Central office for Jewish emigration

The "Central Office for Jewish Emigration" (Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung) in Vienna was created in 1938. Later, such offices were also established in Prague (1939) and Amsterdam (1941). Superordinate to this was the "Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Berlin" (1939). This in turn was subordinate to the Reich Security Main Office, which was subordinate to the Reich Ministry of the Interior [1]. At the beginning, the head of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna was Adolf Eichmann. When Eichmann eventually became head of Department IV/B4 (youth affairs/eviction affairs) in the Reich Security Main Office, Alois Brunner (known as Brunner I) succeeded him in Vienna.[2]

Until 1939, the goal of the Central Office was primarily to carry out Jewish emigration; applicants had to go through a course of offices, all of which were concentrated in the headquarters of the Central Office, the Palais Rothschildt. Various levies (Jewish property levy, Reich flight tax, passport levy) as well as "commissioning" (asset clarification, seizure of valuables, luggage searches) were imposed. From 1941 onwards, the objectives changed: now the focus was increasingly on the deportation of Jews from Vienna.

Sources:

^[1] Cf. Gabriele Anderl, Dirk Rupnow, Alexandra-Eileen Wenck. (2004). Historikerkommission der Republik Österreich: Die Zentralstelle für Jüdische Auswanderung als Beraubungsinstitution, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag  311.

 ^{[2 ]} Cf. Michael, Wildt (2002). Generation des Unbedingten. Das Führungskorps des Reichssicherheitshauptamtes, Hamburg, HIS Verlag, 360.

^[3] Cf. Heinz Boberach (ed.): Die Meldungen aus dem Reich 1938–1945. Herrsching 1984, ISBN 3-88199-158-1, Bd. 2, 28.