Austria Key Words

Key terminology, regions, and sites related to the Holocaust in Austria include:

• Anschluss The political union and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 13 March 1938. This event stripped Austria of its independence, enacted Nazi racial laws nationwide, and triggered immediate public violence against Austrian Jews.
• Aryanisation The forced expulsion of “non-Aryans” (primarily Jews) from business, commercial life, and property ownership, transferring their assets into the hands of the Nazi state or non-Jewish citizens.
• Displaced Persons’ Camps (DP Camps) Temporary facilities established by Allied forces after World War II across Austria, Germany, and Italy. They provided housing, medical care, and food for hundreds of thousands of homeless survivors who could not safely return to their home countries.
• Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) A series of violent, state-sponsored anti-Jewish pogroms on 9–10 November 1938. In Austria, the riots were exceptionally brutal; nearly all synagogues in Vienna were plundered and burned, Jewish businesses were destroyed, and thousands of Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
• Mauthausen The primary Nazi concentration camp complex established in Austria, located near Linz.