Flight, Emigration and Death
After the Austrian workers' movement had been crushed and an authoritarian "Ständestaat" (corporative state) had been established in 1934, numerous functionaries of the workers' movement who were in danger fled to neighbouring Czechoslovakia, including a certain number of Jews. Jews were also to be found among the volunteers who fought from 1936 onwards for the Spanish republic against Franco and his allies.
But the mass flight from Austria did not begin until the "Anschluss" in March 1938 and following the immediate excesses against the Jewish population. By May 1939, 100,000 people had already left Austria. Many of them fled to neighbouring countries like Hungary or Czechoslovakia where they still had relatives from the days of the monarchy. France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and also Great Britain were important countries of refuge. Fascist Italy and the Kingdom of Jugoslavia seemed less attractive destinations, yet some Austrians looked there for protection from Nazi persecution.
As Czechoslovakia was crushed and the Second World War began and ran its course, the refugees on the European continent merged gradually into the Nazi sphere of power and became victims of the National Socialist murder policy.
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