O.30 - Documentation regarding the Jews of Austria, mainly during the Holocaust period

O.30 - Documentation regarding the Jews of Austria, mainly during the Holocaust period
 
 The collection is primarily comprised of original documents: typewritten documents, manuscripts, surveys and duplicated reports entrusted to the Yad Vashem Archives over the years, mostly by private bodies. 
 
 The internal division of the Record group was changed a few years ago, and the original division has been entered in the "Previous File" field.
 
 The diverse material contains official documents, personal documentation, statistical material, reports and surveys, articles and journalistic pieces from Jewish newspapers and others, displays, diaries, photographs and more. Deserving of special mention are the numerous statistical reports, bound into booklets, edited and designed with artistic graphics on a high professional level considering the circumstances and the sad reality at the time.
 
 Most of the material is in German, with a small number of items in other languages such as Hebrew, English, French, Polish and Yiddish.
 
 Provenances
 
 The documentation was created mainly by the Jewish community in Vienna, including its administration and institutions to which 80% of all the Jews in Austria belonged. The leading figure in the community was Dr. Josef Loewenherz who served as head of the community throughout the years leading up to the final liquidation of the community by the Nazis.
 
 Another source of original documentation is German institutions such as the Zentralstelle Fuer Juedische Auswanderung (Central Office for Jewish Emigration), the SD and the Gestapo.
 
 Subjects and structure of the Record Group
 
 The collection reflects the fate of Austrian Jewry. In the past Austria had served as an important cultural center for European Jewry in the fields of Science, Medicine, Literature, Art and more.
 
 The collection is organized into subseries according to their subjects, with the individual files numbered consecutively in the following way:
 
 1-47, 193-195
 The Vienna Community and Other Communities
 
 48-53
 Dr. Josef Loewenherz
 
 54-59?
 Jewish Organizations
 
 60-68?
 Youth Aliyah
 
 69-75
 Emigration and Rescue
 
 76-86
 Deportations
 
 87-96
 Anti-Jewish Legislation and Antisemitism in Austria
 
 99-149, 183-192
 Personal Documentation
 
 150-155
 Resistance and Nazi Propaganda
 
 156-172
 Newspapers and research
 
 173-182, 195-197
 Post-war Austria and Miscellaneous
 
 Most of the documentation in "The Vienna Community and Other Communities" section is from 1938-1945. It reflects the changes that took place within Austrian Jewry following the Anschluss (annexation to Germany) from March 1938. Also evident are the efforts invested by the community leadership and its head, Dr. Loewenherz, in the area of emigration and ensuring basic survival needs for the community. The existing documentation relates primarily to the Viennese community, but there is also material regarding other communities such as Innsbruck, Linz and others.
 
 Additionally, there is documentation regarding Mischlinge, intermarriage and converted Jews.
 
 Special mention should be made regarding the Totenbuch (Memorial Book) which was actually recorded during the war in memory of 850 of the Viennese Jews who were deported to the Modliborzyce Ghetto in Poland. The collection contains only a partial photograph of the original which has been lost, nevertheless here, too, one can be specially impressed by the graphic design and the unique artistic calligraphy.
 
 The series of files regarding Youth Aliyah reveals a rescue story of children and youth, matters related to aliya training and activities of the Zionist youth movements in Austria under the leadership of Aron Menczer. The collection contains documentation expressing Menczer's personal devotion to his protégés until the last moments before his deportation.
 
 Of special interest among the few documents included under the title "Emigration and Rescue" should be noted an activities report regarding the Gildmeester Aktion (an organization set up by a German priest which gave monetary help to emigrant Jews who had converted, those in mixed marriages or those who were not affiliated with the Jewish community). Additionally, this series includes documentary material regarding the events at the Woowa camp in Yugoslavia and a personal diary kept by a young man describing the events surrounding the sailing of the illegal immigrant ship, "Hilda", 16 October 1939-29 January 1940.
 
 The diverse personal documentation includes documents such as passports, identity cards, birth and marriage certificates, food ration and work cards, diplomas and school certificates, travel tickets, letters of recommendation and dismissal letters from work places due to the fact that the employee is Jewish. And most important: letters from camp inmates to their loved ones, farewell letters before deportation to the unknown. Among these letters is a very unique collection of 76 personal letters from a young wife who remained alone in Vienna to her husband in Eretz Israel. She was murdered in Auschwitz.
 
 Description of the creation of the Record Group
 
 The Record Group is an anthology accumulated from diverse documentation, mostly original, which came to the Yad Vashem Archives from private individuals and institutional bodies.
 
 Other Record groups on related topics:
 
 DOW- M.38 - Documentation Center for Austria Resistance;
 
 R.2- Gau Wien of the National Socialist Party, Vienna Office for Racial Affairs