The Jews of Vienna will be transported to the Lublin “reservation” in Poland at the rate of 15,000 monthly until the city is “free of Jews,” several Budapest newspapers reported today.
The first group of 1,100 have already been sent to Lublin. The remainder will be transported in 12 trainloads monthly with the aim of “cleaning up” the Austrian capital by June 1.
Deportees are permitted to carry a maximum of 100 kilograms of baggage. They are allowed whatever money they have available, but must exchange it for zlotys at the National Bank before departing. It is announced that they will be housed in “comfortable, electrically-heated barracks,” but it is not mentioned how they will be able to earn a living.
The Nazis had begun deporting Jews of Polish origin from Vienna three months ago, but the transport of 1,100 marks the beginning of the expulsion of Austrian Jews. The papers recalled that Marshal Hermann Goering, in a speech shortly after Annuluses, predicted that “four years from now there will not be a single Jew left in Vienna.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
