|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Click on an image to see a larger, more detailed picture.
|
|
|
|
|
| 1938: The End of Illusions |
|
pg. 126 |
|
|
|
|
| |
Viennese children salute Hitler and his entourage during his first official visit to Vienna after the Anschluss, the forced union with Germany. Displaying a banner that reads, "We sing for Adolf Hitler," the young Austrians enthusiastically welcome their new leader. Although Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg attempted to resist German encroachment, intense pressure by the Nazis forced him from office.
Photo: National Archives/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive
|
The union of Austria with Germany unleashed a torrent of antisemitism. Not only were Austrian Jews systematically deprived of their citizenship, but they were publicly humiliated as well. Here, Austrian Nazis and local residents look on as Jews are forced to get on their knees and scrub pro-Schuschnigg slogans off the pavement (Kurt von Schuschnigg was the recently ousted chancellor of Austria). A favorite sport of the Austrian Nazis was to force wealthy Jewish women to scrub the sidewalks with their lingerie.
Photo: Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive
|
An SS officer guards the entrance to the offices of the Jewish community center of Vienna during the raids of March 18. Following the Anschluss, the entire corpus of antisemitic legislation that had developed during the preceding five years in Germany was enacted overnight in Austria. Austria's nearly 200,000 Jews were deprived of citizenship, while Jewish organizations and congregations lost their government funding.
Photo: Bundesarchiv/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive
|
|
|
|
|
|
February 4, 1938: Austrian Nazis prepare to take over every Jewish business in the nation.
|
|
March 1938: The Polish government threatens to revoke the citizenship of Polish Jews who are living in Germany.
|
|
March 12, 1938: The German Army enters Vienna, Austria. Austria is annexed (the Anschluss ) by Germany and is immediately subject to all antisemitic laws in effect in Germany. Jewish organizations and congregations are subsequently forbidden.
|
|
March 28, 1938: Jewish community organizations in Germany lose their official status; they are no longer recognized by the government.
|
|
|
|
|
| 1938: The End of Illusions |
|
|
pg. 126 |
|
|
The Holocaust Chronicle
© 2009 Publications International, Ltd.
|
|
