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JewishHistoryעברית

Expulsion of the Jews of Burgenland

Date
11 March 1938 – October 1938Hebrew date: 8th of Adar II, 5698
Location
BurgenlandAustria
Then part of
Nazi Germany
Perpetrators
  • Gauleiter Tobias Portschy (State)
  • Gestapo (State)
Killed (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Expelled (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Category
Expulsion, Persecution
Confidence
Medium

Summary

On 11 March 1938, as Nazis took power in Burgenland, persecution of the province's Jews began. Yad Vashem records riots, burglary and looting of Jewish homes and businesses after a demonstration in Eisenstadt addressed by Tobias Portschy, then a policy of forced emigration carried out without a published legal basis, with the aim of clearing Burgenland of Jews. Jews were arrested, compelled to sign statements, stripped of property and driven toward the Czechoslovak, Hungarian and Yugoslav borders or into Vienna. The Vienna Jewish community informed Adolf Eichmann in October 1938 that the Burgenland communities no longer existed; Yad Vashem states that 1,286 Burgenland Jews managed to emigrate. YIVO Encyclopedia gives about 3,800 Jews in Burgenland at the Anschluss and states that those who did not leave Austria were later deported to Eastern Europe and died.

Sources

  1. Milka Zalmon, Forced Emigration of the Jews of Burgenland: Test Case. Yad Vashem Studies
  2. Shlomo Spitzer, Burgenland. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 16,500,000 – 16,633,675[3]c. 1939DellaPergola's revised core estimate for 1 January 1939 is 16.5 million. The American Jewish Year Book 1948–49 compiled 16,633,675 at the end of 1939.
  • Nazi Germany: 202,000 – 237,723[30]c. 1939End of 1939, about 202,000 Jews remained in Germany (USHMM refugees article); on the eve of war USHMM also cites about 214,000 in Germany proper (1937 borders). The losses-by-country table lists 237,723 as the Jewish population of Germany in 1939. These figures are for Germany proper (Altreich), not Greater Germany. For Altreich + annexed Austria at end-1939, USHMM gives about 202,000 + 57,000 = ~259,000 residual; Austria alone had about 185,000–192,000 at the March 1938 Anschluss (USHMM losses table / Austria article). Also: Eve of / early war, Altreich borders unless noted. USHMM Losses: 237,723 in 1939. USHMM German Jews: approximately 214,000 in Germany proper (1937 borders) on the eve of World War II. AJYB Moskowitz: 202,400 on 31 December 1939 (Reichsvertretung report). Not Greater German Reich (excludes Austria/Protectorate unless a source says so).
  • Burgenland: 3,800[2]About 3,800 Jews in the province of Burgenland at the Anschluss in March 1938, when this expulsion began. YIVO states that those who did not leave Austria were later deported. This is the provincial community, not the Jewish population of Austria.

Sources for population estimates

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