The Jews of Vienna from the "Anschluß" to the Holocaust

Abstract

In this article, the author examines the socio-economic driving forces and political authorities behind the persecution of Jews in Vienna from 1938 to 1943 in order to demonstrate that the anti-Semitic mobilization of substantial sections of the population was directly related to social and economic interests. This becomes clear through the author's analysis of the radical nature of Viennese anti-Semitism from the pogroms of 1938 and the systematic deportation of Jews to extermination camps. This article is structured as follows: 1. Introduction, 2. Exploration of the Perpetrators' Emotional Potential and Demonstration of Jewish Defencelessness, 3. The Conceptual Delineation and Definition of the Enemy Group, 4. Destruction of Economic Means of Subsistence, 5. Forced Emigration, 6. Radicalization and Reichskristallnacht, 7. Spatial Segregation (Ghettoization), 8. Realizing the Nazi Stereotype of the 'Jew', 9. Removal and Annihilation.