The memorial book
“Because Jews cannot be admitted to a doctoral defense”
It was with these words that just after the Anschluss the Jewish student Karl Löwy who had submitted his doctoral thesis at the Hochschule für Welthandel in Vienna only weeks before was denied the conferral of his doctorate degree. Starting in the second half of March 1938, the Nazis began to systematically persecute those students, lecturers, and administrators who did not conform to their ideology. Jews in particular were prevented from entering university buildings, beginning or continuing their studies, completing their exams, and generally pursuing an academic career. Those who declared themselves loyal to the fallen Christian Federal State of Austria were also persecuted. At least two graduates of the university were stripped of previously attained academic degrees. Foreign students also did not escape Nazi persecution, as evidenced by the gradual disappearance of their names from the enrollment lists.
With this memorial book the Vienna University of Economics and Business, as the successor of the Hochschule für Welthandel, remembers the fate of those persecuted. For them as well as for their friends and family, their unjustified expulsion had long and wide-ranging consequences. Some of those expelled were able to emigrate. A number of those who stayed survived the national-socialist rule as well as World War II. Others fell victim to the Nazi regime.
The Vienna University of Economics and Business deeply regrets the active and passive participation of the Hochschule für Welthandel in the expulsion and displacement of numerous persons who had until the Anschluss been loyal students and faculty members. The University accepts responsibility for this, and recognizes that coming to terms with this history is a moral obligation towards those affected as well as their descendants. That is why this database to document the fate of persecuted individuals is being compiled and regularly updated. It should be noted that the few hitherto available data only represent a small fraction of what befell the victims of Nazi persecution.
The memorial book is open to amendment. The public is invited to send further evidence, documents or images to the editorial staff, either in electronic or non-electronic form. The database in this sense represents a democratic instrument intended to help expand our knowledge of the oppressive regime of the Third Reich. Through this we keep the memory of the victims of Nazi cruelty alive. Simultaneously it serves as a reminder of the consequences of discrimination, racism, and anti-Semitism: the fate of the persecuted students, instructors, and faculty members of the Hochschule für Welthandel points to the importance of a democratic and pluralistic society that advocates for humanity and protects the rights of all persons.