October 1944 with 100 Jews on board. It is not known what became of them.
List of deportees on the last direct transport from Vienna to Auschwitz, 5.10.1944
Although the impending collapse of the Nazi regime was becoming increasingly apparent the deportations continued. The last transport to travel directly from Vienna to Auschwitz was made ready for departure on 5th October 1944 with 100 Jews on board. It is not known what became of them.
Singed documents belonging to victims of the massacre that took place at the “Jewish reception camp” in Hofamt Priel on 25.4.1945
Many massacres were carried out on the death marches; one of them took place on the night of 25th April 1945: an SS unit murdered a group of Hungarian Jews at the “Jewish reception camp” in the Lower Austrian town of Hofamt Priel. The SS then burned the bodies in an attempt to cover up their crime, but rainfall prevented the remains from being fully incinerated.
Memo from the Viennese Criminal Police to the administration of Lackenbach concentration camp about the transfer of three Roma who had escaped a death march, 23.2.1945
The Roma Helmut Hoff, Paul Klein and Anton Winter managed to flee during a death march from Auschwitz. They were captured and transferred to the “gypsy camp” at Lackenbach in February 1945. It is not known what became of them.
Members of the Hitler Youth surrender to the 44th US Infantry Division, April 1945. Photographer unknown
The Volkssturm (“People’s Storm”) and the Hitler Youth were the last line of defence mobilised by the Nazi Party to fight the war from October 1944 onwards. The poorly-equipped and inadequately trained elderly, adolescents and children were expected to demonstrate a fanatical readiness for combat.
Signpost in Cyrillic showing the way to Vienna, ca. 1945
Vienna was liberated by the Red Army in April 1945. It was not until 8th May 1945, the day of the German Wehrmacht’s capitulation, that the entire territory of Austria came under Allied control.
Building destroyed by bombing in the area surrounding Vienna, 1945. Photo: Peter Croy, Maria Enzersdorf
“No people on this Earth has greater cause to look to the future with confidence and optimism than the German people”. Words of encouragement such as these proved to be just another of the Nazi Party’s empty promises. Some sections of the Austrian population viewed the collapse of the Nazi regime as a defeat and an occupation. For others, the capitulation meant liberation from Nazi tyranny.
Flag with the swastika removed from the front and a white stripe sewn across the reverse
In 1938, large numbers of Austrians had enthusiastically greeted the arrival of the Nazi regime. One way they demonstrated their enthusiasm was by sewing the swastika onto the Austrian flag. At the end of the war the swastika was removed and the Austrian flag restored by sewing a horizontal white stripe across the reverse.
Official registration form filed by Franz Danimann (1919–2013) on 7.5.1945
Following the liberation of Auschwitz, Franz Danimann remained at the camp for another few weeks. Upon returning to Vienna he officially registered his return. On his registration notice, “concentration camp Auschwitz” was entered under the heading “last apartment”. Danimann was one of the few people in Austria who drew public attention to the genocide at Auschwitz immediately after the war.

Upon the retreat of the German Wehrmacht, the camps in the East were "evacuated" and dissolved, and the remaining prisoners were forced to join “death marches” heading westward, also through Austria. For many, the destination was Mauthausen concentration camp or one of its numerous subcamps. On one death march to Mauthausen, SS men murdered 228 Hungarian Jews at the reception camp in Hofamt Priel near Persenbeug in Lower Austria on the night of 2 to 3 May 1945. Right up until the end of the war atrocities and massacres were also perpetrated at many other locations as the civil population looked on, or sometimes even participated. Civilians only provided help and assistance in isolated cases, sometimes to avoid risking punishment.

While the Red Army crossed the Hungarian-Austrian border in March 1945 and fought its way towards Vienna, the American and British Allies were taking control of the western provinces. From 5 to 8 May 1945 the US Army liberated Mauthausen concentration camp and its remaining subcamps. On 8 May, the German Wehrmacht capitulated.

Part of the Austrian population perceived the collapse of the Nazi regime as a defeat and an occupation. For others, the capitulation meant liberation from Nazi tyranny. While the battles for Vienna were still raging, the Socialist and Communist Parties were re-established, and the Austrian People’s Party took the place of the former Christian Social Party. All parties signed the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Austria on 27 April 1945. On the same day, the first Provisional State Government was constituted under the control of the Allied Military Administration.

Liberation Auschwitz

In autumn 1944, the transport of prisoners from Auschwitz to the concentration camps in the inner parts of the German Reich territory commenced. Despite this, the mass killings at Auschwitz continued.

At the same time, the SS did everything in its power to eliminate all traces of the genocide by setting alight the administrative files and destroying the gas chambers, detonating the extermination facilities and burning the written documents that evidenced the atrocities committed at Auschwitz. In an attempt to thwart these efforts, remaining inmates collected and secured evidence of the crimes committed there. On 27 January 1945 Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army. At that time, around 35 Austrian inmates were still in the camp.

Despite the imminent collapse of the Nazi regime, the killings continued at Auschwitz. Trains carrying deportees continued to arrive, for the most part their occupants were killed immediately. On 5 October 1944, the last direct transport left Vienna for Auschwitz carrying 100 Jews. Some elements of the extermination facilities at Auschwitz had already been dismantled, with the plan to get them up and running elsewhere. At the same time, the prisoners who remained in the camp were forced to go on so-called death marches to the concentration camps further inside the German Reich. Many of them were killed by their guards or died of exhaustion, either en route or upon arriving in other concentration camps.

Statistics and notes made in secret by Otto Wolken, undated
The Viennese doctor Otto Wolken went into hiding until the Red Army arrived at Auschwitz, and looked after sick inmates. He had surreptitiously made notes about the selections and death rate and kept them hidden from the Gestapo, which made him a key witness when the main perpetrators of Auschwitz were put on trial.
Jewish prayer book in the languages Hebrew and Hungarian from Auschwitz concentration camp, 1945
This prayer book was found at Auschwitz after the liberation and brought to Austria.
Heinrich Sussmann (1904–1986), “Auschwitz”,
sketch, February 1945 at Auschwitz
The Austrian Heinrich Sussmann arrived at Auschwitz in June 1944. He drew this sketch immediately after the camp was liberated.

In the final phase of the war, the SS also did everything in its power to eliminate all traces of the genocide at Auschwitz: the extermination facilities at Auschwitz-Birkenau were detonated, and the majority of the written documentation was incinerated or taken away. To prevent them from succeeding, prisoners secured evidence of the atrocities committed there. The Viennese doctor Otto Wolken, for example, concealed his clandestine records of selections and death rates. He hid in the Auschwitz camp area until the SS had withdrawn and then he took care of sick prisoners.

On 27 January 1945 Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army. Around 35 Austrian prisoners were still in the camp at that time. Some political prisoners, among them Franz Danimann and Kurt Hacker, set up an “Austrian block” in Block 8 of the main camp and Heinrich Sussmann painted a large flag in Austria’s red-white-red on its inside wall. All remaining prisoners were cared for by the Red Army and the Red Cross, which had arrived shortly afterwards, and preparations were made for them to be repatriated to their home countries. Leftover materials from the camp, clothing, wood and building materials were distributed to needy Poles, and by summer 1947 the camp itself had already been declared a memorial site.

Commemoration

Glass windows created for the 1978 Austrian exhibition at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, designed by Heinrich Sussmann

“The idea behind the glass windows was actually to portray those people who had been maltreated, dismembered, cremated, pulled apart to remove gold teeth (…) as whole once more. Not dismembered. Not pieces of flesh, but as the whole, intact beings that they had once been.”
Heinrich Sussmann in a 1985 interview

National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism

Glass windows created for the 1978 Austrian exhibition at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, designed by Heinrich Sussmann
„The Bitter End“ by Prof. Heinrich Sussmann
„Gas Chamber“ by Prof. Heinrich Sussmann
„Jew Praying in the Flames“ by Prof. Heinrich Sussmann
„Screaming Affliction“ by Prof. Heinrich Sussmann
„The Heavens Filled with Smoke and Flames“ by Prof. Heinrich Sussmann

Heinrich and Anna Sussmann were persecuted for being Jewish. They married in Paris in 1937 and joined the Communist Resistance there. In June 1944 the pair was captured by the Gestapo and deported to Auschwitz. Anna Sussman had been in the late stages of pregnancy at the time; she gave birth to a son in the woman’s camp. He was murdered at birth. In the interviews, the couple recounts their sufferings in the concentration camp.

Interview with Heinrich (1904 – 1986) and Anna Sussmann (1909 – 1985)

Interview material (audio) by Hugo Portisch, 1983
Archive of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Vienna

Interview with Heinrich Sussmann
Interview with Anna Sussmann

About the Exhibition