THE ARCHIVE OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY VIENNA

The first Jewish community organization of Vienna in modern times was legally recognized in 1852 and has been known since then as: Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (IKG) Wien (Jewish Community Vienna). The first synagogue in Vienna, after the expulsion in 1670, was consecrated in 1826. Archival holdings of the Viennese Jewish community have been kept since 1816, the oldest documents date back to the 17th century. During the Nazi years Vienna’s Jews faced terrible persecutions and most of those, who were unable to escape, perished, but it seems the archival holdings survived intact. In 1939, after the “Anschluss”, registration of births, marriages and deaths was removed from the religious institutions, including the IKG, and taken over by the government in the form of civil registration.
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RECORDS ON THE PREMISES OF THE IKG <http://www.ikg-wien.at/>

Only the birth, marriage and death (BMD) books of the Viennese Jewish community (1784-1938), including indexes, and some registry books of other Austrian Jewish communities (Baden, Eisenstadt, Hollabrunn, Horn, Klosterneuburg, Lackenbach, Mattersburg, Mödling, Rechnitz, St. Poelten, Stockerau-Korneuburg, Ybbs-Amstetten, Zwettl, the former Viennese outskirts Floridsdorf, Fuenfhaus-Sechshaus, Grossenzersdorf, Ottakring-Hernals, Waehring, and the Viennese Sephardic Community) are presently at this location.
A duplicate set of the BMD books of the Viennese Jewish community from the Vienna city archives was microfilmed by the FHL (see below). For many years people from all over the world have been visiting or writing to the Registry Office of the IKG Vienna, where Ms. Heidrun Weiss was in charge. Since her retirement a few years ago Mr. Wolf Erich Eckstein has taken over her position.
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RECORDS AT THE CITY OF VIENNA ARCHIVES <http://www.wien.gv.at/kultur/archiv/>

It is my understanding that according to the law the IKG Vienna had to submit a duplicate set of BMD records 1826-1938 to municipal agencies and these records are now located at the city of Vienna archives (Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv). There are 540 volumes, 15.2 meters long, which were microfilmed by the FHL (see below).
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MICROFILMS AT THE FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY (FHL) <http://www.familysearch.org>

In the 1980s the FHL filmed the BMD records that were located in the city of Vienna archives and about 130 microfilms have been available from the FHL since then. On the FHL website go to: library catalog > place search: Vienna > Jewish records > Matrikel: 1826-1943
To view these films you have to contact the nearest branch of the FHL, which you will find on their website. These records, which include some indexes, cover Jewish BMD records of the Viennese Jewish community from 1826 to 1938.
In 2004 the FHL filmed the original BMD books and additional books and records from the Registry Office of the IKG Vienna as well as from the “Anlaufstelle” (see below) and there are about 570 IKG Vienna reels available. Among the films made in 2004 are more detailed birth, death, burial, divorce, conversion, Sephardic and other records.
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RECORDS AT THE CENTRAL ARCHIVE FOR THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE (CAHJP) IN JERUSALEM
http://sites.huji.ac.il/archives
In the 1950s the IKG Vienna transferred a large part of their archival holdings to the CAHJP in Jerusalem, however the BMD books remained in Vienna. The Jerusalem records have now been partly microfilmed by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (see USHMM below). The microfilming project included most documents from the period 1933–1945. It is suggested to contact the archives before trying to gain access to these documents.
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RECORDS AT THE “ANLAUFSTELLE” IN VIENNA <http://www.restitution.or.at/>

This organization, also known as The Holocaust Victims’ Information and Support Center of the Jewish Community Vienna, is headed since 2003 by Dr. Ingo Zechner.  It was created by the IKG in 1999 to assist Austrian Holocaust survivors and descendants with their restitution claims.
In 2000 a large number of IKG documents, dating from the Nazi period, was discovered in Vienna. The “Anlaufstelle” started an archival project with the aim to reconstruct the Archive of the Jewish Community Vienna. Comprehensive archival holdings stored in different depots in Vienna were brought together, subjected to conservation treatments, arranged, inventoried, entered into a database and microfilmed. This work has not yet been completed. In 2007, at the IAJGS conference in Salt Lake City, Dr. Zechner lectured on this sensational discovery and the archival project.
The records at the “Anlaufstelle” are not yet open to the public, since they do not have the staff and facilities, however most of the Holocaust relevant documents have now been microfilmed by the USHMM (see below) and some of the older records by the FHL.
A new institution is now in the planning stage, this is “The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies” (VWI) <http://www.vwi.ac.at>, which is to open in 2012, when all relevant records from the “Anlaufstelle” are to be transferred to the VWI.
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MICROFILMS AT THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM (USHMM) IN WASHINGTON <http://www.ushmm.org/>

 
The USHMM and the IKG Vienna have worked together since 2002 to comprehensively microfilm the Holocaust-relevant records that exist in Jerusalem and Vienna. Most of the Holocaust-relevant Jerusalem component (period 1933-1945) has been reproduced (about half of the entire material in Jerusalem) and 1430 reels have been transferred to the USHMM’s archives. While 1158 of these reels are currently being prepared for research access by the USHMM, 272 reels with emigration questionnaires, filled in by Vienna Jews in 1938/39, have been duplicated and are already accessible to research in Washington. 
Most of the records from the “Anlaufstelle” in Vienna have also been microfilmed by the Museum, and about 400 reels have been transferred to the Museum’s archives, where they are now accessible. However, due to the ongoing nature of the project in Vienna, no finished finding aid or database exists yet for these films.
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THE SPECIAL ARCHIVE IN MOSCOW  <http://www.research.co.il/moscow.html>
 
This archive whose official name is “Holdings of the Center for Preservation of Historical - Documentary Collections” was established by the Soviet authorities in 1946 to house archival holdings of foreign origin, which were taken as booty from Nazi Germany. These included many German records, but also large collections of non-German archives, which were plundered by the Nazis throughout occupied Europe.
Among the records in this archive there are quite a number from various Austrian Jewish organizations and among them are also 281 files related to the IKG Vienna. The CAHJP in Jerusalem has some information on these materials.
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I would like to thank Haddassa Assouline, Director of CAHJP, Dr. Ingo Zechner, Director of the Anlaufstelle, Mr. Anatol Steck, Program Officer, International Archival Programs Division USHMM and Mag. Wolf Erich Eckstein, Archivist at the IKG, for all the help provided.

Henry Wellisch, Toronto
September, 2008