Jews in Medieval Vienna

The first Jew mentioned in Viennese documents was called Shlom. He was installed as mint master by Duke Leopold V in 1194. Shlom, his family and other Jews - a total of 16 persons - were murdered by marauding crusaders.

However, the Jewish Community persisted, and the first Viennese ghetto developed around today's Judenplatz square. Centuries later, in 1995, a synagogue was excavated here - in the late 13th Century, it had been one of the biggest of its kind and attracted the most illustrious rabbis of the era as teachers.

Yet Jews were not allowed to own real estate or farm the land. Likewise, they were barred from most trades and crafts. This left commerce - in particular money-lending against the payment of interest - the only option, which often entailed hostility on the part of Christian debtors.

This was exacerbated by accusations of host desecration and allegations of ritual murder frequently raised against Jews in the Middle Ages. This anti-Semitic climate reached its apex in one of the most terrible pogroms ever: in 1420/21, Vienna's Jews were expelled and murdered. Many committed collective suicide, immolating themselves together with their synagogue. Their death, like that of the Jews in Poland centuries later, was a consequence of an insane racist doctrine: Members of the SS and the German army (the Wehrmacht), too, drove Jews into synagogues and prayer houses, where they were burnt alive.