Jewish Cultural Community, Vienna: Papers

Correspondence and papers of the head office of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde, Wien (IKW) (Jewish Cultural Community, Vienna), 1939-1942, including correspondence and statements from the housing and emigration departments of the IKW, which provide biographical details of Jews who have suffered persecution under the Nazis and have subsequently fallen on hard times; copies of letters sent from the head office of the IKW to various municipal authorities and the police regarding treatment of individual Jews; report (author unknown) entitled 'Zwölf Fragen über die Auswanderung aus Wien, 1 Januar bis 30 April 1940', in which many aspects of the Jewish emigration from Vienna are discussed; an original Jewish tram pass issued to Berta Brand and 2 pieces of 'Jude' badges (housed in the Wiener Library 'Special Collections').

The offices of the Jewish Community in Vienna were re-opened having been closed down in the immediate afermath of the German takeover of Austria (1938). The newly restored community organisation devoted a large part of its resources towards planning emigration and social welfare. It also became involved in vocational training. The Jewish Community in Vienna was disbanded on 1 November 1942 and replaced by a council of elders for the Jews of Vienna. The remaining assets of 6.5 million marks were transferred to Prague to be used to finance the Theresienstadt Ghetto. The central office for Jewish emigration was closed down and responsibility for deportations was transferred to a branch of the SS.

Chronological

Open

Siegfried Weizmann

Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.

Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.

The papers were in the possession of Berta 'Sara' Brand, a former employee of the organisation. Her nephew, the depositor, discovered them amongst her possessions after her death in Vienna in 1982.