Prologue

Until April 1934, I lived in Munich but was forced to leave for Strasbourg early on the morning of April 20, driven out by the SA. As a member of the Socialist Party, I was unable to return to Vienna, my hometown, as the political situation there made it inadvisable.

My stay in France lasted only until the end of 1934. I faced difficulties obtaining a work permit, and working illegally carried risks I was unwilling to take. Therefore, I sought to reach Czechoslovakia by avoiding German-controlled territory, as it was considered a model host country for socialist emigrants.

Even the journey, with all its challenges, would be worth recounting in detail. With very little travel money and struggling with language barriers, I traveled through Moravia. Human kindness and cruelty lay so close together that one could never be sure whether they faced a friend or an enemy. Uncertainty bred hesitation and distrust.

After nearly three months of wandering, I finally found work and shelter in February 1935 in Brno, the capital of Moravia. I lived there for over two years, modestly but relatively free of worry, despite my limited language skills.

The continued pressure of the National Socialists on Austria eventually loosened the persecution of socialists there. Hoping for better economic prospects, I moved to Vienna in January 1937. At the time, the two-state theory was widely believed, and who could have predicted the extent of Hitler’s ambitions?

The year 1937 passed quickly. I met and fell in love with my wife, marrying her on February 6, 1938. During our honeymoon, we were startled by news of Schuschnigg’s visit to Obersalzberg. The communiqué from this meeting made me sense what was to come, and I began planning another emigration.

However, the looming difficulties proved insurmountable. I faced the events that followed without the slightest resistance.

The German invasion of Austria on March 10, 1938, my arrest on March 22, 1938, and my deportation to the labor camp in Kaprun on November 10, 1938 (“Kristallnacht”), culminating in the first transport of Jews from Vienna to Poland on January 10, 1940—these are dates well-documented in literature and the press and need not be elaborated here. My personal experiences, however, are, to my knowledge, unknown to the public, and I wish to begin by recounting the story of the first transport of Viennese Jews to Opole, in Lublin County.