“Visits” to the homes of Jewish residents took place under the pretext of looking for weapons. In countless cases the residents were forced to leave home within a few minutes, their keys were taken from them and they wander in despair round the streets or in the vicinity of Vienna where they had fled to escape further persecution. Only later did they feel confident enough to go to relatives or friends.
One of my acquaintances wrote me a despairing letter from the streets on the night of 10th to 11th November in which she, a young life-loving person, announced her suicide if the efforts I had been making for a long time to obtain a position in a household here for her did not succeed very quickly. “She cannot stand it any longer. It is ghastly.” I received a letter from her dated the 13th November, by when she still had not had her key returned to her. “Whether we can survive this is a huge question.”
During the “visits” young men were routinely taken away. Some had the “luck” to be released after some hours, their treatment during the time of their imprisonment was however barbaric. A former member of the Union österreichischer Juden, Vienna Kultusvorsteher, head of a large branch of Merkurbank, Director Jacques Weiger, was so badly punched that his eardrum was damaged and he is lying in bed with severe pains in his body. Similarly a former Kultusvorsteher of the Union of Austrian Jews, the Prokurist of the Vienna Giro and Deposit Bank, Dr. Ernst Feldberg, who until recently had a position in the Vienna Kultusgemeinde as director of the cemetery office, was arrested in spite of his job in the Kultusgemeinde and badly battered.
The fate of thousands who were not released after their arrests but instead “properly” imprisoned remains totally unknown. That the authorities were not bothered by needing “reasons” for imprisonment is demonstrated by the fact that amongst those imprisoned and still held are doctors to whom Bewilligung had recently been granted as “Krankenbehandler”, to treat Jewish patients. What is happening to those in prison is still not known, their location cannot be determined; it was stated merely that they have been sent to do Zwangsarbeit in the Altreich.
“Less harmful” were those “visits” during which the uninvited guests satisfied themselves by taking valuables and money with them; one case is known to me in which the gentlemen were not content with watches and chains but also took a wedding ring. In some cases the “visits” were repeated a number of times.
The order concerning closure of all educational buildings and places of entertainment for Jews has not hit them particularly hard because already only small number of Jews visited such places. Most of them had not dared to go out onto the street for weeks for fear of jostling. It is also significant that – apart from at coffee houses and inns – the Jews are “not wanted" even at confectioners.
Internal Jewish community life has been killed off completely; my prophesy concerning this at the end of my first long report has been proved correct in a shorter time than I had expected. It is known that the “Zionistische Rundschau” like all Jewish newspapers in Germany had to close. It may be less well known that rabbis have been forbidden to preach so that the unfortunate Jews in Vienna now also have to do without this spiritual support. As already reiterated in recent times, it can be assumed that from now on no evening services can take place and at best short morning prayers. Vienna is not affected by the banning of the Kulturbund because this institution had never been permitted to be set up there anyway. Recent endeavours on the part of Director Hellmer, working in Germany at one time and Director of the “Theatre on the Wien” before the turmoil, and which appeared almost to have borne fruit, have of course failed once and for all.
