4 August 2010

AEIOU speaks of the Habsburgs’ and Austria’s absolutism. In German it’s an acronym for “Alles Erdreich Ist Österreich Unterthan” and in Latin, “ Austriae Est Imperare Omni Universo.” Roughly translated into English it means “All the world is subject to Austria.” We see this acronym played out on the map of the Holy Roman Empire’s expanse. The Jews always played a role as a people who were unterthan, not only to the Habsburg’s absolute rule but also to most all other people. However the Habsburgs did not always rule the entire world as their mission statement declared. The Ottoman Turks constantly threatened the Habsburgs authority and frequently besieged Austrian lands.

Today I ventured to a place that told this story of the Turks and Jews in Österreich at the Jüdisches Museum: the Turks in Vienna, the History of a Jewish Community. As I entered the exhibit I expected to find a story of the Turkish Jews and how they lived but as I dove into the narration I began pondering it in a different way. The Turks have been Austria’s enemy throughout out the 600-year reign of the Habsburg Dynasty and I noticed the Jews being somewhat similar to the Turks as enemies but also subject to the all the world.

Many Turkish Jews immigrated to Vienna (and throughout the globe including North Africa, Levant, Ottoman, Dutch, Hamburg, London, Italy, etc.) via Spain after the Final Reconquista of 1492, which expelled the Sephardic Jews from Spain. The Christian’s enemy, the Jews, were forced by law to convert or find a new home, and even those marranos (converts) were not welcomed into the kingdom. When the Habsburg married Spain, it wouldn’t be long before even those Jews who escaped Spain would feel the suppression of their former Kingdom.

At some points in history the Jewish ‘enemy’ would find themselves in an era that a ruler would tolerate the Jews. Some even found a place of wealth and in service to dukes or the Emperor. Some were successful in trade and banking, others poor and hungry. However, the Jewish lives never remained thriving, happy and alive. All the Jewish history seems to end with the Sho’ah, an immanent dark rain cloud promising to pour on any Jewish narrative. The Turks in Vienna and the Jewish community here are no different. Although we are enticed to celebrate the 120,000 Jews who escaped the tragedy of Hitler’s Final Solution through diplomatic help from Turkey with Turkish passports for European Jews. However, the sheer numbers of deaths that followed the Turkish or Sephardic Jews—those who did not escape the clutches of Nazism—overshadows this statistic of victory. Even the Turkish Citizens who were Jewish were forced to “Aryanize” and declared their businesses and property to the Nazis.

As I pondered the Jewish Museum I realized I did not learn too much about the Turkish Jews, but I knew that they too fell victims to the Nazis and I wondered if Judaism will have a history beyond the context of the Holocaust? Not that it is to ever be forgotten, but it seems as if it is the sun and everything else revolves around it. Or it could just be me who always gravitates towards the Holocaust because I am blinded by the sun and can see nothing else (it is my preferred area of study)?

As I questioned my interest in the Holocaust in the next exhibit I found rhetorical question etched into the floor: “but what is anti-semitism to lead to if not to acts of violence? Is it so difficult to think of that? (Arnold Shoenberg)” Those with enemies will always be targets of violence. In this case racism is the enemy and all the world is subject to it.




-slm