1939–1945: Shoah (Holocaust) Exhibition at the House of Austrian History

This entry details the Shoah, also known as the Holocaust, the systematic genocide of Jewish people initiated and organized by Germans and Austrians during World War II. It outlines the historical context, methods of persecution, and the devastating impact of this event, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 6 million people.

The entry "1939–1945: Shoah" meticulously documents the systematic genocide of Jewish communities across German-occupied Europe during World War II, an event initiated and orchestrated by Germans and Austrians. It elaborates on the historical progression from escalating antisemitic persecution to the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question," employing euphemisms like "special treatment" and "resettlement" to mask extermination. The text details the forced ghettoization of Jewish populations, mass shootings, industrial-scale killings in extermination camps, and the forced death marches survivors endured. Beyond the Jewish victims, the entry also acknowledges the persecution of Soviet prisoners of war, Slavic civilians, Roma and Sinti, people with disabilities, homosexuals, political opponents, and Jehovah's Witnesses under the National Socialists' biologiistically-racist ideology. The historical roots of the Shoah are traced back to centuries of anti-Jewish sentiment, the rise of racist antisemitism in the late 19th century, and the discriminatory, dispossession, and expulsion measures implemented by the Nazi regime since 1933. The Anschluss in 1938 extended these policies to Austria. The entry notes that of the approximately 200,000 Austrian Jews persecuted from 1938 onwards, around 65,000 were killed, while survivors fled or were displaced after the Anschluss or the start of the war. The content is authored by Dirk Rupnow and is part of the museum's "Lexicon zur Zeitgeschichte."