Austria first became a center of Jewish learning during the thirteenth century. However, increasing anti-semitism led to the expulsion of the Jews in 1669. Following formal readmission in 1848, a sizable Jewish community developed once again, contributing strongly to Austrian culture. By the 1930s, some 300,000 Jews lived in Austria, most of them in Vienna. Following the Anschluss with Nazi Germany, the vast majority of the community had to emigrate and around a fifth (~60,000) was killed in the Holocaust^[1]. From those that couldn't leave, "Ultimately, two-thirds of Vienna’s Jewish community survived the Holocaust, but more than 65,000 Austrian Jews were murdered." according to Anatol Steck of the Holocaust museum in an article printed in the New York Times Magazine^[2]. There were very few Jews in Austria in the post-war years; However, some of them became very prominent in Austrian society, such as the chancellor Bruno Kreisky and the artist/architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, there has been a renewed influx of Jewish population from the former Soviet Union. The current Austrian Jewish population is around 10,000, most of them living in Vienna and Graz.

See also

• List of Austrian Jews
• Jewish history of Salzburg

Literature

• Eveline Brugger, Birgit Wiedl. Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden im Mittelalter. Band 1: Von den Anfängen bis 1338. Institut für Geschichte der Juden in Österreich. StudienVerlag, Innsbruck. 2005. ISBN 3-7065-4018-5).
• Michaela Feurstein, Gerhard Milchram. Jüdisches Wien. Boehlau Verlag, Vienna. 2001. ISBN 3-205-99094-3
• Josef Fraenkel (ed.). "The Jews of Austria: Essays on their Life, History and Destruction". Valentine Mitchell & Co., London. 1967. ISBN 85303-000-6
• Sabine Hödl, Peter Rauscher, Barbara Staudinger (ed.) Hofjuden und Landjuden. Jüdisches Leben in der Frühen Neuzeit. Philo Verlag, Vienna. 2004. ISBN 3-8257-0352-5
• Martha Keil, Elke Forisch, Ernst Scheiber. (ed.) Denkmale. Jüdische Friedhöfe in Wien, Niederösterreich und Burgenland Club Niederösterreich, St. Pölten. 2006. ISBN-10: 3-9502149-0-9.
• Christoph Lind. "Der letzte Jude hat den Tempel verlassen": Juden in Niederösterreich 1938 – 1945. Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna. 2004. ISBN 3-85476-141-4
• Barbara Staudinger. "Gantze Dörffer voll Juden": Juden in Niederösterreich 1496-1670. Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna. 2005. ISBN 3-85476-165-1
• Thomas E. Schärf. Jüdisches Leben in Baden: Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna. 2005. ISBN 3-85476-164-3
• Werner Sulzgruber. Die jüdische Gemeinde Wiener Neustadt: Von ihren Anfängen bis zu ihrer Zerstörung. Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna. 2005. ISBN 3-85476-163-5
• Nicht in einem Bett - Juden und Christen in Mittelalter und Frühneuzeit. Reihe: Juden in Mitteleuropa, Ausgabe 2005.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Judaism in Austria

• Jews in Austria from the Middle Ages to 1970. How the kings played with Jewish emancipations and expulsions - Toleranzedict - emancipation - holocaust - victim theory after 1945 (from Encyclopaedia Judaica)
• Institute for the History of Jews in Austria
• Holocaust Victims' Information and Support Center
• Republic of Austria|Historikerkommission
• Jewish community of Vienna
• DAVID newsletter
• Ordinary exile |Austrian Jewish refugees in France and Belgium
• Databases of Austrian Jewish refugees in France and Belgium

References

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