{
  "id": 11444528,
  "title": "What Vienna Lost When It Lost Its Jews",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/02/what-vienna-lost-when-it-lost-its-jews",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-02T13:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Atlantic",
    "slug": "the-atlantic",
    "url": "https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/10/city-without-jews-douglas-smith-book-review-vienna/688855/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In 2022, the author journeyed to Vienna to delve into the life of Joseph Roth, a writer who was captivated by the cosmopolitan city during his own era. Roth's fascination with Vienna originated from his roots in the shtetls of the Austro-Hungarian empire and his subsequent sojourns in Berlin and Paris. Upon arrival in Vienna, the author found themselves yearning to pay their respects to the Jewish graves that had once been a prominent part of the cityscape.\n\nVienna was once home to nearly 200,000 Jews before the onset of World War II, making it a veritable melting pot of Jewish culture and intellect. However, as the Nazi occupation tightened its grip on the city, the Jewish population dwindled to a mere few thousand. The city's Jewish heritage was not only diminished but also irrevocably altered by the atrocities committed by the Nazis, who desecrated most burial grounds and left an indelible mark on Vienna's collective memory.\n\nThe author's quest to uncover these graves presented numerous challenges, as the Nazis had not only obliterated many burial sites but also rendered the Central Cemetery, which contained a Jewish section, a construction site. Despite these obstacles, the author managed to locate a site behind a locked gate, where a pit of mud and grass concealed an array of ancient gravestones bearing Hebrew inscriptions. These graves, some dating back to the 16th century, served as a somber reminder of the city's once-thriving Jewish community.\n\nOne such site was Seegasse 9, which played a pivotal role in Douglas Smith's latest historical work, The City Without Jews: Life and Death in Nazi Vienna. The building served as one of the few gathering spots for Viennese Jews during the Nazi crackdown. The rooftop of the building became a focal point for Smith, who sought to chronicle the lives and tragic fates of Vienna's Jews in vivid detail.\n\nSmith's book commenced with a harrowing account of Hugo Bettauer, a Jewish writer who became the first to be assassinated by a Nazi Party member in 1925. Despite the controversy surrounding Bettauer's novel, The City Without Jews: A Novel From the Day After Tomorrow, Smith posited that the author's foresight was tragically accurate. The Nazis' destruction of Vienna's Jewish population not only eradicated a significant cultural force but also eroded the very essence of the city itself.\n\nToday, Vienna remains a city of opulent Hapsburg palaces, charming cafés, and the haunting shadows of Leopoldstadt, known as \"matzah island\" for its influx of Jewish refugees. While the city's grandeur is undeniable, it is overshadowed by the airlessness that permeates its streets. The author's observation that Vienna lost its soul upon the loss of its Jewish population underscores the profound impact of the Holocaust on the city and its inhabitants.",
  "summary": "Douglas Smith’s The City Without Jews revisits the decimation of a robust community—and the city that betrayed it.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}