Caught in the Vicious Cycle: From a Working Jewish Community to a Council of Jewish Elders

Abstract

The Destruction of the Jewish Community of Vienna: 1941–1942, by Ilana F. Offenberger

This chapter lays bare the destruction of the Jewish community of Vienna. Offenberger elucidates daily life for Jews who remained in Vienna in 1941 and 1942, revealing how people experienced the steadily increasing impoverishment of their community, the restrictions and humiliations, and the severed communication with their relatives and loved ones abroad. Offenberger also looks closely at how people reacted and responded when they were summoned for “resettlement”: a euphemism for deportation. In October 1941 the Germans put an end to emigration and forced the leaders of the IKG to organize deportation trains. At this time the IKG changed from an institution that had promoted the emigration and rescue of 136,000 Viennese Jews to an entity that would organize the deportation of over 55,000 others. In this chapter, Offenberger explains who was deported from Vienna, when, and to where, as well as who was involved in the structuring of the deportation process, who carried it out, and why.