More than 500 Jews were under arrest in Austria tonight as the Nazi purge swept into its third day, throwing Austria’s 200,000 Jews into complete panic.
Nazis continued to raid and close Jewish institutions one after another, pillaged Jewish shops and, in some instances, committed desecrations against synagogues. As the Hitler Government speeded its campaign to reduce Austrian Jewry to the status of their 370,000 brethren in Germany proper, Jews avoided the streets, dreading even to speak.
Most of the 500 arrested, it was ascertained, are business men who had been denounced. all the money in their possession or found in their homes has been confiscated and their families left penniless.
In the course of the last three days, most of the Jewish shops in Brigitenau, Jewish suburb of Vienna, have been pillaged, Nazis carrying off merchandise either individually or on trucks.
WELL-KNOWN STORES LOOTED
Similar developments occurred in Leopoldstadt, Jewish quarter in Vienna proper, where in some cases Nazi storm troopers left receipts for the goods. All Jewish shops in the Prater have been pillaged and then demolished. The well-known Krupnik department Store was entirely plundered by storm troops. Krupnik himself was arrested. The Gerstl Dry Goods Store and the Schein Carpet Firm were similarly treated, while the Schiffman Brothers Department Store was expropriated and all Jewish employes dismissed.
Despite strict orders against Looting, police were forced to disperse looters in the Bormutsrasse at the point of revolvers. Doors and windows of some synagogues were broken and the holy Scrolls torn up and burned. Hebrew shields were removed from the Leopoldstadt Polish synagogue.
Consulting rooms of Jewish doctors and dentists are closed, the majority preferring to remove outside signs to avoid attracting attention of the Nazis. large Nazi crowds constantly gather to Jeer and torment the queue of Jews lined up before the Polish Consulate to obtain visas to return to Poland.
The offices of the Jewish Community were raided and all funds found there confiscated.
A decree was issued today ordering all municipal employes with the exception of Jews and "non-Aryans," who are automatically dismissed from the municipal service, to take the oath to Hitler.
A proclamation was expected momentarily putting into effect in the new Reich State the Nuremberg Laws adopted by the Reichstag in September, 1935, establishing a second-class citizenship for the Jews, setting severe penalties for "race defilement" and forbidding them to hire German maids under 40 or to display the swastika.
LOEWI, NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, ARRESTED
The latest prominent Jew to fall victim to the Nazi purge is Professor Otto Loewi of Graz, 1936 joint winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, who was arrested by the Nazi police. Professor Loewi was a prominent member of the Graz University medical faculty.
The arrest of Dr. Heinrich Neumann, famous ear specialist, who has treated the duke of Windsor and King George of England, was confirmed. Ten prominent Jews were arrested in Linz and their property confiscated "for activities injurious to the nation."
The first step in depriving Jews of their civil rights came today with the official announcement that Jews will not be permitted to vote in the Nation-wide plebiscite called for April 10 to ratify the Austro-German Anschluss.
Lodges of the B’nai B’rith, international Jewish fraternal order with Headquarters in Washington, have been dissolved. Ten employes were arrested, charged with contributing to the Schuschnigg regime. Other Jewish organizations dissolved include the famous Hakoah Sports club, which has produced many swimming, wrestling and soccer champions.
Expulsion of all Jewish students from Vienna University was expected to follow the appointment of Fritz Knoll, a prominent Nazi, as head of the university.
Uniformed Nazis were seen picketing Jewish shops all over Vienna, seeking to influence would-be purchasers not to enter. The picketing recalled the nation-wide anti-Jewish boycott launched by Hitler when he took power in Germany, in March, 1933.
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.
