The earliest known Jewish settlers arrived in Vienna in the 1100s, but were unable to maintain a permanent community due to persecution and murders during the Crusades, the Black Plague and other periods of oppression.

From the 1430s Vienna served as the seat of the Habsburg dynasty that ruled Central Europe until the early 1900s. Depending on the ruler, Jews experienced periods of great toleration. In 1782 Emperor Joseph II issued the Edict of Tolerance that lifted many of the previous restrictions on Jewish life.

The Edict enabled the Jews of Vienna to deepen their religious, educational, social and political activity within the existing Jewish community and to create the infrastructure to support it through the establishment of temples and synagogues, Jewish schools and seminaries, museums, libraries and social welfare agencies.

The Jewish population of Vienna increased dramatically, from about 3,700 in 1846 to more than 118,000 by 1890. A number of important thinkers of Jewish origin made their home in the city, including Theodor Herzl, Gustav Mahler, Arthur Schoenberg and Sigmund Freud.

During World War I (1914-1918) Jewish citizens fought and died for the Austrian Empire alongside their Christian neighbors. Survivors Lily Stark, Charles Kurt and Hermann Rath recalled how their fathers served in the Austrian Army. Rath said, “My father, in his army uniform, used to come to kindergarten to pick me up when he was on leave.”

After the war Austria was established as an independent country. The Jewish population of Vienna continued to grow, reaching its peak in 1923, with more than 200,000 Jewish residents in a city of almost two million.

Many Jews held professional positions. Survivor Luisa Kopinsky said, “My mother was an attorney...and my father was a banker.”  Others labored in unskilled jobs. Rath recalled his family’s “hand-knitting operation,” saying, “We had to work to support the family, which we did since I was probably bar-mitzvahed at the age of 13.”

By the mid-1930s Vienna boasted 19 temples and 63 smaller houses of prayer. Charles Kurt recalled, “I remember distinctly that in that temple the women were on one side and the men were on the other side. It was a very, very beautiful temple on the inside.” Lily Stark said, “We were observing all the holidays very strictly.”

Fini Konstat and other survivors also recalled that Jewish religious instruction was included in their public-school curriculum. Outside of school, these survivors and their families participated in organizations such as the Chevra Kaddisha burial society, Hakoah sports club and Zionist Betar organization.

After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of neighboring Germany in 1933, the Jews of the Vienna became the targets of intensifying persecution. Lily Stark recalled an antisemitic group “started to rough us up” as she was leaving a meeting of her youth club. Fred Stark remembered, “I had brawls in school” and Hermann Rath recalled that Jews were ordered out of lecture halls and laboratories, where “they would beat us to a pulp.”

After Austria was incorporated into Germany during the Anschluss of March 1938, leaders of the Jewish community were arrested, the Chief Rabbi of the city was forced to sweep the street with his bare hands, and prominent Jews were robbed of their property and sent to Dachau. Survivor Ilse Marcks said, “They went to the synagogue, they took out the scrolls, and tore them up, and then made the Jewish men urinate on them.”

During the night of Kristallnacht in November 1939, 42 synagogues were burned, about 4,000 Jewish stores were looted, Jewish homes were broken into and thousands of Jews were arrested. Survivor Hans Peter Katz described how his father’s store was “pilfered, destroyed.” Charles Kurt remembered, “The street was an absolute sight. There were fixtures on the street. There were groceries on the street. There was glass, more glass, and more glass.”

Many Jews fled and by the end of 1939 only about 50,000 were left in the city. Of those that remained approximately 43,000 were deported to ghettoes in Eastern Europe, and finally to concentration camps.

In September 1942 the last mass transport of Jews left Vienna and in November the Jewish community was officially dissolved. More than 240 years of Jewish cultural life in Vienna was destroyed.