Description
Here is an account of the debasement of one of Europe's great cities. Thomas Weyr shows how Hitler turned Vienna, a once vibrant city that was the cradle of modernism, into a third-rate Prussian provincial town. In this narrative, we meet Austrian traitors like Arthur Seyss-Inquart and mass murderers like Odilo Globocnik, proconsuls like Joseph Burckel, who hacked Austria into seven pieces, and Baldur von Schirach, who dreamed of making Vienna into a Danubian capital - and failed miserably. More painfully, Weyr chronicles the swift destruction of a deeply ingrained Jewish culture and the removal of the city's 200,000 Jews through murder, exile, and deportation. He further shows how Hitler throttled the spirit of what remained through changes in education, city government, cultural life, even the architectural form of the city. The book includes Weyr's own experiences as a child in Vienna under Nazi rule in 1938, along with those of his parents and friends, but the book is not simply a memoir; it is a full historical narrative that chillingly captures the spiritual and cultural ruin that Hitler inflicted on this once-great city.
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When Adolf Hitler seized Vienna in the Anschluss of 1938, he called the city "a pearl to which he would give a proper setting." But the setting he left behind seven years later was one of ruin and destruction--a physical, spiritual, and intellectual wasteland. Here is a grippingly narrated and heartbreaking account of the debasement of one of Europe's great cities. Thomas Weyr shows how Hitler turned Vienna from a vibrant metropolis that was the cradle of modernism into a drab provincial town. In this riveting narrative, we meet Austrian traitors like Arthur Seyss-Inquart and mass murderers like Odilo Globocnik; proconsuls like Joseph Buerckel, who hacked Austria into seven pieces, and Baldur von Schirach, who dreamed of making Vienna into a Nazi capital on the Danube--and failed miserably. More painfully, Weyr chronicles the swift destruction of a rich Jewish culture and the removal of the city's 200,000 Jews through murder, exile, and deportation. Vienna never regained the global role the city had once played. Today, Weyr concludes, only the monuments remain--beautiful but lifeless. This is not only the story of Nazi leaders but of how the Viennese themselves lived and died: those who embraced Hitler, those who resisted, and the many who merely, in the local phrase, "ran after the rabbit." The author draws on his own experiences as a child in Vienna under Nazi rule in 1938, and those of his parents and friends, plus extensive documentary research, to craft a vivid historical narrative that chillingly captures how a once-great city lost its soul under Hitler.
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