Austria first became a center of Jewish learning during the 13th century. However, increasing antisemitism led to the expulsion of the Jews in 1669. Following formal readmission in 1848, a sizable Jewish community developed once again, contributing strongly to Austrian culture. By the 1930s, some 300,000 Jews lived in Austria, most of them in Vienna. Following the Anschluss with Nazi Germany, most of the community emigrated or were killed in the Holocaust. The current Austrian Jewish population is 9,000.[1] The following is a list of some prominent Austrian Jews. Here German-speaking Jews from the whole Habsburg Monarchy are listed.
Hans Haas, weightlifter, Olympic champion (lightweight), silver
Judith Haspel (born "Judith Deutsch"), Austrian-born Israeli swimmer, held every Austrian women's middle and long distance freestyle record in 1935, refused to represent Austria in 1936 Summer Olympics along with Ruth Langer and Lucie Goldner, protesting Hitler, stating, "I refuse to enter a contest in a land which so shamefully persecutes my people."[3]
Dr. Otto Herschmann, fencer (saber), 2-time Olympic silver winner (in fencing/team sabre and 100-m freestyle); arrested by Nazis, and died in Izbica concentration camp
Otto Wahle, Austria/US swimmer, two-time Olympic silver (1,000-m freestyle, 200-m obstacle race) and bronze (400-m freestyle); International Swimming Hall of Fame
Victor Frederick Weisskopf (1908–2002), physicist; during World War II, worked at Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb; later campaigned against the proliferation of nuclear weapons[10]
Max Perutz, molecular biologist, winner of 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Kurt Kren (1929–1998), experimental filmmaker, director of the avant garde films 8/64: Ana – Aktion Brus, 10/65: Selbstverstümmelung, 10b/65: Silber – Aktion Brus, 16/67: 20. September, and 10c/65: Brus wünscht euch seine Weihnachten (Jewish father)
Reggie Nalder (1907–1991), cabaret dancer, stage, film and television actor
^[4] "Growing up in Vienna in a well-to-do Jewish family..." [5] "One of the most brilliant Jewish scientists to be driven from Germany by Nazi persecution..."
^[Gresser, Moshe. Dual Allegiance: Freud As a Modern Jew. SUNY Press, 1994, p. 225]
^Jewish Chronicle, April 27, 2001 p.34: "he believed that, as a Jew, he was capable of only derivative thought."
^Evening Standard (London), 24/5/2004, p15: "Born less than a week apart, Adolf Hitler and the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein attended the institution together. There is a haunting school photograph of the young, complex, Jewish philosopher just one row away from the most evil tyrant of the 20th century."
^Bing - [7] Rudolf Bing... had been born a Jew in Vienna"
^Jewish: "Contemporary Review, June, 1999 by Anthony Paterson" "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-04-10. Retrieved 2006-10-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) "the Nazi ban on his compositions - he was Jewish" Accessed 6 Nov 2006. born Moravia: "Composers of Classical Music" [8] "Brull, Ignaz 1846-1907 Moravia, Prossnitz - Austria, Vienna" Accessed 6 November 2006.
^"The Penguin Dictionary of Musical Performers", Arthur Jacobs, ISBN0-14-051160-1, "Under threat as a Jew from Nazi persecution, settled in Britain, 1938."
^Korngold SocietyArchived 2006-12-09 at the Wayback Machine: "he got thrown out of Vienna because he was Jewish" Jessica Duchen, author of E. Korngold's biography; Korngold Society: "BRNO, where the composer was born"; accessed 6 Feb 2007.
^"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-07-02. Retrieved 2007-06-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) "German-Jewish writers: Paul Kornfeld"
^The Literary Encyclopedia: "Karl Kraus was born in Jicin (or Gitschin), Czechoslovakia (then a part of Austria-Hungary) into a Jewish family." Accessed 8 Feb 2007.
^[15][permanent dead link] "Everyone knows Walt Disney's Bambi. Far fewer know that the author of the original book was the Austrian writer, Felix Salten."
^Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "His grandfather Jacob had established the family as one of the first Jewish families to acquire great wealth and social acceptability in Bavaria... His mother came from an Orthodox Frankfurt family and ensured that the children were properly instructed in Jewish matters... He was a citizen of Austria-Hungary at his death."
^Jewish Encyclopedia "born June 10, 1759, at Prostiebor, near Kladrau, in the district of Pilsen, Bohemia" accessed 8 Feb 2007