In October, the walking “Tour to places of Jewish life in Margareten”, which was first carried out in 2020, was resumed. Historian and Zelman award winner Gabriele Anderl led participants through Vienna’s 5th district on the trail of (vanished) Jewish life.
Textile manufacturer Bernhard Altmann and his family, the owners of the Margaretener Bürgerkino cinema, inhabitants of the municipal housing, small traders, and merchants – up until 1938, they all represented the diversity of Jewish life in Vienna’s 5th district, “Margareten”. And they were all subjected to persecution by the Nazis, of whom they became victims.
Following this, historian and journalist Gabriele Anderl led the group to the venues where this rich Jewish life once played out – from the synagogue on Siebenbrunnengasse, the religious center for Margareten’s Jews, to the Rosenbaum Brothers printing shop, all the way to the passport office for Jews. Basing the tour on her book “Jewish Life in Vienna-Margareten” (Mandelbaum Verlag), she narrated much more than just the stories of the victims. She also told of the predominantly Austrian perpetrators and profiteers who stole Jewish property on a large scale or sold it dirt-cheap to those loyal to the regime.
Gabriele Anderl is a scholar, author, and journalist, the 2016 Zelman award winner, worked at the Austrian Historical Commission, has been a member of the Commission for Provenance Research since 2005, and works as a freelancer for Radio Ö1. There are numerous publications by her on the Nazi policy of expulsion and pilferage as well as on exile research. What is more, she has also published a book – in collaboration with Evelyn Adunka – on erased Jewish life in Ottakring and Hernals (Vienna’s 16th and 17th districts).
The walking tour from 2020 was resumed in cooperation with the Austrian Society for Exile Research.
