Schattenexistenz: Jüdische U-Boote in Wien 1938–1945 by Brigitte Ungar-Klein

Abstract

Reviewed by: Schattenexistenz: Jüdische U-Boote in Wien 1938–1945 by Brigitte Ungar-Klein Joseph W. Moser Brigitte Ungar-Klein, Schattenexistenz: Jüdische U-Boote in Wien 1938–1945. Vienna: Picus Verlag, 2019. 376 pp. Surviving the Holocaust by hiding or being hidden by non-Jews is one of the least examined aspects of Holocaust history, even though the Diary of Anne Frank—arguably the most widely read text on the Holocaust—is a narrative of hiding during the Holocaust and being betrayed. The recent German film Die Unsichtbaren (dir. Claus Räfle, 2017) examines the experiences of several Jews who hid in Berlin during the Holocaust and the challenges that they faced as "U-Boote," the term used for Jews illegally remaining in Nazi Germany to escape deportations. But what about Vienna? As Ungar-Klein points out, apart from C. Gwyn Moser's 1985 article "Jewish U-Boote in Austria 1938–1945," which provided a statistical overview of 619 Jews surviving the Holocaust in hiding in Vienna, very little has been published on this topic, given the size of Vienna's Jewish population before 1938 and the significance of the city overall within Nazi Germany and within the context of European antisemitism. By both providing a detailed historical context of the Holocaust in Vienna and examining several individual cases of U-Boote in Vienna, Brigitte Ungar-Klein's Schattenexistenz: Jüdische U-Boote in Wien 1938–1945 finally sheds light [End Page 167] on this fascinating topic, from the perspective both of Jews trying to survive the three critical years between 1942 and 1945 and of non-Jews who provided live-saving shelter to Jews at the risk of themselves being persecuted by the Nazis. Ungar-Klein provides numerous excerpts of original testimonies that chronicle individual cases of Jews being hidden in wartime Vienna. While every case is unique, there are common fears of how to get food without access to food rationing cards. Many apartments in Vienna still only had water and sanitary facilities located in the common hallways of apartment buildings—a significant problem for the people hiding in those kinds of apartments. And the constant fear of exposure and denunciation by nosy neighbors made it difficult to live through these three years. The need to go into hiding in Vienna in order to survive started in spring 1942, when all Jews were being deported to be killed in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, and the threat remained real until April 1945, when the Red Army liberated Vienna. Any contact that non-Jews had with Jews, let alone hiding Jews, was punishable during that time. The many Gestapo agents roaming the city, supported by regular civilians denouncing people, demonstrates the extent to which average Austrians became complicit in the Holocaust. But of course it is not that simple: Ungar-Klein shows the example of neighbors in the fift h district who wanted to denounce Jews being hidden in a cellar but then backed off after witnessing the brutality of Nazis rounding up Jews for deportation. This book shows how the motivations for hiding Jews varied greatly for non-Jews, but generally there was not much time to prepare and, in several cases, this was a spontaneous decision, in which people did not initially realize the extent to which they would be involved. Some U-Boote had to change places where they were hiding, and some were homeless for extended periods of time, hiding in cemeteries and Schrebergärten, which was an additional challenge in winter. While some braved entering air raid shelters during Allied air raids amidst the chaos and confusion that the general public experienced during these attacks, others remained hidden in apartments during air raids; in such cases it is certain they would not have survived a direct hit. Generally speaking, it was easier for women to survive as U-Boote than for men, as Ungar-Klein points out. After the war, Jews surviving the Holocaust in hiding were not treated well by the Austrian authorities. As they were penniless, they needed public assistance. Younger survivors needed to make up lost years of education, but they did not fit into the narrow categories prescribed by...