Felix Jeschke. Iron Landscapes: National Space and the Railways in Interwar Czechoslovakia New York: Berghahn, 2021. Pp. 256.

Abstract

in summer 1938, planned forced emigration and deportation, while the Gestapo controlled the Jewish community, punished individual Jews, issued anti-Jewish regulations, and organized the looting of assets in Vienna (365). For the mass deportations of Austrian Jews to the occupied East, the authors emphasize that Eichmann’s Central Office acted in close cooperation with the Vienna Gestapo. The Gestapo arrested many escaped Jews and non-Jewish Austrians who helped them. They also organized the expropriation of Jewish belongings by creating unique offices for this purpose. In March 1945, Karl Ebner reported to Himmler assets of one billion Reichsmarks for the Nazi State (201). Challenging previous scholarly assumptions about Nazi society, the authors emphasize that the Vienna Gestapo did not depend on denunciations for their fight against “enemies,” except for public protest and so-called radio and economic crimes during the war. Illustrated by short case studies, the authors describe Gestapo actions against Catholicism in Austria, including the seizure of property and writings; the persecution of Freemasons; and the even harsher crackdown on Jehovah’s Witnesses. With the help of a huge system of turncoat informants from the resistance milieu, often produced by centrally legalized torture, the Gestapo dismantled resistance groups of all political colors. The repression of communist resistance could be called their greatest success, according to the authors. In 1943/44, after most organized resistance was squashed, 77 percent of all Gestapo arrests targeted foreign forced laborers and Soviet POWs, whose resistance is still under-researched. As in Germany, Austrian perpetrators rarely received severe punishments after the war. Although many went to trial, they often got away with short sentences—not for their actual crimes but for being illegal Nazi Party members before the annexation. When the Gestapo head Huber claimed that he had helped Jews, the allies released him with a small fine and one year of probation. Supposedly, he had executed his tasks “as fairly and reasonable as possible” and was not a supporter of Nazi ideology (106). Some officers received more severe prison sentences but were released early. Overall, the book provides an overview of the establishment, activities, and aftermath of this largest regional Gestapo office, and it contains a useful bibliography. Unfortunately, excessive subtitles and the repetition of facts hinder the flow of the text. Comparisons with available German Gestapo studies, for example on Düsseldorf, could have helped this work, which often provides more description than analysis. There are some mistakes, such as the suggestion that the Reich Security Main Office existed during the time of the annexation, though it was founded only in September 1939 (63). At times, available literature on Austria could have prevented errors, such as the assertion that since summer 1939 Jews were recruited for minimal paid forced labor (184); the program was born in Vienna and introduced in the fall of 1938. Finally, it should be mentioned that Eichmann’s Central Office and the Gestapo were not solely responsible for anti-Jewish policy in Austria: there were various actors initiating discriminatory policies including municipalities, the Nazi Party, and Austrian ministries.