Foreword

The English version is based on a translation by artificial intelligence. The authentic version is the German version.

 

“Because Jews cannot be admitted to a doctoral defense”

It was with these words that just after the Anschluss the Jewish student Arthur Luka who had submitted his doctoral thesis at the University for World Trade (Hochschule für Welthandel) in Vienna only weeks before was denied the conferral of his doctorate degree. Starting in the second half of March 1938, the Nazis began to systematically persecute those students, professors, lecturers, and administrators who did not conform to their ideology. Jews in particular were prevented from entering university buildings, beginning or continuing their studies, completing their exams, and generally pursuing an academic career. Those who declared themselves loyal to the fallen Christian Federal State of Austria were also persecuted. Four graduates of the university were stripped of previously attained academic degrees. Foreign students also did not escape Nazi persecution, as evidenced by the gradual disappearance of their names from the enrollment lists.

With this memorial book the Vienna University of Economics and Business, as the successor of the University for World Trade, remembers the fate of those university members who were persecuted by the Nazi regime. For them as well as for their friends and family, their unjustified expulsion had long and wide-ranging consequences. Some of those expelled were able to emigrate. A number of those who stayed survived the national-socialist rule as well as World War II. Others fell victim to the Nazi regime. Still others lost their families as a result of Nazi persecution.

The Vienna University of Economics and Business deeply regrets the active and passive participation of the University for World Trade in the expulsion and displacement of numerous persons who had until the Anschluss been loyal students and faculty members. The University accepts responsibility for this, and recognizes that coming to terms with this history is a moral obligation towards those affected as well as their descendants. Based on the current state of research, the memorial book documents the individual stories of those affected. It should be noted that the few hitherto available data only represent a small fraction of what befell the victims of Nazi persecution. 

The memorial book is open to amendment. The public is invited to send further evidence, documents or images to the editorial staff, either in electronic or non-electronic form. In this sense, the memorial book represents a democratic instrument intended to help expand our knowledge of the oppressive regime of National Socialism. Through this the memorial book keeps the memory of the victims of Nazi cruelty alive. Simultaneously it serves as a reminder of the consequences of discrimination, racism, and anti-Semitism: the fate of the persecuted students, instructors, and faculty members of the University for World Trade points to the importance of a democratic and pluralistic society that advocates for humanity and protects the rights of all persons.