Surprising Discovery at the Jewish Museum

ORF, August 4, 2024

German original: https://wien.orf.at/stories/3267695/

A surprising discovery was made during archive work at the Jewish Museum Vienna: historical files from the possession of the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG) from the time of National Socialism and the immediate post-war period were discovered.

"The files that have been found bear witness to the National Socialist policy of extermination of the Jewish population of Vienna," says museum director Barbara Staudinger. "But they also tell of the immediate post-war period and the situation of the displaced persons."

Patient books, escape documents and a death register

"This is another piece of the puzzle that will help to provide a complete documentation of the crimes of the National Socialists, but also of the new beginning of Jewish life in Austria." The documents are now to be returned to the Jewish Community. The files include, for example, two patient books from the Rothschild Hospital from the years 1938/39.

From 1938 to 1943, the hospital of the Jewish Community was the only one in Vienna that was open to Jews. The bundles of files also contain documents relating to the flight of Viennese Jews to Cuba and the USA, as well as a death register of the Jewish Community.

Archive only discovered in storage room in 2000

Similar finds have been made in the past. The archive of the Jewish Community, which had been recovered after 1945, was only rediscovered in a storage room in Vienna's 15th district in 2000.

The files now discovered in the Jewish Museum Vienna belong to this archive. "This find once again clearly shows how important historical research is, even within museums," says Staudinger. "Without it, the files would probably never have been found."

Collection online from fall

The archive holdings of the Jewish Museum Vienna are currently being digitized. This involves research and inventory work. For example, bundles of files are being opened and the documents and papers they contain are being individually recorded for the first time. This work is being done in preparation for the museum's own online collection, which will be published in the fall.

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