GB 1556 WL 1180 - Order regarding measures against Jews in Vienna (1938)

1 file

Document captured by the US Third Army.

GB 1556 WL 1180 1938 Collection level 1 file Führer des SS Oberabschnittes Österreich , Vienna

The Austrian branch of the SS developed in 1934 as a covert force to influence the Anschluss with Germany which would occur in 1938. The early Austrian SS was led by Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Arthur Seyss-Inquart. The Austrian SS was technically under the command of the German SS and Heinrich Himmler but acted independently concerning Austrian affairs.

Austrian SS men served under the same manner as the Allgemeine-SS but operated as an underground organisation, in particular after 1936 when the Austrian government declared the SS an illegal organisation. The Austrian SS used the same rank system as the regular SS, but rarely used uniforms or identifying insignia. Photographic evidence indicates that Austrian SS men typically would wear a swastika armband on civilian clothes, and then only at secret SS meetings.

After 1938, when Austria was annexed by Germany, the Austrian SS was completely incorporated into the regular SS. Most of the Austrian SS was folded into Oberabschnitt Donau with a new concentration camp at Mauthausen opened under the authority of the SS Death's Head units.

Document captured by the US Third Army.

Jewish Central Information Office

Order from the Führer des SS Oberabschnittes Österreich, Vienna, to all SS units referring to an order of Gauleiter Buerckel that all section leaders were to be responsible for preventing actions by the SS against Jews and that if measures have to be taken against Jews these would be carried out by the authorities and the Gestapo, 5 April 1938.

N/A

Open

Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.

German

Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.

Entry compiled by Howard Falksohn.

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

January 2008 Austria Austrian history Buerckel , Joseph , 1895-1944 , teacher and Gautleiter Europe European history Führer des SS Oberabschnittes Österreich , Vienna Genocide Gestapo x Geheimes Staatspolizei Holocaust Humanitarian law Jews National history Nazism Political doctrines Religious groups Third Reich Totalitarianism War crimes Western Europe

Jewish Central Information Office

Order from the Führer des SS Oberabschnittes Österreich, Vienna, to all SS units referring to an order of Gauleiter Buerckel that all section leaders were to be responsible for preventing actions by the SS against Jews and that if measures have to be taken against Jews these would be carried out by the authorities and the Gestapo, 5 April 1938.

N/A

Open

Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.

• Engels

• Latijn

German

Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

• Engels