“The Jew of Vienna Report” – testimony of a Jewish Austrian prisoner who was interned in three German concentration ...

“The Jew of Vienna Report” – testimony of a Jewish Austrian prisoner who was interned in three German concentration camps throughout the entire duration of the war

Deportiert! Ein Wiener Jude berichtet – “Deported! A Jew of Vienna Reports” – the personal testimony of a Jewish Austrian prisoner who was held in three concentration camps throughout the entire war and miraculously survived, despite the horrors he endured. Samuel Graumann, a survivor of Buchenwald, Auschwitz, and Mauthausen, documented his harrowing story after the war, recounting the events and experiences within the unspeakable hell of the death camps. Published by Stern, Vienna, 1947 – first edition.

Deportiert! Ein Wiener Jude berichtet – “Deported! A Jew of Vienna Reports” – A chilling first-person account by Jewish prisoner Samuel Graumann, documenting his harrowing journey from March 11, 1938, until the fall of the Third Reich in spring 1945. Graumann begins by describing the atmosphere of antisemitism in Austria following the German invasion—the plundering of Jewish property, forced labor imposed on Jews in the streets of Vienna, and the role of the Austrian Church, which had already been active in pushing Jews out of public positions even before the war began. He recounts in detail the Nazi manhunt for him: his arrest at home, separation from his family, and his deportation to Buchenwald on Yom Kippur. He movingly describes the group of Jews singing Kol Nidrei on the way to the camp: “I am not a devout Jew, but the cry of those hundreds... pierced deep, deep into my soul...”. Several harrowing chapters are devoted to the horrors of Buchenwald, where he was imprisoned for nearly three years. He documents the relentless death surrounding him on a daily basis - severe punishments, brutal abuse, horrendous sanitary conditions, starvation, torture, and executions. In spring 1941, Graumann was transferred with a group of Jewish prisoners to Auschwitz. Upon arrival, they underwent selection. Graumann was sent to live—along with 400 men—into a space barely large enough for 150. There, they were tattooed with prisoner numbers and issued striped uniforms, which he bitterly refers to as “rags with pockets.” A nurse told them: “No one has survived Auschwitz longer than six weeks.” In the chapter titled “Inhuman Life, ” Graumann details the horrors of Auschwitz—so overwhelming that at one point he nearly took his own life, if not for a friend who stopped him at the last moment. Despite the excruciating forced labor that left his body near collapse, Graumann managed to survive in Auschwitz until January 1945. 

That month, with the Allies advancing, the Nazis transferred him and around 90 other Jews to Mauthausen. There, conditions were somewhat less severe, as Nazi control had begun to weaken toward the end of the war, allowing inmates slightly better access to food. After a short period in Mauthausen, Graumann was moved to Theresienstadt, where he remained until he was liberated by the Red Army at the war’s end. After the war, he searched for his wife and children—only to learn that they had been murdered in 1943.

This publication contributed significantly to the accumulated knowledge regarding the situation of the Jewish people in Vienna after the Anschluss, and completed information that was missing from archives attempting to piece together the story of what Austrian Jewry endured during the Holocaust years.

Extremely rare. Only three copies are recorded in the global library catalog WorldCat, in libraries in Germany.

165 [2] pages. Very good condition.