Josef the Lionheart

Josef the Lionheart

Josef Löwenherz (born August 6, 1884 in Piwowszczyzna, Galicia , † 1960 in New York ) was an Austrian Zionist , lawyer and official director of the Jewish Community of Vienna during the Nazi era .

Live and act

Lionheart, from a renowned Jewish family in Galicia , studied law at the University of Lviv . As a student he already belonged to Zionist organizations and took part as a delegate from the 10th to the 15th Zionist Congress . After the First World War he worked as a lawyer in Vienna . From 1924 to 1937 he was Vice President of the Jewish Community of Vienna and then full-time director of the " Jewish Community of Vienna ".

The occupation of the director's position in the “Jewish Community of Vienna” by Löwenherz was disputed within the community, since non-Zionists did not want this position to be filled by a Zionist and Löwenherz now switched from an honorary position to a full-time position. Löwenherz was an accomplished organizer and was in contact with the Joint Distribution Committee in the USA and Paris . Furthermore, he worked with the emigrant welfare organization established in Vienna in 1930 and was involved in the working group of Jewish religious communities in Austria.

Raid by the SS in the community building of the Israelite Community of Vienna on March 18, 1938. From left to right: Josef Löwenherz, Herbert Hagen , Adolf Eichmann .

After Austria was “annexed” to the German Reich , the “Jewish Community of Vienna” was closed by members of the SS on March 18, 1938 , and Löwenherz and other community leaders and other Jewish functionaries were arrested. According to his own statements, Adolf Eichmann slapped Lionheart while in custody . Löwenherz escaped deportation to the Dachau concentration camp because Eichmann commissioned him at the beginning of May 1938 to rebuild the Jewish community now known as the "Jewish Community of Vienna". Friedrich Plattner , State Commissioner for Education and Culture, tried in vain to thwart the appointment of Josef Löwenherz. Löwenherz was now not only the official director of the “Jewish Community of Vienna”, but also the first secretary and - supported by an advisory committee - had to take on the tasks of the presidium and other officials. In 1940 Benjamin Murmelstein became his deputy . In the exercise of his official duties, however, Lionheart was completely subject to the instructions of the SS and Gestapo .

The social, cultural and religious aspects within the community faded into the background, and the care of Jewish refugees gained more and more importance over time. Löwenherz was compelled by Eichmann to create a concept for the emigration of Viennese Jews. The results of this concept created the basis for the “ Central Office for Jewish Emigration ” created at the end of August 1938 , where he worked with Berthold Storfer , among others . As part of the “ Aryanization ”, from March 30, 1940, Löwenherz had to act as legal successor to all remaining Jewish religious communities in Austria. Löwenherz had to appear several times in the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in the so-called Eichmannreferat . As a representative of the “Jewish Community of Vienna”, he and Paul Eppstein from the Reich Association of Jews in Germany were informed by Eichmann in the presence of Rolf Günther and Friedrich Suhr that from September 19, 1941, all Jews in the German Reich must wear a Jewish star .

From 1 November 1942, after the possessed by the Nazis resolution of the "Jewish Community Vienna," he served as so-called Jews elder the "Elders of the Jews in Vienna" at desecrated City Temple of Seitenstettengasse 2 to 4, of all the " Alpen- und Donaureichsgau living nationals and stateless Jews" was responsible. A three-member advisory board, including Murmelstein, stood by Lionheart's side.

The remaining Jewish institutions, initially the “Jewish Community of Vienna” and later also the “Council of Elders”, were ultimately used by the Nazi authorities for the deportations , confiscation and persecution of Jews in Austria. Nevertheless, Löwenherz continued to try to allow Jewish fellow citizens to leave the country.

After the end of the war

In May 1945, Löwenherz was arrested by Red Army soldiers for collaborating with the NSDAP and was then interned in Czechoslovakia for three months . A preliminary investigation against him in Prague was closed and the allegations dropped. Then he surrendered to a Jewish court of honor in London, which acquitted him of any allegations of collaboration. Löwenherz moved via Switzerland with his wife Sophie to live with their children in the USA and lived in New York City . In the run-up to the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, he was asked by the Israeli consul in December 1960 to give written testimony for the trial. Löwenherz, who suffered from the experiences of the Nazi era, died of a heart attack just three days later.

Quote

In London in July 1945, Löwenherz spoke at a meeting of the Association of Jewish Refugees, at which the Vienna-born lawyer Franz Rudolf Bienenfeld assessed the situation in which Löwenherz found himself in Vienna as follows: “ Everyone who is in one of the Nazi-occupied country was forced to remain in a public position or was morally obliged to maintain such a position in the interest of his wards, had to work with the German authorities and in this sense he was a collaborator . "

literature

• Israel Gutman (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. The persecution and murder of the European Jews. Piper Verlag, Munich / Zurich 1998, 3 volumes, ISBN 3-492-22700-7 .
• Evelyn Adunka : The fourth church. The Viennese Jews from 1945 to the present day. Philo, Berlin / Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-8257-0163-8 .
• Marianne Enigl : In any case, the Jew is responsible (part 2). In: Profile . Edition 28, July 9, 2007, p. 36 ff.

Web links

• Marianne Enigl: Contemporary History: The Bureaucracy of the Victims - Austria's Jews: Their Life and Their Dying (Part 1). In: Profile . Issue 27, July 2, 2007, p. 30 ff.
• Guide to the Papers of Joseph the Lionheart (1884–1960). 1938–1960, AR 25055 / MF 546 (edited by Renate Evers). Leo Baeck Institute - Center for Jewish History.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Joseph Löwenherz (1884–1960) - Biographical Note. Leo Baeck Institute .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Israel Gutman (ed.): Encyclopedia of the Holocaust - The persecution and murder of European Jews. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1998, Volume 2, p. 902 f.
3. ↑ "Then I have Dr. Lionheart slapped ”. In: Welt Online . August 21, 1999.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Nagel: Between self-assertion and persecution: German-Jewish newspapers and magazines from the Enlightenment to National Socialism. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2002, ISBN 978-3-487-11627-3 , p. 83.
5. ↑ Document VEJ 2/50 in: Susanne Heim ( edit .): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 (source collection). Volume 2: German Reich 1938 – August 1939. Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58523-0 , pp. 184-185.
6. ↑ Jan Björn Potthast: The Jewish Central Museum of the SS in Prague - Opponent Research and Genocide under National Socialism. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-593-37060-3 , p. 47.
7. ^ Daniela Ellmauer, Albert Lichtblau , Historians Commission of the Republic of Austria: “Aryanizations”, confiscated assets, provisions and compensation in Salzburg. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Hildesheim 2004, ISBN 978-3-486-56780-9 , p. 141.
8. ^ Esriel Hildesheimer : Jewish self-government under the Nazi regime. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1994, ISBN 978-3-16-146179-8 , p. 204.
9. ↑ Michael Nagel: Between self-assertion and persecution: German-Jewish newspapers and magazines from the Enlightenment to National Socialism , Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2002, ISBN 978-3-487-11627-3 , p. 92.
10. ^ Rainer Mayerhofer: Vienna's Israelitische Kultusgemeinde after 1945: The Fourth Kehilah. In: haGalil onLine .
11. ^ Pierre Geneé, Bob Martens , Barbara Schedl: Jüdische Andachtsstätten in Wien before 1938. In: David . Jewish culture magazine.
12. ^ Central Archive for the History of the Jewish People. In: Zeitspiegel . July 20, 1945; quoted from Adunka: The fourth community. 2000, p. 19.