From Prejudice to Persecution: A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism (59 page)

Read From Prejudice to Persecution: A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism Online

Authors: Bruce F. Pauley

Tags: #History, #Jewish, #Europe, #Austria & Hungary, #Social Science, #Anthropology, #Cultural, #Discrimination & Race Relations, #test

 

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tonomy of all religions guaranteed in the new constitution. The patriotism, intelligence, endurance, and above all the courage of the chancellor was the reason why the future again looked bright. The
jüdische Presse
likewise did not mourn the passing of the ''party state" into which Orthodox Jews had had so much trouble fitting.

11

Government support for Jews was not confined to legal theories or statements to foreign reporters. When summer resort communities tried to exclude Jews and when landlords refused to rent to them, the authorities stepped in, as before, to enforce the law. The government also created a new Unity Trade Union in March 1934 that encompassed all workers and employees, including Jews. Finally, professional and sporting organizations that were even suspected of harboring Nazi ideas were dissolved. All things considered, Austrian Jews felt that for the first time since the halcyon days of Liberalism in the 1870s the head of the government was an ally.
12
The popularity of Chancellor Dollfuss among Austrian Jews was so great that when he survived an assassination attempt in the fall of 1933, Jewish newspapers expressed profound relief.
Die Stimme
wrote that "one can easily affirm that Jews of all classes and parties are sympathetic with the manly and self-sacrificing struggle of the head of the government to defend Austria's independence. . . . Dollfuss's popularity rests in part on the support of the world's Jews. It is an immortal achievement that he has kept the murdering brown beast away from Austria."
13
Such praise was modest, however, in comparison to the eulogies written about the chancellor after his assassination by Austrian Nazis on 25 July 1934.
Die Wahrheit
wrote that Dollfuss had been loyal to the Jews and that they had returned that loyalty with true attachment. "His enthusiastic patriotism and the energy with which he defended Austria's independence assure[d] him a lasting and honorable memory in the hearts of patriotic Austrian Jewry."
14
Die Stimme
lauded Dollfuss as "the only statesman in the world who defended humanity and morality against the Nazis."
15
Restraining Influences on Government-Sponsored AntiSemitism
The administrations of Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt von Schuschnigg were undoubtedly marked by improvements in some of the ways in which Jews were treated by the Austrian government. Although the documentary evidence reveals no hostility toward Jews by either of the two chancellorsdespite the

 

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speeches made by Dollfuss for the Antisemitenbund in 1920the chancellors' attitude toward the Jewish community cannot be attributed to personal feelings alone. Both men were subjected to numerous domestic and foreign influences on questions regarding Jews that made it politically opportune to avoid at least obvious signs of antiSemitism.

This is not to imply that either Dollfuss or Schuschnigg was simply a cynical opportunist. Neither man was megalomaniacal nor naturally inclined to giving demagogic speeches. Dollfuss exuded personal warmth and great courage. The American minister to Austria, Gilchrist Baker Stockton, was "much impressed with [the chancellor's] sincerity" when he denounced the "gross stupidity" of Nazi students who had attacked their Jewish classmates.

16
Kurt von Schuschnigg, who was thirty-four when he succeeded the murdered Dollfuss in 1934, came from an officer's familynot the kind of background likely to produce a rabid antiSemite. It is also reasonable to assume that both men were following the long-established tradition of the Austrian government, dating back to the monarchy, of protecting the legal rights of all minorities.

At the same time there is no denying that there were real political advantages to be gained from eschewing open antiSemitism. As practicing Catholics and convinced Austrian patriots, the chancellors ardently sought to preserve the independence of both Austria and the Catholic church. But to do so they desperately needed political, economic, and military assistance from both domestic and foreign sources. After Dollfuss abolished parliamentary democracy in March 1933, the renunciation of antiSemitism was one important way in which both Dollfuss and Schuschnigg could put ideological distance between themselves and Hitler. Aid was unlikely from the Anglo-Saxon powersBritain and the United Statesif Austria were perceived as an anti-Semitic country at a time when antiSemitism and Nazism were more and more being equated in the popular mind. Anti-Semitic policies would also not have been helpful in maintaining good relations with France, Czechoslovakia, or even Italy. For a country already suffering from high unemployment and a trade boycott imposed by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1936, foreign tourists were essential. The consequences of a world Jewish boycott, such as Germany experienced after 1933, were painfully obvious. Moreover, neither chancellor had any desire to alienate the wealthy Jews who gave large sums of money to the government at critical times.
17
Dollfuss did not have to speculate on the attitude of the American government regarding antiSemitism. As early as 1919 American threats to withhold food shipments to Austria if anti-Semitic demonstrations continued may very well have cooled anti-Semitic passions at that time and possibly even prevented

 

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the deportation of Jewish war refugees from Eastern Europe.

18
Likewise, in 1931 and again in 1932 (after Dollfuss had become chancellor in May), repeated American diplomatic protests to the Austrian government concerning the treatment of American students at the University of Vienna led to Dollfuss taking a much harder line toward anti-Semitic violence.
19

The protests of the American minister appear to have quieted antiSemitism at the University of Vienna for a few months. However, Hitler's appointment as chancellor in January 1933 inspired Austrian Nazis to imagine that they too would soon be able to take over Austrian political and educational institutions. Consequently, Nazi violence increased rapidly in the spring of 1932 not only at the University of Vienna, but also throughout the whole country. Following two waves of attacks by Nazi students on Professor Tandler's Anatomy Institute in March and May and a new protest from Minister Stockton over the injuring of American students, Dollfuss revoked the institute's academic autonomy, thus allowing police to enter the premises in order to protect students. Nazi students were also forbidden to wear their insignia, although they did so anyway.
20
In November 1933, the new American minister to Austria, George H. Earle, stated publicly that Austria could count on the sympathy of and better trade relations with the United States if it rejected antiSemitism. (The minister received eighty-two threatening letters in response to this warning.) A second and more direct semiofficial warning was published in the Austrian press in January stating that the American government could not cooperate with a country that persecuted people because of their birth. The warning may have been partially responsible for Dollfuss making a radio broadcast to the American people the next month.
21
Not everyone in Austria appreciated the Americans' remarks, however. To some Austrians such warnings understandably sounded hypocritical.
Schönere Zukunft
observed that the minister's comments were strange coming from a country that practiced strict racial segregation in the southern states against people having only a trace of Negro blood. Only dirty railroad cars were available for such people; and they were forced to drink from separate fountains. Even in some of the northern states marriage between whites and Negroes was forbidden.
22
A later article in the
Deutsches Volksblatt
reported a speech by Rabbi J. X. Cohen to the American Jewish Congress in which the rabbi noted the number of large businesses, utility companies, and banks in New York City that discriminated against Jews in their hiring practices.
23

 

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The Jewish Press, The Socialist Uprising, and The Schuschnigg Chancellorship
Domestically, the Austrian government and the Jews became more dependent on each other as a result of Dollfuss crushing a Socialist uprising and outlawing the Social Democratic Party in February 1934. The three-day uprising against the federal government was initiated by radical elements of the Social Democratic Party and took place four and a half months before the assassination of Dollfuss. Although it involved few if any observant Jews, the brief civil war aroused genuine fears among Austrian Jews.

As early as 1927
Die Wahrheit
had expressed concern and embarrassment about the large number of people of Jewish originsbut people who no longer practiced Judaism or even considered themselves Jewsin the Socialist Party. "The more Jews there are among the leaders of Social Democracy, the stronger the desire will become to square accounts through a show of antiSemitism. We have in Austria not only religious but also racial and economic antiSemitism which is a result of Jewish circles which direct the Social Democratic financial policies. . . . The antiSemites will not make just the Jewish leadership alone, but all Jews responsible for the unreasonable financial policies of city hall which threaten the existence of many Viennese even though they fall most heavily on the Jews." Nearly three years later,
Die Wahrheit
warned ominously that Jewish history taught that if a civil war came to Austria, the Jews would be the first victims.

24

Consequently, assimilated and Zionist Jews alike were worried that the Jewish community in general would be blamed for an uprising in which some people of Jewish origins had played minor roles.
Die Wahrheit
reiterated that "most Jews reject radicalism, the class struggle, and anticlericalism pursued by part of the SDAP."
25
After defending the Austrian government against foreign criticism for the way in which it put down the uprising,
Die Stimme
wrote that it was ridiculous to blame "the Jews" for all aspects of the February revolt. The Jewish leaders of the SDAP had long ago turned against religious Judaism and could, therefore, no longer even be considered Jews.
26
Jewish newspapers not only feared that the Socialist uprising would revive Austrian antiSemitism, but they were also apprehensive that one or more of their rivals would inherit the remnants of the Social Democratic Party.
Die Wahrheit
worried that allegations by Christian Social politicians that the "Jewish" leaders of the party had led the workers astray (charges that were in fact

 

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also made by the leaders of the illegal Nazi Party) would only drive them into the arms of the underground Austrian Nazi Party.
Die Stimme
thought the moment was ripe to appeal to working-class Jews to forget Socialism and join the Zionist movement. Because the Socialist Jews had been "unfaithful to their own house, ancestry, and Jewish pride, a catastrophe was bound to happen." The Jews in the Austrian Social Democratic Party had suffered the same fate as the assimilationist Jews in Germany, and like them they had no choice but to turn to the Zionist cause as soon as possible. The
Jüdische Presse
also got into the act by calling on the Jewish members of the SDAP to return to their religious home.

27

Relations between Jews and the Austrian government under the chancellorship of Kurt von Schuschnigg followed essentially the same pattern as those established during the Dollfuss years. Jewish newspapers responded gratefully to occasional comments by the chancellor to foreign reporters and directly to Jewish representatives that he would continue to uphold the May Constitution of 1934 guaranteeing equal rights for all Austrian citizens. For example, in September 1934 Schuschnigg told leaders from the World Jewish Congress, the Board of British Jews, and the Comité des Délégations Juives that there were no second-class citizens in Austria and no restrictions on the personal freedom of Jews. In March 1935 he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in London that there was no Jewish question in Austria in the usual sense of the term. The government would never consider expelling Eastern European Jews. In October 1937 the chancellor qualified his support a bit when he told reporters from a Belgian newspaper that he drew a distinction between Jews who had lived in Austria for generations and those who had immigrated since 1914, mostly from Poland. However, these Jews represented a national, not a social or religious problem.
28
Chancellor Schuschnigg, like his predecessor, at times also went beyond these reassuring words to provide Austrian Jews with real protection. The disgustingly anti-Semitic newspaper,
Der Stürmer
, was banned shortly after the July Putsch that had resulted in the death of Dollfuss. In September 1937 he prevented the Salzburg provincial parliament from enacting a law prohibiting the kosher slaughter of animals.
29
A few Jews, most of them Zionists, were even appointed to high positions in the federal government and the municipal government of Vienna.

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