Austria

===Interwar period and World War II===
{{See also|First Austrian Republic|Federal State of Austria|Anschluss|Austria within Nazi Germany|History of the Jews in Austria#The Holocaust in Austria}}

After the war, inflation began to devalue the Krone, which was still Austria's currency. In autumn 1922, Austria was granted an international loan supervised by the [[League of Nations]].<ref>Brook-Shepherd 257–258</ref> The purpose of the loan was to avert bankruptcy, stabilise the currency, and improve Austria's general economic condition. The loan meant that Austria passed from an independent state to the control exercised by the League of Nations. In 1925, the ''[[Austrian schilling]]'' was introduced, replacing the Krone at a rate of 10,000:1. Later, it was nicknamed the "Alpine dollar" due to its stability. From 1925 to 1929 the economy enjoyed a short high before nearly crashing after [[Wall Street Crash of 1929|Black Tuesday]].

The [[First Austrian Republic]] lasted until 1933, when Chancellor [[Engelbert Dollfuss]], using what he called [[Selbstausschaltung des Parlaments|"self-switch-off of Parliament"]], established an autocratic regime tending towards [[Italian fascism]].<ref name="johnson 104">Lonnie Johnson 104</ref><ref name="brook 269">Brook-Shepherd 269–270</ref> The two big parties at this time, the Social Democrats and the Conservatives, had paramilitary armies;<ref name="Brook-Shepherd 261">Brook-Shepherd 261</ref> the Social Democrats' ''[[Republikanischer Schutzbund]]'' was now declared illegal, but was still operative<ref name="Brook-Shepherd 261"/> as the 12–15 February 1934 [[Austrian Civil War]] broke out.<ref name="johnson 104"/><ref name="brook 269"/><ref name="johnson 107">Johnson 107</ref>

In February 1934, several members of the ''Schutzbund'' were executed,<ref>Brook-Shepherd 283</ref> the Social Democratic party was outlawed, and many of its members were imprisoned or emigrated.<ref name="johnson 107"/> On 1 May 1934, the [[Austrofascism|Austrofascists]] imposed a new constitution ("Maiverfassung") which cemented Dollfuss's power, but on 25 July he was assassinated in an [[Austrian Nazi]] [[July Putsch|coup attempt]].<ref>Lonnie Johnson 109</ref><ref>Brook-Shepherd 292</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1987-0922-500, Wien, Heldenplatz, Rede Adolf Hitler.jpg|thumb|[[Adolf Hitler]] speaking at [[Heldenplatz]], Vienna, 1938]]
His successor [[Kurt Schuschnigg]] acknowledged the fact that Austria was a "German state" and he also believed that Austrians were "better Germans" but he wished that Austria would remain independent.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ryschka |first=Birgit |title=Constructing and Deconstructing National Identity: Dramatic Discourse in Tom Murphy's The Patriot Game and Felix Mitterer's In Der Löwengrube |date=1 January 2008 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-3-631-58111-7 }}</ref> He announced a [[referendum]] on 9 March 1938, to be held on 13 March, concerning Austria's independence from Germany.

==== Nazi rule ====
On 12 March 1938, Austrian Nazis took over the government, while German troops occupied the country, which prevented Schuschnigg's referendum from taking place.<ref name="johnson 112">Lonnie Johnson 112-113</ref> On 13 March 1938, the ''[[Anschluss]]'' ({{literal translation|joining|connection}}) of Austria was officially declared. Two days later, Austrian-born [[Adolf Hitler]] announced what he called the "reunification" of his home country with the "rest of the [[Nazi Germany|German Reich]]" on Vienna's [[Heldenplatz]]. He established a referendum which confirmed the union with Germany in April 1938.

Parliamentary elections were held in Germany (including recently annexed Austria) on 10 April 1938. They were the final elections to the Reichstag during Nazi rule, and they took the form of a single-question referendum asking whether voters approved of a single Nazi-party list for the 813-member Reichstag, as well as the recent annexation of Austria (the ''[[Anschluss]]''). Jews, Roma and Sinti were not allowed to vote.<ref>Robert Gellately, Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany, (2001), p. 216</ref> Turnout in the election was officially 99.5 percent, with 98.9 percent voting "yes". In the case of Austria, Adolf Hitler's native soil, 99.71 percent of an electorate of 4,484,475 officially went to the ballots, with a positive tally of 99.73 percent.<ref name="test">[[1938 German election and referendum]]</ref> Although most Austrians favored the ''Anschluss'', in certain parts of Austria, the German soldiers were not always welcomed with flowers and joy, especially in Vienna, which had Austria's largest Jewish population.<ref>Evan Burr Bukey, Hitler's Austria: Popular Sentiment in the Nazi Era, 1938–1945, p. 33</ref> Nevertheless, despite the propaganda and the manipulation and rigging which surrounded the ballot box result, there was massive genuine support for Hitler for fulfilling the ''Anschluss'',<ref>Ian Kershaw (2001) Hitler 1936-1945" Nemesis, p.83</ref> since many Germans from both Austria and Germany saw it as completing the long overdue unification of all Germans into one state.<ref>Roderick Stackelberg, Hitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies, p.170</ref>

[[File:OstmarkMap.png|thumb|upright=1.25|Austria in 1941 when it was known as the "Ostmark"]]
On 13 March 1938, Austria was annexed by the [[Third Reich]] and ceased to exist as an independent country (the ''Anschluss''). The [[Aryanization (Nazism)|Aryanisation]] of the wealth of Jewish Austrians started immediately in mid-March, with a so-called "wild" (i.e. extra-legal) phase, but it was soon structured legally and bureaucratically so the assets which Jewish citizens possessed could be stripped from them. At that time, [[Adolf Eichmann]], who grew up in Austria, was transferred to Vienna and ordered to persecute the Jews. During the November pogrom in 1938 ("Reichskristallnacht"), Jews and Jewish institutions such as synagogues were subjected to violent attacks in Vienna, Klagenfurt, Linz, Graz, Salzburg, Innsbruck and several cities in Lower Austria.<ref>{{Cite web |title=DÖW – Erkennen – Ausstellung – 1938 – Die Verfolgung der österreichischen Juden |url=https://www.doew.at/erkennen/ausstellung/1938/die-verfolgung-der-oesterreichischen-juden |website=www.doew.at |access-date=21 February 2021 |archive-date=6 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706103854/https://www.doew.at/erkennen/ausstellung/1938/die-verfolgung-der-oesterreichischen-juden |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Jüdische Gemeinde – Wien (Österreich) |url=https://www.xn--jdische-gemeinden-22b.de/index.php/gemeinden/u-z/2087-wien-oesterreich |website=www.xn—jdische-gemeinden-22b.de |access-date=21 February 2021 |archive-date=10 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220610035119/https://www.xn--jdische-gemeinden-22b.de/index.php/gemeinden/u-z/2087-wien-oesterreich |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Jewish Vienna |url=https://www.wien.gv.at/english/culture/jewishvienna |website=www.wien.gv.at |access-date=21 February 2021 |archive-date=16 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416073430/https://www.wien.gv.at/english/culture/jewishvienna/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.zeit.de/2018/11/nationalsozialismus-oesterreich-anschluss-antisemitismus-adolf-eichmann/komplettansicht |title=Hitlers willige Vasallen |newspaper=Die Zeit |date=12 March 2018 |access-date=21 February 2021 |archive-date=5 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505105703/https://www.zeit.de/2018/11/nationalsozialismus-oesterreich-anschluss-antisemitismus-adolf-eichmann/komplettansicht |url-status=live |last1=Riedl |first1=Joachim }}</ref><ref>Wolfgang Häusler, ''Das Jahr 1938 und die österreichischen Juden.'' In: Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes: "Anschluß" 1938. Vienna, 1988.</ref> [[Otto von Habsburg]], a vehement opponent of the Nazis, the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, an honorary citizen of hundreds of places in Austria and partly envisaged by Schuschnigg as a monarchical option, was in Belgium at the time. He spoke out against the Anschluss and was then wanted by the Nazi regime and his property would have been expropriated and he would have been shot immediately if he were caught.<ref>Elisabeth Boeckl-Klamper, Thomas Mang, Wolfgang Neugebauer, ''Gestapo-Leitstelle Wien 1938–1945.'' Vienna 2018, {{ISBN|978-3-9024-9483-2}}, pp. 299–305; James Longo, ''Hitler and the Habsburgs: The Fuhrer's Vendetta Against the Austrian Royals'' (2018); Stephan Baier, Eva Demmerle, ''Otto von Habsburg. Die Biografie.'' Amalthea, Wien 2002, {{ISBN|978-3-8500-2486-0}}, p. 122.</ref> In 1938, the Nazis renamed Austria the "[[Ostmark (Austria)|Ostmark]]",<ref name="johnson 112"/> a name which it had until 1942, when it was renamed the "Alpine and Danubian Gaue" (Alpen-und Donau-Reichsgaue).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jelavich |first=Barbara |title=Modern Austria: Empire and Republic, 1815–1986 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2008 |isbn=978-0-521-31625-5 |page=227}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schmitz-Berning |first=Cornelia |title=Vokabular des Nationalsozialismus |publisher=de Gruyter |date=2007 |isbn=978-3-11-019549-1 |page=24 |language=de}}</ref>

Though Austrians made up only 8 percent of the population of the Third Reich,<ref name="dav_art_nazi_past"/> some of the most prominent Nazis were native Austrians, including [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Ernst Kaltenbrunner]], [[Arthur Seyss-Inquart]], [[Franz Stangl]], [[Alois Brunner]], [[Friedrich Rainer]], and [[Odilo Globocnik]],<ref>Ian Wallace (1999) "German-speaking exiles in Great Britain" Rodopi p.81 ISBN 9789042004153</ref> as were over 13 percent of the members of the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] and 40 percent of the staff at the Nazi [[extermination camp]]s.<ref name="dav_art_nazi_past">David Art (2006) "The politics of the Nazi past in Germany and Austria" Cambridge University Press p.43 ISBN 9780521856836</ref> In the [[Austria under National Socialism|Reichsgau]], besides the main camp [[Mauthausen concentration camp|KZ-Mauthausen]], there were numerous sub-camps in all provinces where Jews and other prisoners were killed, tortured and exploited.<ref>Österreichische Historikerkommission, ''Schlussbericht der Historikerkommission der Republik Österreich.'' Volume 1, 2003, pp 85.</ref> At this time, because the territory was outside the operational radius of Allied aircraft, the armaments industry was greatly expanded through the forced labor of concentration camp prisoners, this was especially the case with regard to the manufacture of fighter planes, tanks and missiles.<ref>Norbert Schausberger, ''Rüstung in Österreich 1938–1945'', Vienna (1970).</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=26 July 2010 |title=Hitlers Schuldendiktat: Wie Hitlers Kriegswirtschaft wirklich lief |url=https://profil.at/home/hitlers-schuldendiktat-wie-hitlers-kriegswirtschaft-273933 |publisher=profil.at |access-date=1 April 2021 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415232658/https://www.profil.at/home/hitlers-schuldendiktat-wie-hitlers-kriegswirtschaft-273933 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Zwangsarbeit für die Rüstungsindustrie |publisher=KZ-Gedenkstätte Mauthausen |url=https://www.mauthausen-memorial.org/de/Wissen/Das-Konzentrationslager-Mauthausen-1938-1945/Zwangsarbeit-fuer-die-Ruestungsindustrie |website=www.mauthausen-memorial.org |access-date=21 February 2021 |archive-date=16 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416090110/https://www.mauthausen-memorial.org/de/Wissen/Das-Konzentrationslager-Mauthausen-1938-1945/Zwangsarbeit-fuer-die-Ruestungsindustrie |url-status=live }}</ref>

Most of the [[Austrian resistance|resistance groups]] were soon crushed by the [[Gestapo]]. While the plans of the group around [[Karl Burian]] to blow up the Gestapo's headquarters in Vienna were uncovered,<ref>Karl Glanz (2020) ''Die Sozialdemokratie'' p 28</ref> the important group around the later executed priest [[Heinrich Maier]] managed to contact the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]. This so-called Maier-Messner group was able to send the Allies information about armaments factories where [[V-1 flying bomb]]s, [[V-2 rocket]]s, [[Tiger I|Tiger tanks]] and aircraft ([[Messerschmitt Bf 109]], [[Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet]], etc.) were manufactured, information which was important to the success of [[Operation Crossbow]] and [[Operation Hydra (1943)|Operation Hydra]], both of which were preliminary missions before the launch of [[Operation Overlord]]. This resistance group, which was in contact with the American secret service ([[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]]), soon provided information about mass executions and [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]] such as [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]]. The group's aim was to cause Nazi Germany to lose the war as quickly as possible and re-establish an independent Austria.<ref>Christoph Thurner (2017) ''The CASSIA Spy Ring in World War II Austria: A History of the OSS's Maier-Messner Group'' p. 35.</ref><ref>Elisabeth Boeckl-Klamper, Thomas Mang, Wolfgang Neugebauer, (2018) ''Gestapo-Leitstelle Wien 1938–1945'' ISBN 9783902494832 p 299-305</ref><ref>Hansjakob Stehle, "Die Spione aus dem Pfarrhaus (German: The spies from the rectory)". In: Die Zeit, 5 January 1996</ref>

[[File:KZ Mauthausen.jpg|thumb|left|The liberation of [[Mauthausen concentration camp]], 1945]]