iJewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)Innere Stadt
No Way Home: Viennese Jews in Exile
At Museum Judenplatz: how Vienna stripped its Jews of their rights after 1938 and drove them out, and the lives of those who fled.
More in Vienna
The Klarwill family fled Vienna with a Lederhose and a dirndl, and both are on show here. After the Anschluss in March 1938, Vienna's Jewish community, then the third-largest in Europe, was driven out, deported and murdered. This show is about the ones who got away, and it doesn't tell their exile as a success story.
Curator Caitlin Gura says she wants "the individual back in the spotlight". You see the few things people saved, like a Sachertorte recipe in a cookbook from Arnold Schönberg's family, Stefan Zweig's exile notebook and the Glück family's living-room furniture, next to the paperwork that came first: forced asset declarations, confiscations, an eviction notice from a council flat.
APA called it a fairly compact show. The companion book from Czernin and the Cuseum app carry more stories, including exile sites across Vienna's streets. It's at Museum Judenplatz, on the €15 ticket that also covers Dorotheergasse within 7 days. Under-19s are free; closed Saturdays, and Fridays it shuts at 17:00.
Look for
The Klarwills' Lederhose and dirndl
Look for the Austrian folk costume a Jewish family chose to pack when they were forced out of the country it stands for.
Reinhold Eckfeld's drawings
His drawings trace the long route to Australia, where he became the architect he had wanted to be, while his brother Waldemar never settled.
Erich Zeisl's last evening
An enlarged photograph shows the composer with his wife, mother-in-law and a friend on the eve of their departure.
Two books drawn for a daughter
Ron Halbright's grandfather drew, wrote and illustrated them for his young daughter, showing Grinzing, where she grew up, and their walks on the Cobenzl.
The Bieglers' eviction notice
The letter putting a couple out of their council flat, though they thought Elisabeth's 'Aryan' status would protect them; they reunited after his exile in Shanghai.
Good for
- Going Solo
- Nerding Out
With kids
Under-19s get in free. The stories include expulsion, eviction and a brother who never settled in exile, so it suits older children better than young ones.
Also at Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)
On now nearby
iThe Global Power of Love. A Journey Through the Centuries
State Hall of the Austrian National Library (Prunksaal)
iThe Special Exhibit: Erich Lessing: A Moment of Hope
State Hall of the Austrian National Library (Prunksaal)
iBridge of Humanity. Austria and the 1956 Hungarian Uprising
State Hall of the Austrian National Library (Prunksaal)
Nearby
Image credits
8
- No Way Home: Viennese Jews in ExileCourtesy of Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)
- The Global Power of Love. A Journey Through the CenturiesÖsterreichische Nationalbibliothek
- The Special Exhibit: Erich Lessing: A Moment of HopeCourtesy of State Hall of the Austrian National Library (Prunksaal)
- Bridge of Humanity. Austria and the 1956 Hungarian UprisingÖsterreichische Nationalbibliothek
- Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)Sonja Bachmayer / Jewish Museum Vienna, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Theatermuseum (Palais Lobkowitz)Gryffindor / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5
- State Hall of the Austrian National Library (Prunksaal)Mirej / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT
- AlbertinaC.Stadler/Bwag, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0