After the Anschluss on March 12, 1938, Vienna became a model city for the systematic expulsion of Jews. In a very short time, the third-largest Jewish community in Europe was wiped out through emigration, deportation, and murder. For those who managed to flee abroad, this meant the loss of their bourgeois existence, their possessions, and their homeland. Jewish Viennese were scattered all over the world: to European countries, North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. They had to rebuild their lives in a foreign country.
The loss of their homeland weighed heavily on the displaced persons. Without language, career prospects, or social connections, they found it difficult to gain a foothold in exile. Due to further persecution, arrests, or deportations from their first countries of refuge, some had to emigrate several times before finally finding a safe place somewhere. Life in exile was anything but easy, peaceful, and smooth.
The vast majority never returned from exile. The city that had expelled them was no longer their home. The exhibition tells the life stories of displaced Viennese and thus illuminates the complex dimensions of loss of home and exile.
Curator: Caitlin Gura
