Kristallnacht Commemoration 2026

The Jews of Nazi Vienna: Rescue and Destruction

Join historian Dr. Ilana Offenberger as she examines the experiences of Vienna’s Jewish community under Nazi rule. Drawing on years of archival research, Dr. Offenberger explores how Jews navigated persecution through resilience, rescue efforts, and acts of survival while confronting the rapid destruction of a centuries-old community. Her lecture will illuminate both the devastating impact of Nazi policies and the extraordinary human stories that emerged in their wake.

Local residents watch the burning of the ceremonial hall at the Jewish cemetery in Graz during Kristallnacht (the “Night of Broken Glass”). Graz, Austria, November 9–10, 1938. Dokumentationsarchiv des Oesterreichischen Widerstandes

As the capital of Austria, Vienna was home to one of Europe’s most vibrant Jewish communities before the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938. Following the Anschluss, Austrian Jews faced immediate persecution, dispossession, and violence, culminating in the devastation of Kristallnacht and the deportation of tens of thousands to ghettos and concentration camps.

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Dr. Offenberger is Associate Teaching Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and author of The Jews of Nazi Vienna, 1938–1945: Rescue and Destruction. Her research focuses on the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, Jewish responses to persecution, and the history of Vienna’s Jewish community.