Germany Annexes Austria

Austria had endured a prolonged period of economic stagnation, political dictatorship, and intense Nazi propaganda, when German troops entered the country on March 12, 1938. The Germans received enthusiastic support from most of the population, and Austria was incorporated into Germany the next day. In April, this German annexation was retroactively approved in a plebiscite manipulated to indicate that about 99 percent of the Austrian people wanted the union (known as the Anschluss) with Germany. Neither Jews nor Roma (Gypsies) were allowed to vote in the plebiscite.

Widespread antisemitic actions and political violence followed quickly on the heels of the Anschluss. Austria’s leading politicians were imprisoned, and anyone opposing Nazi rule was subject to arrest, torture, and death. Jews particularly were attacked and humiliated on the streets. The Gestapo, along with Austrian Nazis and sympathizers, looted Jewish belongings, seized Jewish businesses, and arrested those who refused to surrender their property. Furthermore, the Nazis applied German anti-Jewish legislation almost immediately, forcing Jews from their positions, and essentially expelling them from the country’s economic, social, and cultural life. At the time of the Anschluss, Austria had a Jewish population of about 192,000, representing almost 4 percent of the total population. Tens of thousands fled Nazi persecution, and by December 1939 only 57,000 Jews remained in Austria.