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Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 25.2 (2007) 168-170

Reviewed by
Helga Embacher
Department of History
University of Salzburg
Jüdische Gemeinden, Vereine, Stiftungen und Fonds: "Arisierung" und Restitution, by Shoshana Duizend-Jensen. Veröffentlichungen der Österreichischen Historikerkommission, Bd. 21/2. Vienna-München: Oldenburg Verlag, 2004. 347 pp. €49.80.

Before the Anschluss in March 1938, the Viennese Jewish Community was one of the richest and liveliest in Europe. It ran schools, a home for the elderly, a hospital, and a home for blind Jews, to mention just a few of its institutions. Out of 200,000 Austrian Jews, most of them residents of Vienna, approximately 130,000 managed to escape Austria and 70,000 were killed in the Holocaust. In her book, a work commissioned by the Austrian Historians Commission, Shoshana Duizend-Jensen shows that in addition to the famous Jewish community of Vienna, 34 Jewish communities existed in the Austrian provinces. They owned property and ran synagogues. There were also more than 600 Jewish clubs and associations in Austria, such as the famous sport club Hakoah, a variety of religious and Zionist societies, fraternal lodges, and 325 charitable foundations. Jewish life in pre-war Vienna was active and heterogeneous. After giving an overview of the property owned by the Jewish communities and the numerous Jewish institutions before the Anschluss in 1938, Duizend-Jensen analyzes their "Aryanization" and liquidation, and finally discusses the complicated question of restitution. She shows that the liquidation was done in step-by-step fashion, whereby the so-called Stillhaltekommissar für Vereine, Organisationen und Verbände played the major role.

While some clubs were dissolved immediately after the Anschluss, a few—mainly the Zionist associations—were permitted to exist for a while. The assets of those that were dissolved were transferred to the Stillhaltekommissarfür Vereine, Organisationen und Verbände and, to a major extent as well, to the Viennese Jewish community, whereby 25–40 percent of all assets were retained by the National Socialists in the form of fees such as the Aufbauumlage and Verwaltungsgebühr. The Viennese Jewish Community, on the other hand, was forced to use all the money transferred to it to support impoverished Jews and to finance the emigration and finally the deportation of Austrian Jews. It was also put under great pressure to sell its own property far below its market [End Page 168] value. As Austrian historian Doron Rabinovici1 has shown, the Jewish community was put into a very difficult position after the Anschluss. The National Socialists appointed the leaders of the Jewish community and forced them to fulfill their demands, which went as far as supporting and financing the deportation of those who failed to emigrate. By forcing the Jewish community to sell all the assets of Jewish institutions, the perpetrators could relieve themselves of the responsibility of supporting the impoverished Jewish population.2

Duizend-Jensen also discusses the expropriation of synagogues and prayer rooms (Betstuben) during the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9, 1938 when synagogues were burned all over Germany and thousands of Jewish men sent to Dachau. In Vienna alone 42 synagogues were demolished and the land on which they had stood was Aryanized by individuals as well as by the city government. In addition, more than 110 prayer rooms were also dissolved. Duizend-Jensen points out that, like the synagogues, most of the prayer rooms also possessed ritual objects such as torah scrolls and prayer books, all of which disappeared or were destroyed.

Concerning the question of restitution, Duizend-Jensen's publication makes clear that it is very hard to come up with an estimate of the total losses suffered by the Jewish community. She shows that 230 out of 300 pieces of Aryanized or liquidated real estate were restituted, whereas libraries, archives and torah scrolls were not returned to their rightful owners. She also emphasizes that in many cases the process of restitution turned out to be very complicated and protracted. In the end, the...

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