Dr. Richard Lowenhertz, head of the Jewish community in Vicnna during the Nazi occupation, who was reported to have been arrested by the Russian military administration upon the entry of the Red Army into the Austrian capital, is now a patient in the Jewish Hospital here and intends to return to Vienna as soon as he recovers.
In an interview with the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Dr. Lowenhertz said that he left Vienna when the Russian troops started to move into the city. He then started on an adventurous and difficult trip to Prague during which he broke an arm. He was placed in the Jewish Hospital upon reaching here.
“I am very proud of the fact that I helped 136,000 Jews to emigrate from Austria during the Nazi regime,” Dr. Lowenhertz said. “I succeeded in getting then out of Nazi hands even though the Gestape arrested me several times. Shertly before the Germans retreated from Vienna, there were still 6,000 Austrian Jews and 15,000 deported Hungarian Jews in Austria. The Germans made an effort to exterminate them even during the last few days. Two hours before leaving Vienna, German soldiers raided shelters searching for Jews. In one cellar off Fuerstergasse, the Gestapo men discovered seven Jews and executed them on the spot.”
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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.
