How did Nazi rule affect Vienna’s Jewish population?

Following the 1938 Anschluss, Nazi rule had a catastrophic impact on Vienna’s Jewish population, who had previously played a prominent role in the city’s cultural and economic life.1

The Nazi regime implemented the "Viennese model" (Wiener Modell), a systematic program of persecution that served as a blueprint for the expulsion of Jews across German-occupied territories. This model included:23

• Violence and Destruction: During Kristallnacht in November 1938, dozens of synagogues and hundreds of Jewish shops and apartments in Vienna were destroyed or plundered.23
• Aryanization: The Nazis engaged in the "Aryanization" of Jewish property, which involved the forcible confiscation of assets.23
• Exile and Extermination: By the start of World War II in 1939, roughly half of Austria's Jewish population had been forced into exile. Of those who remained, the vast majority were either murdered in extermination camps or perished due to the conditions of the Holocaust.231

Today, the Jewish community in Vienna is significantly smaller, representing less than 1 percent of the city's population.1