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Wiener Library

Order regarding measures against Jews in Vienna (1938)

IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 1556 WL 1180

Held at: Wiener Library

Title: Order regarding measures against Jews in Vienna (1938)

Date(s): 1938

Level of description: Collection level

Extent: 1 file

Name of creator(s): Führer des SS Oberabschnittes Österreich | Vienna

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Austrian branch of the SS developed in 1934 as a covert force to influence the Anschluss with Germany which would occur in 1938. The early Austrian SS was led by Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Arthur Seyss-Inquart. The Austrian SS was technically under the command of the German SS and Heinrich Himmler but acted independently concerning Austrian affairs.

Austrian SS men served under the same manner as the Allgemeine-SS but operated as an underground organisation, in particular after 1936 when the Austrian government declared the SS an illegal organisation. The Austrian SS used the same rank system as the regular SS, but rarely used uniforms or identifying insignia. Photographic evidence indicates that Austrian SS men typically would wear a swastika armband on civilian clothes, and then only at secret SS meetings.

After 1938, when Austria was annexed by Germany, the Austrian SS was completely incorporated into the regular SS. Most of the Austrian SS was folded into Oberabschnitt Donau with a new concentration camp at Mauthausen opened under the authority of the SS Death's Head units.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Order from the Führer des SS Oberabschnittes Österreich, Vienna, to all SS units referring to an order of Gauleiter Buerckel that all section leaders were to be responsible for preventing actions by the SS against Jews and that if measures have to be taken against Jews these would be carried out by the authorities and the Gestapo, 5 April 1938.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: German

System of arrangement:

N/A

Conditions governing access:

Open

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Accruals:

Archival history:

Document captured by the US Third Army.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Jewish Central Information Office

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Howard Falksohn.