Edition of Eyewitness Accounts 1938

The LBI and the Wiener Library are preparing a complete edition of over 300 eyewitness accounts that were collected by the Jewish Central Information Office (JCIO), the predecessor of the Wiener Library, following the events of 9 November 1938. Several volunteers are currently working on the transcription of these unique historical documents.

In the refugee crisis following the events of 9 November 1938, the JCIO collected a large number of eyewitness accounts of newly arrived refugees who had just managed to escape to Holland. This information was then passed on to a network of Jewish organisations around the world, which by 1939 comprised 58 different organisations. With these detailed accounts the JCIO attempted to counter the official National Socialist propaganda version of a "spontaneous uprising".

This collection has not been used much in historiographical works on the pogroms, even though these eyewitness accounts constitute one of very few reliable sources of information about the true nature of the actions, the extent of the damage, the fate of the victims, and the number of lives lost.

As historic documents, the eyewitness accounts allow a comprehensive insight into the events of 9 November in a large number of German and Austrian towns and cities. Not only are they harrowing documents of individual tragedy, they also put on record the efforts of a whole community struggling under the impact of horrific events. All the accounts are marked by precision and clearly show that an attempt was made to collect as much factual information as possible.

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