Hitler’s visit to Vienna shortly after the annexation of Austria, 1938

An online event hosted by The Wiener Holocaust Library and Generation 2 Generation.

To mark the anniversary of the German takeover of Austria, join The Wiener Holocaust Library and Generation 2 Generation to consider the significance of the Anschluss and its impact on the Jewish Community in Austria, as well as hearing some individual stories of Austrian Jews.

The event will feature a panel discussion on the Anschluss, its impact, aftermath and memory, as well a short film featuring some first-hand survivor testimonies provided by family of G 2 G speakers Judith Hayman (on her aunt Frieda Reisz) and Jane Curzon (mother Stella Curzon), Erich Schloss (Eva Schloss) and Peter Kammerling (father Walter Kammerling).

About the speakers:

Michaela Raggam-Blesch is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna, where she is working on her habilitation on “Mixed Families” during the Nazi period in Vienna. She is guest lecturer at the Universities of Vienna, Klagenfurt and Graz. She has been the recipient of various fellowships and was awarded with the Leon Zelman Prize in 2022. Michaela Raggam-Blesch is curator of several exhibitions on the Holocaust – most recently of the exhibit on the Vienna Model of Radicalization: Austria and the Shoah.

Tim Kirk is Professor of European History at the University of Newcastle. His research interests are primarily modern central Europe and in Austria and Germany in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the politics and political culture of fascism and he has published widely on the history of Austria, and the history of Nazi Germany, including its culture and ideology.

Evan Burr Bukey is Emeritus Professor of History at The University of Arkansas. He has published widely on the history of Nazi Austria and other subjects. His most recent book is Juvenile Crime and Dissent in Nazi Vienna, 1938-1945 (Bloomsbury, 2021). He has received numerous awards for his work and his research.

Generation 2 Generation, (G2G) provides speakers to tell their family Holocaust stories integrating eyewitness survivor testimony and family artefacts.

Event guidelines for those joining online:

1. The Library will send you a Zoom link and joining instructions via email prior to the event. Please check your junk email folders.
2. Please try and join 5 minutes before the event start time and we will let you into the room (do try and bear with us if this takes a few minutes).
3. If you would like to ask a question during the event, please type your question into the chat function, and we will endeavour to answer as many questions as possible during the Q&A. Your webcam will not be seen during this event.
4. The event will be recorded for the Library’s YouTube channel and will be shared at a later date.