Trudy Gold
“Red Vienna”
Summary
In post-World War I Austria there was a huge division between what became known as Red Vienna and the rest of the countryside around Vienna. Trudy Gold discusses the forces that “created” Red Vienna as well as what sustained it from 1918–1934.
Trudy Gold
Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.
It’s a very, very interesting question, Elliot. They have a lot of Jews who came in from Iran and Russia. What I’m hoping to do in the next few months, I used to sit on IHRA, the idea. And the woman who represented Austria is in fact Jewish. I want to persuade her to come and talk to us about what it’s like being a Jew in Austria today. It’s complicated. I mean, it’s better than it was because don’t forget, and this is something else we’ll be talking about over the next few weeks, Austria managed to put itself out as the first victim of Nazism. Don’t forget that, the first victims of Nazism. And the allies let it happen because of the fear of communism.
Basically, the man was deranged. And there were two reasons given, one was to do with a woman, but that was totally in his fantasy. It’s because he thought that Schlick was corrupting Austria, logical positivism. Look, he wasn’t a Jew. But the point is, he’s part of the Vienna Circle, he’s the leader of the Vienna Circle. These people with their ideas, they’re corrupting Christian Austria. Don’t forget Catholic Austria.
That’s a very interesting question and deserves a much bigger answer. Evian was certainly anti-Jewish. Golda was an observer. She said the day will come when no one will pity the Jews. America was certainly beginning to tighten up against all Jews, against everyone. You see, America, the country of the open door policy, by the turn of the century, it’s changing. But I think that’s for a whole separate lecture, not given by me. There are people much more expert on it than I am.