ABSTRACT
General studies of the post-World War II era, however, have been comparatively neglected. Helga Embacher, an adjunct professor at the Historical Institute of the University of Salzburg, has done much to rectify this omission. In many ways it is a continuation of Harriet Pass Freidenreich’s Jewish Politics in Vienna, 1918-1938. There is much in Embacher’s book that is new and fascinating. For example, of those who returned to Austria few showed much interest in religion or Zionism. The one Jewish school in Vienna had to close its doors in 1967 because of a shortage of students. Newcomers to Austria from Eastern Europe were often enthusiastic Zionists. Zionists thought that any Jew who remained in Austria lacked Jewish consciousness. There is no information on the Jews of Austria before the war and during the Holocaust beyond a few statistics, and no comparisons with postwar Jewish communities in other European countries.
