August 20, 1938
Vienna Central Office for Jewish Emigration Opens
Historical context
On this day, August 20, 1938, the Central Office for Jewish Emigration opened in Vienna. It became the model for later forced-emigration and deportation offices.
Archive record
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- Date
- August 20, 1938
- Verified sources
- 1
- Archive threads
- 5
On this day, Reichskommissar Josef Bürckel established the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna. Formal leadership sat with Walter Stahlecker. Adolf Eichmann ran the office in practice. Austrian Jews were forced through a single bureaucratic line that stripped property and issued the only valid exit permits.
USHMM records that the office “facilitated” the emigration of about 110,000 Austrian Jews between August 1938 and June 1939. The method became the “Vienna Model” for later offices, including Prague. After emigration was banned in October 1941, the same apparatus was used for deportations.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- Adolf Eichmann · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · Holocaust Encyclopedia View source
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