Language:
German
Year of publication:
2002
Titel der Quelle:
Das Jüdische Echo
Angaben zur Quelle:
51 (2002) 53-58
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews
Abstract:
Starting from the case of Wilhelm Reisz, an employee of the Viennese Jewish community who was convicted by an Austrian war crimes court in 1945 for having collaborated with the SS in picking up fellow Jews for deportation, discusses the quandary in which the community was forced to function. Community leaders did the Nazis' bidding not merely to save their own lives and that of their families, but in the hope that by this means they could save larger numbers of Jews. They were duped by the Nazis, the more easily because they were the first of the Jewish councils and had no experience of Nazi tactics, and no knowledge of the nature of the destination of the deportations. Resistance was useless, because the Jewish population was fragmentized and they could expect no solidarity from the Viennese. Many were finally themselves deported and killed; those who survived were beset with guilt feelings.
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