Antisemitismus in Österreich 1933–1938 ed. by Gertrude Enderle-Burcel and Ilse Reiter-Zatloukal (review)

The size of this volume on anti-Semitism in Austria from 1933 to 1938 during the Austrofascist corporate state at over 1,100 pages should come as no surprise, as the topic is vast and anti-Semitism in Austria had a long and significant history before 1933, most notably with German nationalist Georg Ritter von Schönerer (1842–1921) and Vienna's mayor Karl Lueger (1844–1910), whose anti-Semitic ideas influenced Hitler's anti-Semitism. The Austrofascist regime that coexisted for five years from 1933 to 1938 with Nazism in Germany did not officially persecute Jews, but it was profoundly anti-Semitic at its core. The book represents the published proceedings of a conference that took place at Vienna's Juridicum in March 2015 and features fifty-eight articles in addition to the editors' introduction and a Geleitwort by Austria's former president, Dr. Heinz Fischer.

The goal of this large conference volume is to uncover the many facets of anti-Semitism during the Austrofascist period, when anti-Semitism, unlike in Nazi Germany, was not so much open but subtle. It is almost impossible to mention all of the fifty-eight contributions of this volume, which are grouped in nine subheadings: "Grundlagen"; "Politik und Religion"; "Kunst und Kultur"; "Wirtschaftund Berufe"; "Wissenschaft"; "Bundesländer"; "Justiz"; "Mikrogeschichtliches"; and "Jüdische Positionen." These subheadings show how anti-Semitism pervaded all areas of Austrian society, from politics, religion, art, culture, the economy, and science to the justice system. Thomas Albrich opens the volume with his article on "Vom Antijudaismus zum Antisemitismus in Österreich: Von den Anfängen bis Ende der 1920er Jahre," which introduces readers to how religious anti-Semitism continued to transform into a racial anti-Semitism in the first decade of the First Republic, in which he stresses the hatred against Eastern European Jews in Austria after World War I. This article lays the foundation for the other articles focusing on the history of anti-Semitism in the volume.

Konstantin Kaiser, who is well known for his work on Austrian exile literature, wrote an article in the "Kunst und Kultur" subheading on "Ständestaat und Antisemitismus in der Literatur." Kaiser writes about Jura Soyfer's play Der treueste Bürger Bagdads, which provides an allegory of Austrian Jews under Austrofascism who have to endure a German nationalist Christian authoritarian state—still the lesser evil when compared to the Nazis. Susanne Blumesberger, who is an expert on Austrian childrens' literature, wrote about "Antisemitische Strömungen in österreichischer Kinder-und Jugendliteratur im Zeitraum 1933 bis 1938: Vorbereitungen und Gegenbewegungen," which cover the fascinating topic of the indoctrination of children under Austrofascism and National Socialism in perpetuating anti-Semitism in postwar Austria. Blumesberger delves into the fact that Austria from 1933 to 1938 was already consuming Nazi children's books, while at the same time there was still antifascist literature to be read during this time.

Under the subheading of "Bundesländer," Gerhard Baumgartner writes about "Antisemitismus im Burgenland vor 1938"; Burgenland was Austria's newest state in 1921 when the Treaty of Trianon added this part of mostly German-and Croatian-speaking Western Hungary to the Republic of Austria. Because the Jews had been allowed to settle in rural Hungary, Burgenland had a significant Jewish population. Baumgartner details how non-Jews in Burgenland had been indoctrinated with Hungarian and Croatian anti-Semitism and thus interwar Austrian anti-Semitism fell on fertile ground there, as he writes: "Antisemitismus war im Burgenland vor 1938 nicht nur präsent, er war Teil des kulturellen Kodes, der sich durch alle gesellschaftlichen Schichten und durch alle Volksgruppen zog" (879). Each Austrian state is covered with an individual article in this volume. Dieter A. Binder covers Styria in "'Jetzt kommt der Jud im Steireranzug!' Zum Antisemitismus in der Steiermark 1933 bis 1938." Styria was a duchy in the Habsburg Empire where Jews were not allowed to settle until the mid-nineteenth century. Binder writes: "Die...