Austria: Home Of Jews By the Year of 906 and Annihilated By the Year 1940

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                   

 The World's best Banana Bavarian Whipped Cream Cake (recipe on internet), from the past Bohemian Bakery comes to mind when thinking about Austria.  It was enjoyed here in Portland, Oregon at  Kienow's on E. Burnside & 55th.  My mother loved to splurge and buy something special from this bakery. Time has marched on and we no longer have a Kienows which closed in 1999 to become QFC or the famous Bohemian Bakery, or Bohemia, for that matter.  It's now called Czechoslovakia or more up to date Czech Republic. 

 "Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast." I'm thinking about it because my new friend's father was a baker from Austria whose specialty was in cakes.  Her father immigrated around 1934  and she was born in the mid 40s in the USA.  They were not Jewish but Catholic, also wanting to get out of Austria.  Austria and Germany were Catholic countries.  After the Reformation started by Martin Luther in the early 16th century, many people left the Catholic Church and became Protestant, mainly Lutheran and Calvinist. 

Jews had lived in Austria for 1,034 years.  Jews were mentioned in a document in 906 with Jewish and Christian merchants being on the same footing.  

The Nazi annexation of Austria on March 12, 1938 led to an unprecedented  persecution of Jews.  80,000 emigrated from 1938 to 1940.  100,000  were annihilated, however in the Holocaust.  By 1990, there surprisingly had developed a Jewish population of 12,000 who whom 11,000 were living in Vienna.  The total country population of Austria today is : 8,900,000.  

"Core Jewish population of Austria today in 2024 is : 10,300.  The “core” Jewish population includes people who self-identify as Jewish in social surveys, and do not have another monotheistic religion. It also includes people who may not recognise themselves as Jewish, but have Jewish parents and have not adopted a different religious identity. It further includes all converts to Judaism by any procedure, as well as other people who declare themselves to be Jewish even without having undergone conversion."

Then Jews were being persecuted in Germany which drove numbers into Austria.  By 1204 a synagogue was referenced  in Vienna.  In 1238, the emperor Frederick II granted a charter to the Jews of Vienna. Jews were now under his protection.  By 1244, Duke Frederick, the Quarrelsome, gave the Jews a new charter which was later used as the model in other places.  "Born in Wiener Neustadt in 1211, Frederick was the second surviving son of the Babenberg duke Leopold VI of Austria and Theodora Angelina, a Byzantine princess. The death of his elder brother Henry in 1228 made him the only heir to the Austrian and Styrian duchies.

The period between the 13th and 15th centuries  was marked by serious persecutions against Jews, culminating in 1420 with a false charge of ritual murder.  All the Jews in Austria were either burned, expelled, or forcibly baptized as Catholics.  We remember that Columbus sailed in 1492 with some Marranos (hidden Jews).  The Spanish Inquisition had taken place before then.   Therefore, some remained and later were subject to further restrictions and local expulsions until 1670. 

 It was then that another general expulsion  was decreed through the influence of the Spanish-born empress, Margaret Theresa, b: 1651.  Jews reappeared the following century but also suffered from the hostility of Maria Theresa.  "Margaret Theresa of Spain was, by marriage to Leopold I, Holy Roman Empress, German Queen, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. She was the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain and the elder full-sister of Charles II, the last of the Spanish Habsburgs." Some Hungarian nobles protected Jewish refugees who sought refuge from Vienna in 1670.  

Maria Theresa of Spain b:1638 was Queen of France from 1660 to 1683 as the wife of King Louis XIV. She was born an Infanta of Spain and Portugal as the daughter of King Philip IV and Elisabeth of France, and was also an Archduchess of Austria as a member of the Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg.

Joseph II (ruler from 1780-1790) was her successor, and he created the Edict of Toleration  in 1782.  It was designed to enforce  emancipation and hasten assimilation, but the Jews received full rights only in Hungary.  His ruling brought Jews the right to establish schools, lease lands, engage in all trades and professions, and live in the royal cities.  Joseph II (born March 13, 1741, Vienna, Austria—died Feb. 20, 1790, Vienna) was the Holy Roman emperor (1765–90), at first co-ruler with his mother, Maria Theresa (1765–80), and then sole ruler (1780–90) of the Austrian Habsburg dominions.

Resource:

Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anschluss

https://alamedahistory.org/2019/01/04/goodbye-again-kienows/

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia