Nazi regime seized up to 30 Jewish farms in Carinthia

New research has documented how the Nazi regime forced the sale of as many as 30 Jewish farms in Carinthia, mostly in the region’s Lower Carinthia area. The findings were reported by ORF.

Historian and archivist Anna-Lena Stabentheiner examined 20 boxes of so-called “de-Judaization files” from the provincial government’s agricultural law department, held by the Carinthian Provincial Archives. The records detail how farms were appraised and assigned sale prices, often well below their value. Taxes, including a “Jewish flight tax,” were deducted from the proceeds, and the remainder was placed in blocked accounts that the Jewish owners could not access.

Many farms were returned to their former owners after the war, but the displaced families did not come back. The Auerbach family, who had farmed the Hölzl-Hube in St. Andrä in the Lavant Valley, fled to England after Mr Auerbach was arrested by the Gestapo during the November pogroms and deported to the Dachau concentration camp. The farm was returned to the family after 1945, but they sold it again in the early 1950s after building a new life elsewhere.

Stabentheiner plans to publish her findings in the academic journal Carinthia. She is due to give a talk on Monday, November 9, at the Protestant St John’s Church. The Catholic Church is also organising a memorial march that day, starting at 6 p.m. at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Klagenfurt. In Villach, the Erinnern association has invited people to a walk exploring places connected with Jewish life and the fates of Jewish residents.