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The
remaining documents evidencing the expropriation, expulsion and annihilation
can now be found in various archives, essential parts of which are to
be consolidated on the premises of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute.
Archive of the Jewish Community Vienna:
The archive of the Jewish Community is the largest archive of a European
Jewish community that has been preserved worldwide and is composed of
thousands of unevaluated administrative files, correspondence, card
indices and books. Material from three centuries documents the history
of the Viennese Jewish community and its members up to the present.
Special focus lies on the documents from the National Socialist era.
Archive of the Documentation Centre of the Association of Jewish Victims of
the Nazi Regime (Simon Wiesenthal Archive):
Simon Wiesenthal leaves behind a comprehensive documentation with around
8,000 files regarding NS-perpetrators and NS-crimes. These files contain
Wiesenthal’s correspondence with judicial bodies and documentary
centres, with organisations of survivors and resistance fighters and
with informants. Another focus is on court files, NS-documents, testimonies
and press reports. In addition, the estate of Simon Wiesenthal consists
of numerous documents in which he deals with Austria’s internal
and foreign policy and testimonials of his commitment against oblivion
in the form of drafts for speeches and publications.
Other archives:
A close cooperation with the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance
is planned, which holds an important collection of sources regarding
resistance and persecution, exile, NS crimes, NS- and post-war trials
as well as right-wing extremism after 1945.
Unique Chance of Consolidating
The establishment of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute offers the unique
chance of consolidating numerous partly unexploited archival holdings
in one place. Preparing this material for research purposes will, for
instance, facilitate the reconstruction of the fates of ten thousands
of individuals and the well-founded study of the geographical dispersion
and the social stratification of Vienna’s Jewish population. It
will become possible to investigate mechanisms of persecution, expropriation,
expulsion and annihilation.
For example: The Story of Salomon K.
In
1938, the emigration department of the Jewish Community recorded all Jewish
families who had registered their intention to leave the German Reich
because of their persecution by the National Socialists. A report by the
Jewish Community revealed that by the end of 1938 more than 43,000 families
consisting of a total of more than 118,000 persons had filed an application
for emigration. The emigration questionnaires and the related index cards
contain, among other information, their dates of birth, addresses, nationalities,
occupations and family relations. This is one of the most comprehensive
and complete collection of personal data of Austrian Jews.
The
story of the family of Salomon K. is an example for the fates of all other
families that now can only be reconstructed on the basis of fragmentary
evidence. These documents are part of the comprehensive archival holdings,
which are to be joined under one roof at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute.
The card from the police identification index of the Gestapo, with the
photo of Salomon K., has been captured electronically at the Documentation
Centre of Austrian Resistance.
Continue to the Story of Salomon K.
Links:
Download: Photoarchive: The Archive of the Jewish Community Vienna
Download: Photoarchive: The Simon Wiesenthal Archive
Download: Textarchive, Press Release:
The New York Times, 2. Juni 2007: "A Nation's Lost Holocaust History"
Event July 4 until October 28, 2007: Exhibition
Ordnung muss sein - The Archive of the Jewish Community Vienna
Event June 7, 2007: Panel Presentation
Rescuing the Evidence - The Archive of the Jewish Community Vienna
Continue to Homepage:
The Simon Wiesenthal Archive
Continue to Homepage:
USHMM ("Preserving and Rebuilding the Archive of the Jewish Community Vienna")
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