Tel Aviv, 18 July 1947.

Rosa Rachel Schwarz, head of the youth welfare department until 1940, most recently also of social welfare for the Jewish community Vienna, told me today:

I don’t know what’s true about the many unfavorable stories about Murmelstein from Theresienstadt. I know him from Vienna, and I want to tell you some characteristic things about him that I have experienced. He was petty, pedantic and in no way ready to help his fellow men. From the time of the occupation, if I remember correctly, he worked for the congregation. His task was, among other things, to issue passes, i.e. to certify, for example, that employees of the congregation who were on afternoon or evening duty were allowed to walk the streets at a time that was otherwise forbidden for Jews. Now, there was a young girl among the employees who was to emigrate the next day. In the morning of the day she was still working in the congregation. If she got a pass for the evening, she could say goodbye to her friends. She asked Murmelstein for a pass, but he refused. I then asked him why he had refused, and he replied that since noon she was no longer an employee of the congregation. Everybody else would, of course, have issued the certificate under the circumstances at that time.

On another occasion, I was with Dr. Löwenherz in the evening; it was a private visit, shortly before my emigration. I had no pass; I always dared to go without it. Murmelstein, who lived in the same house, came to visit Löwenherz. After a short time I said goodbye because I didn’t like being with him. Löwenherz, who was very fearful, asked me if I had a pass. I said no. Löwenherz asked why I had not turned to Murmelstein. I replied: because I do not turn to a man like Mr. Murmelstein (said in his presence!), since he would have refused me, because my visiting you is not official, but private. Löwenherz said: And if something happens to you? I replied: Then it’s only you having the troubles of it, because you must then get me out again for the youth welfare department. But Löwenherz didn’t let up, and made Murmelstein to issue me a pass on a piece of paper.

Dr. Ball

Presented on 16 April 1944

by Mrs. Rosa Rachel Schwarz

- manuscript written down

in April 1940.

About the social work of the community Vienna under Hitler

Saturday, March 12, 1938, the vanguard of the German military marched into Vienna. On Sunday, the Viennese Jewish community opened its offices in the usual manner. Formally, there was no change to notice. There were almost no clients in the welfare department; at noon Professor Julius Zappert1Note 1: Name in the original spaced out (manager of the youth welfare) appeared and announced that the children’s outpatient clinic in Rauscherstrasse was occupied. I forwarded this message to the directorate and we hoped that this building, which is particularly important for our welfare department, would soon be vacated in the interest of our children at risk. In the next two to three days the first parties came to the welfare department and complained about hardships imposed on them by neighbours and people in the neighbourhood.

Wednesday, March 16, was the first time that someone from the authority came to the congregation. They checked the bookkeeping and accounting, requisitioned typewriters and calculating machines, and recorded the status of the cash desk. At that time the youth welfare department was already working with the general department. The clients were no longer dealt with on file, but in the antechambers of the welfare centre, which had been turned into one room, the requests of clients asking for support were quickly registered in files, filled in with only the most necessary data, and each applicant received a few shillings so that he could buy bread for himself and his family. In this way we worked until Friday 9 o'clock in the morning. Then the house was occupied by the Gestapo. The individual offices were searched, desks and files examined, and the requesting clients, their number went into the hundreds, photographed together with the clerks. At 10 a.m., the telephone line was disconnected and the SS occupied the house telephone. A quiet rumor had reached us that the presidium and the head office were put under the strictest surveillance and some of them had already been arrested. The eviction order arrived at about 12 noon. And while we were leaving our workplaces in a daze, a characteristic scene occurred in front of the house:

A man breathlessly approached the secret police officer on duty and told him: A shop on the next corner is being looted. This is bad for your good reputation and can’t be the intention of the Führer. And the officer in charge went to the shop and stopped the looting.

From that day on, the congregation was closed for about five weeks. The presidents and directors were locked up. We leading officials met daily, first in a small coffee house on the Salzgries street and when this was closed, in a still Jewish coffee house on the Quai. There we had breakfast and accidentally met acquaintances.

Operations in the Jewish homes continued. I was busy to provide the homes with the most necessary material as well as with victuals, to relieve them of the transactions with the different offices, and especially to make it easier for those in charge in the children’s homes, who stood pedagogically at the highest level, but were not up to the traffic with the very changed authorities. - In these difficult times, director Engel2Note 2: Name in the original spaced out proved to be a particularly prudent adviser and, if possible, helped to overcome all difficulties that arose.

The first of the homes to be occupied was the Dr. Kruger Lehrmädchenheim3Note 3: Home for apprentice girls. But we soon managed to bring some of the girls back to the home. Special difficulties arose in the home for abandoned girls in the XIII district, Auhofstrasse, but we succeeded in keeping this home for several months. Apart from the strictly Jewish homes, there was also an interconfessional infant and toddler home in the XIX district, a Wertheimstein´sche foundation for children of all denominations. According to an announcement of the municipality, this home was declared a strictly Jewish home one day. The Aryan children were to be placed elsewhere immediately. Twenty-four hours after this announcement, the director of the home informed me that her home was occupied by the National Socialist Women’s Party3Note 3: NS-Frauenschaft, the women’s wing of the NSDA and that all Jewish children were to be transferred by the evening. I immediately drove out to the home and tried to get the deadline extended, tried to get hold of a house, since the babies

and toddlers could not be accommodated together with schoolchildren. With difficulty I managed to get a 24-hour deferral. Some Jewish villas were occupied, but no owner would have dared to make any changes in his house, so as not to attract attention, the only solution was the infirmary of the boys’ orphanage. A temporary solution, and we prayed that no child would fall ill in the boys’ orphanage in the next few weeks. We were therefore anxious to find a suitable roof for our children. When the congregation was reopened, we immediately tried to get a foundation house free for this purpose. The house belonging to the Theresianerkreuz-Verein in Untere Augartenstrasse seemed to be the most suitable and requiring the least investment. We had bought and been given furniture by emigrating kindergarten teachers. The rooms in Augartenstrasse were disinfected, freshly painted and the children should have moved in within a few days. Then the caretaker called and said that the home had been occupied - after four months we got it back. Our year-long wish, a Jewish infant and toddler home, had thus come true. We adapted the house in the simplest and cheapest way and created a healthy environment for our little ones.

Since the reopening of the congregations’ offices, there had been an increase in the number of clients in the welfare sector. People's earning potential declined, but housing and food had to be paid for. We tried to meet all these demands. In the field of youth welfare, a register was drawn up for all those children whose parents wanted them to emigrate. The registration form we worked out has been retained with very minor changes for the individual countries. Approximately 10,000 children were registered.

Spring and summer had come, but no possibility to do anything for our weakest children. Gardens and parks were forbidden. The first country was Switzerland with the option to take 100 children for the summer, and a few weeks later Norway with 15. The children in Switzerland splendidly recovered,

returned home in the fourth week, the Norwegian children stayed in Norway unless their parents demanded their return. I also succeeded in finding sponsorships for our children in Switzerland. In these cases Madame de Monier was especially helpful. - We tried to bring children to England, but despite many offers of especially nice and gifted children, we only succeeded here in very few cases. England and the other countries decided to start a generous children’s action only after November 10, 1938. This will be discussed elsewhere.

In the meantime, Jewish life and the existence of the individual institutions proceeded more or less excitingly. In the Kol-Nidre-Night the Jews of the XVIII. and XIX. district had been given the order to vacate the apartments respectively the houses, and also our girl orphanage should be empty within 24 hours. This last order, however, seemed inexecutable for that reason alone that we had since scarlet fever in the home. In the course of the Yom Kippur, the efforts of Dr. Loewenherz and Dr. Rothenberg had succeeded in getting Hauptsturmführer Eichmann to take countermeasures.

In October, youths from the apprentice home and the apprentice girl home had been arrested as part of a stateless persons action. The congregation succeeded in bringing the youths back to their homes very soon.

The house of the kindergarten Wohlfahrt had been made available to the Youth Aliyah for their young people. About 180 young people had their courses and meals in this house and were prepared there for the Aliyah. At this time a particularly intensive work began together with the Palestine Office, a work which was animated by mutual trust and love for the youth. After a short time the House of Welfare was requisitioned by the Air-Raid Precaution. Smaller and bigger troubles were the order of the day, but we hoped to liquidate it in a quiet manner.

So the 10th of November 1938 had come under many worries and that meant for the youth welfare the end of our day care center in the Aspernbrückengasse, which was located opposite of the party house.

Only a few weeks later we were able to reopen it in the Mendel´sches Stiftungshaus in Denesgasse. They were able to remain there until November 1939, then they moved to the house of the congregation in Mohapelgasse.

After the 10th of November the foreign countries, especially England and Holland, where Dr. Loewenherz and Dr. Rothenberg stayed at that time and pointed out the great misery of our children, decided to intervene with generous active help. We received the order to complete the first children’s train. An organizational task that forced us to work days and nights without interruption and that had to work out in every detail. From the mass of registrations I suggested the children whose departure was most important for health, psychological and material reasons. We tested children, they were examined by a physician, passports were obtained, luggage was prescribed and checked. A lot of meticulous work, which was indescribable, but necessary, so that on December 10, 1938 about 700 children, including a third of racial Jews5Note 5: non-Aryan Christian, who had been selected by the Society of Friends, could leave. Many of these children had lived in the Jewish centers near the synagogues and the image of destruction stood before their frightened eyes. Many children could say goodbye only to their mothers because the fathers were in concentration camps. It was a horrible sight to see these seven hundred mothers bid farewell to their children at the terminus of the light rail in Hütteldorf. Of course, they were not allowed to enter the station building. The mood among the children was one of joy and hope. They traveled towards their happiness, believing that they could do something for their parents from outside the country.

In very isolated cases they succeeded. But these parents had the opportunity to flee carefree across one of the nearest borders. We were supposed to put together another transport with 1000 children. However, this did not happen. But we sent away a considerable number of children every month with English transports, which had been requested by friends and relatives from England. In cases involving children of

stateless and expellees, the committees in England and Holland have been particularly kind to us. The Dutch committee was extremely helpful, they took over our transports at the German border and led them to England. Mrs. Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer6Note 6: Name in the original spaced out was also very helpful in some adoption cases.

Two groups of 51 children each were sent to France and from there were accommodated under particularly favourable conditions. Several groups went to Belgium and Sweden. A table gives information about the children brought to emigration by us. Only America did not take part in the children’s action in any way. We hoped that the Wagner-Bill would bring a solution to our whole children’s question.

One day two Americans from Philadelphia appeared and told us the fairy tale that they had fifty affidavits with them and that in a short time, in about three weeks, they would travel to America with fifty healthy and gifted Viennese children. They contacted the American consul in Berlin for this purpose, and one of them, an American physician, examined the children in detail, and so they traveled to Berlin for confirmation and from there to Hamburg to start their journey to America on the President Harding.

Thus the summer of 1939 had slowly approached. The boys’ orphanage in Probusgasse had long since been sold and was to be converted into a chocolate factory by the end of December at the latest. We still had a reprieve until then; until December, the children were permitted to stay. There came the war, the house was occupied by the air-raid, an air-raid unit first lived with our children, but then the house had to be cleared within 48 hours. We solved this unpleasant task, avoiding every disturbance, in a good mood for the children concerned. The children and the inventory went to the Merores orphanage and a group of 15 older boys went to the children’s home. - In the meantime, the number of clients in all departments of the Open Welfare had increased. The hardship forced almost all Jews living in Vienna to claim welfare.

And very often we had to reencounter people among the clients who themselves had helped with full hands before the upheaval. There is no need to mention that we tried to help all of them, and especially these people, through every means at our disposal, to overcome the gravity of the moment. But it is difficult to say which hours were the most difficult. Whether when we were commissioned by the authorities to put together Polish transports and, in order to avoid unnecessary hardship, we supported Nazi Germany's attempt to carry out Jewish colonization in Poland. - As the leader of such an investigation group, I had 800 people to talk to or to reject in one afternoon. At that time it became apparent that the younger male population had already emigrated from Germany. Or was it sadder when a woman came, still full of incomprehension for the tragedy of her fate, after receiving a telegram from the concentration camp informing her of the death of her husband or son. The most tragic moment, however, was when a fourteen-year-old girl came to me to ask for her and her sister to be accommodated in a home. It doesn’t have to be for long. We only want, when the urn of the father arrives, ... and she put a telegram on my desk, which she had intercepted so that the severely neuropathic mother would not get her hands on it, we want to go to the funeral of our father and sit Shiva, without mother knowing. This father, like so many others, was a victim of the days of November 1939.

In February 1940, the first fruits of an American campaign regarding the emigration of children finally appeared. After the outbreak of war, we had been commissioned to test registered children, the lists had been made available to us by the American consulate, to have them examined by a physician, and to report them to the German Aid Committee in New York. By February 1940, the American Committee had received reports for 425 children when the first 10 were approved.

The retirement home in Seegasse was not sufficient to provide care for the elderly. And the buildings that had in the meantime been adapted as old people's homes - Goldschlaggasse XV Bez., Wassergasse XX. Bez., Malzgasse II. Bez. and a part of the

Krugerheime, were insufficient for the elderly people who had become in need of welfare over the months. By 1940, the number of elderly people in the homes had risen to 2000. A large proportion of these old people had been left behind by the emigrating children in orderly circumstances. Terminations of residence, sudden evictions, suspension of pension payments, closure of the blocked accounts caused immediate intervention of the welfare authorities.

Meals were served in 15 places in the various districts to 35,000 people.

Of the 50,000 Jews living in Vienna in February 1940, about 35,000 were supported in open welfare.

List of all child transports processed by the Jewish community from 10. 12. 1938 - 22. 8. 1939

12.12.38 England 400 Children

Holland 59

17.12.38 England 132

18.12. England 68

19.12. Belgium 7

20.12. England 134

21.12. 117

26.12. France 6

923

Children

10.1.39 England 83 Children

10.1. Holland 13

11.1. Belgium 21

11.1. England112

12.1. Sweden 7

31.1. Belgium 18

31.1. Holland 7

261

19.2.39 Holland 5 Children

20.2. England 107

21.2. Belgium 10

22.2. Belgium 20

142

6.3.39 Belgium 70 Children

13.3.39 England 140

14.3. France 50

22.3. 53

27.3. England 118

27.3. Holland19

450

17.4.39 Belgium17 Children

23.4. Sweden46

25.4. England124

187

13.5.39 England 84 Children

21.5. America 50

22.5. Switzerland 5

139

6.6.39 England 78 Children

7.6. Sweden 25

13.6. England 69

20.6. England 85

257

4.7. England102 Children

11.7. England102

16.7. England 38

25.7. England 49

291

1.8.39 England 70

8.8. England 49

15.8. England 40

22.8. England 35

194

2,844 Children

Rosa Rachel Schwarz 7Note 7: Handwritten addition

Two years of welfare for the community of Vienna under Hitler.

(1938 – 1940)

From time immemorial, the Viennese Jews had been frightened by the 12th of March. On this day, in 1621, on the orders of an Austrian duke named Albrecht, all Jews with their wives and children died by fire on the Erdberg. At that time, the reason for this was that the Jews refused to be baptized. The chronicler immortalized this duke in the saying: I warred against the Turks, I surrounded Tabor, but I had my Jews burned before. Shortly after this Viennese catastrophe, the Duke received the crown of Germany for a short time after the death of Emperor Sigismund. The Jews feared that they would suffer the same fate under his rule in Germany as well, but fortunately this villain died after two years. It is characteristic that this god-fearing Austrian had the Augsburg City Council buy from him the right to expel the Jews from Augsburg for 9,000 guilders and to confiscate all their possessions.

I mention this period of the history of the Austrian Jews for two reasons: because of the indescribable steadfastness of our fathers, who preferred to be burned rather than to deny their Judaism, and secondly because of the event that Germany had already once been happy with an Austrian who wanted to exterminate us Jews, and for another reason, and this is the guiding principle of all history, that antisemitism in Austria had been planted for years deep in the soul of the people.

So on 12 March 1938, the vanguard of the German military came to Vienna. On Sunday our congregation opened its offices in the usual way. From a superficial point of view there was almost no change to be felt. Around noon, the chairman of our youth welfare department appeared and informed us that the children’s outpatient clinic in Rauscherstrasse had been occupied. These buildings, which are particularly important for us in regard of our children at risk to health, we tried to get free immediately. The individual clients came only after 3 or 4 days and complained about hardships by neighbours or people in the immediate vicinity. Wednesday, the 16th, someone from the so-called authority came to the congregation for the first time. They checked bookkeeping, accounting, requisitioned typewriters, adding-machines, and recorded the state of the cash register. At that time, the Youth Welfare Service was already cooperating with the General Welfare Service. The clients were no longer dealt with on file, but in the antechambers of the welfare centre, which had been turned into one room, the requests of clients asking for support were quickly registered in files, filled in with only the most necessary data, and each

applicant received a few shillings so that he could buy bread for himself and his family. In this way we worked – undisturbed, in a manner of speaking - until Friday 9 o'clock in the morning.

Then the house was occupied by the Secret State Police, the individual offices were searched, desks and files were examined: the clients making requests - their number was in the hundreds - were photographed together with us officials. At 10 a.m., the telephone line stopped and the SS took over the house telephone. The rumor had quietly reached us that the presidium and the office directorate were under the strictest surveillance. The eviction order came at 12 noon. With all the tragedy, strange scenes took place here too. Our cashier, who was cross-examined from morning until noon, was finally sent out of the room. Not knowing what he was saying, he turned around at the door and said, Would the gentlemen like some more information? This naive question cost him 7 weeks in prison. From that day on, the congregation was closed for about 5 weeks. We leading officials met daily in a little Tschoch8Note 8: A café in Vienna and - when this was closed - in a Jewish café. We had breakfast there, met by chance, and in this way we communicated with each other, as it was also forbidden to meet in the apartments.

The operation of the Jewish homes continued. We were anxious to provide the homes with the necessities, both materially and in terms of victuals. I relieved them of their dealings with the various authorities in order to relieve them of the inconvenience and to make things easier for the wardens, who were well able to carry out their educational duties but were unable to communicate properly with the changed authorities. The money to run the homes we took from the only office on the side of the congregation, the cemetery office, since we were all of a sudden destitute. After the house of the Jewish community was closed, the cemetery office was located in a laundry shop diagonally opposite, until the reopening of the community.

After a few days the representatives of JOINT came to Vienna and provided us with the necessary means.

The first house occupied by the National Socialists was the apprentice home for girls. But we soon managed to bring some of the girls back to the home. Particular difficulties arose in the 13th district in a home for abandoned Jewish girls. In addition to the strictly Jewish homes, there was an interdenominational infant and toddler home in Vienna in the 19th district, a foundation of Baroness Wertheimstein for children of all denominations. This home was given to us one day by the magistrate, to which we had good relations - in spite of the change of flags - as a Jewish home. Aryan

children were to be accommodated elsewhere immediately. 24 hours after this announcement, the director of the house informed me that the home had been occupied by the National Socialist Women’s Party and that all Jewish children were to be taken over by the evening. I immediately drove out to the home and tried to get the deadline extended, as it was not possible to accommodate infants and toddlers in one place with schoolchildren. With difficulty I managed to get a 24-hour postponement. The Jewish owners of villas, some of which were occupied, did not dare to make them available to us so as not to draw attention to themselves. So the only solution we had was to occupy the infirmary of the boys’ orphanage, a temporary solution, and we prayed that no child would fall ill there within the next few days. We therefore tried to find a roof for our children as soon as possible. When the Jewish community was reopened, we immediately tried to free a foundation house for this purpose. The house belonging to the Theresien-Kreuzer-Verein, a foundation from 1847 in Untere Augartenstrasse, seemed to be the most suitable and the least investment-needy. We had bought furniture from emigrating kindergarten teachers, had received gifts, the rooms of the house were disinfected and freshly painted and in a few days the children should have moved in. Then the home caretaker telephoned: the home had been occupied. After 4 months we got it back. Our year-long wish to own a Jewish infant and toddler home had thus come true. We have adapted the home in the simplest and cheapest way possible to create a healthy environment for our little ones. The negotiations for epidemic hospitals were conducted with a body which I believe is unknown to German Jews, namely the Stillhaltekommissär9Note 9: liquidation commissar. I hardly knew more about this institution than you did when one day I received a summons to our Foundation House on the Schottenring, a house in which we often had beautiful and cheerful meetings of the WIZO. In the same room, a man was now sitting plain-clothed, and he was the liquidation commissar. He claimed that the emigration of children proceeded far too slow for them. Since we had not yet sent a single child away, I could only agree with this accusation, but I made it so clear to him that our children were willing to leave immediately if they had an entry permit, that he never wanted to talk to me again. I only had to deal with him by telephone a few more times, and then we agreed quickly. Since the reopening of the Jewish community, client traffic in the welfare sector continued in a more intensive manner.

We tried to meet the demands of the applicants. The income opportunities of the people worsened, but apartments and food had to be paid for. A register was established in the youth welfare service for those children whose parents wanted them to emigrate. The registration form we worked out at the time has been retained for the individual countries, with very insignificant changes. Approximately 10,000 children were registered. Spring came and the time when we usually would make arrangements for our children to send them to the countryside. We looked for opportunities to emigrate, we looked for summer places and found 100 in Switzerland and a few weeks later 15 in Norway. The Swiss children came back on time. We only got a connection with the French-speaking part of Switzerland by founding sponsorships, the OSE was particularly helpful in these cases. From the Norwegian children, however, we never heard again, i.e. we often received reports from them, but their addresses could no longer be determined, and the Norwegian consulate asked me every 14 days to finally bring the children back to Vienna since the Norwegian authorities could not locate them. We have tried to bring children to England, which despite many offers of particularly nice and gifted children was only possible in very few cases. Only after the 10th of November did a more comprehensive children’s campaign take place. But this will be mentioned elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the Jewish life and the continuation of the individual institutions was more or less exciting. In the Kol-Nidre Night the Jews of the 18th and 19th districts had been given the order to clear the apartments and houses respectively, and also our girls’ orphanage should be empty within 24 hours. This last order, however, seemed impracticable due to a scarlet fever quarantine that I had stretched out for a long time. In the course of the Yom Kippur, the efforts of Dr. Loewenherz and Dr. Rothenberg had succeeded in getting Hauptsturmführer Eichmann to take countermeasures. In the meantime, the Jews had to enjoy various smaller and larger skirmishes. The great synagogue in Leopoldstadt had been destroyed by a firebrand, old and noble Jews had to stand with billboards Don’t buy from Jews in front of the shops. The library of the Rabbinical Seminary had already been confiscated, and the same fate threatened the community library. As part of a

stateless persons action, young people from our apprentice’s home and from the apprentice girls’ home were arrested; however, we succeeded in bringing the children back to the homes soon. Following a suggestion by Dr. Rothenberg, the Central Office for Jewish Emigration had meanwhile been founded on the basis of an elaborate plan drawn up by Dr. Rothenberg. Its purpose was to make it possible for people who were trying to emigrate to obtain a passport. In the beginning, the first confirmation had lost its validity until the last had been reached. In the house of the kindergarten Wohlfahrt, rooms were made available for the Youth Aliyah. There about 100 young people had their courses and meals and were prepared for the Aliyah. At this time, we started a particularly intensive work together with the Palestine Office, a work which was inspired by mutual trust and by love for the young people. November 10th had come with many worries. And for the Youth Welfare this meant the end of our day care center, which was located opposite the Brown House, and which could only be reopened several weeks later in another foundation house. After November 10th, the foreign countries, especially England and Holland, where Dr. Loewenherz and Dr. Rothenberg were at that time, intervened with generous and active assistance. We were given the task to arrange the first children’s train, an organizational task that forced us to work for days and nights without interruption, and which had to work out in every detail. From the mass of registrations I suggested those children whose departure was most important for health, psychological and material reasons. We checked the children, they were examined by a physician, passports were obtained, luggage prescribed and checked, an indescribable amount of meticulous work, which was necessary, however, so that on 10 December 1938 ca. 700 children could leave, among them 1/3 racial Jews, who had been selected by the Society of Friends. Many of these children had lived in the Jewish centers, and the image of destruction stood before their frightened eyes. Many children could say goodbye only to their mothers, as the fathers were in the concentration camps. It was a horrible sight when these 700 mothers said goodbye to their children at the Hütteldorf terminus of the light rail. Of course, they were not permitted to enter the station building. The mood of these children was one of joy and hope. They traveled towards their happiness with the belief that they could do something for their parents from outside of the country. In a few stray cases they succeeded. However, the parents had the opportunity to flee across one of the nearest borders without worrying. After this transport, we were supposed to arrange another one with 1000 children. But this did not happen. Every month, we handled a considerable number of children for English transports, who

had been requested for England by friends and relatives. In cases involving the children of expellees and stateless persons, the committees in England and Holland were particularly kind to us. The Dutch children’s committee in particular was extremely helpful and took over our transports at the German border and guided them as far as England. Mrs. Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer was also very helpful in some adoption cases. Two groups of 51 children each were sent to France and accommodated under particularly favourable conditions. Some groups went to Belgium and Sweden, only America did not participate in the children's action in any way. We hoped that the Wagner Bill would bring a solution to our whole children’s question. Then one day two Americans from Philadelphia appeared and told us the fairy tale that they had 50 free affidavits with them and that in a short time, about 3 weeks, they planned to travel to America with 50 healthy and gifted Viennese children. They contacted the American consulate in Berlin for this purpose, and one of them, an American physician, examined the children in detail - and then they travelled to Berlin for confirmation and from there to Hamburg to start their journey to America on the ship President Harding.

So the summer of 1939 had slowly approached. The boys’ orphanage in Probusgasse had long since been sold and was to be converted into a chocolate factory at the end of December. Then came the war, the house was occupied by air-raid protection, in the beginning the first group lived together with our children, then the house had to be cleared within 24 hours. We solved this unpleasant task in a good mood for the affected children, avoiding any kind of attention. Children and inventory were moved to the Merores Orphanage.

In the meantime the number of clients in all departments of welfare had increased. The need forced almost all Jews living in Vienna to call on the services of the welfare office, and we very often had to reencounter people among the clients who themselves had helped with full hands before the change. It is not necessary to mention that we tried to help everyone - and especially these people - with all means at our disposal to overcome the hardships of the moment. But it is difficult to say which hours were the most difficult. Whether when we were commissioned by the authorities to put together Polish transports and, in order to avoid unnecessary hardship, we supported Nazi Germany's attempt to carry out Jewish colonization in Poland. - As the leader of such an investigation group, I had to deal with 800 people in one afternoon in my office. At that time it became apparent

that younger male population had already completely migrated from Austria. On the part of the Jewish community and the Palestine Office, 4 people had been sent to Poland by the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, who inspected the area where this Jewish colonization was to take place. They came back quite empty-handed because the military authorities had enough to do with the population of the country after the lost Polish war and were not willing to deal with the Jewish question there. In the meantime there was another Polish Action, and 1,100 people were snatched, some of them from the old people's homes that existed now in the various former youth homes, and sent to Buchenwald. In the winter of 1939/40, 35,000 people were fed in 15 places.

At that time, about 40-45,000 Jews were still living in Vienna. These are the last figures that were available to me on the 12th of March 1940, the day of my emigration. It was at this time that America began to react to our applications, which numbered many hundreds, and I almost felt that it was a farewell gift that we received the first permit, albeit for only a few children, to emigrate to America in those days.

Rosa Rachel Schwarz

(May 1944)10Note 10: Handwritten addition