The total estimated Jewish population of Austria-Hungary is about 2,250,000, of which nearly one million were, at the beginning of the war, in the border province of Galicia, in the immediate area of hostilities.

Here, as elsewhere, the Jews manifested their keen loyalty by trooping to the colors even when they were normally exempt, as in the case of the students of the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary, many of whom volunteered, although not required to do so. The Government recognized this loyalty in many ways, particularly in the granting of special privileges with respect to the observances required by the Jewish religious ritual. Thus the Emperor, in his own name, sent 20,000 Tallithim (prayer shawls) for the soldiers in the field during the holidays. When, at Passover, it was discovered that the matzoths for the Jewish troops had been improperly prepared, the Government, at the instance of the Chief Rabbi of Vienna, authorized the wholesale distribution of potatoes to Orthodox Jews.

Hundreds of Jewish soldiers have been decorated on the field of battle, and many were given officers’ commissions.

GALICIA

It was the million Jews of Galicia who were made to feel the full burden of the war. Although their economic condition before the war was greatly inferior to that of the general population, their political condition was one of equality. But the Russian invasion of Galicia, in September, 1914, changed their status overnight. The Russian Governor-General, Count Bobrinski, a notorious anti-Semite, found the political status of the Jews in Galicia most abhorrent to him. He at once proceeded to degrade them to the status of the Russian Jews, and, if possible, still lower. He proposed to his home Government that all Jewish landed property in Galicia be confiscated and the Jews be forbidden to own, lease or rent land; and this, he added, was an immediately imperative step, to be carried out even before the formal annexation of Galicia was announced!

On February 13, 1915, the Grand Duke Nicholas issued an order declaring that “in view of the increase of spying on the part of the Jews, it is decreed that:

1. No person of Jewish nationality may enter Galicia.

2. No persons of Jewish nationality may pass from one district of Galicia into another.

3. Infractions of this decree will be punished by a fine of three thousand roubles ($1,500) or by three months’ imprison­ment.”[52]

The spirit of these documents, communicated to the troops, produced a series of outrages against the Jewish population more horrible even than any perpetrated in Russia. As each town was invaded by the Russians the troops first sought the Jewish quarters, and here they let themselves loose in an orgy of pillage, sack and rapine.

In the town of Bohorodczany there appeared, in January, 1915, a detachment of Austro-Polish troops. They demanded food and quarters and were, of course, supplied. After a brief stay they departed. But the act of the Jews was reported to the Russian commander in Stanislau. He immediately sent a “punitive” expedition of four hundred Cossacks to the town. They set the town on fire, routed out the Jewish women and girls from their places of concealment, assembled them in the square and there held an orgy under the open sky. After their lusts were satisfied they drove the victims under the crack of the whip, half naked and starving, along the roads to Stanislau. One woman, who had risen from childbirth only a few days before, died on the way. One of the physicians of Stanislau, Dr. B., testifies that he alone treated ten cases of women and girls who had been violated.[53]

In Szczerzec, Galicia, the Russian soldiers caught one Jacob Mischel, a town councillor, poured oil over him and burned him alive.[54]

In Dembica, Cossacks raided a synagogue to which the Jews had fled for refuge and prayer, robbed and imprisoned the men, and outraged the women. Those who escaped through the windows were caught by the guards below and men and women were knouted to death. Then the troops set fire to the synagogue.[55]

These are typical cases of outrages perpetrated against the Jewish population of Galicia. Scarcely a town in the line of invasion escaped. The Jewish population fled before the invaders in vast numbers.

There are about 175,000 Jewish refugees in Vienna; 70,000 of these are destitute. There are about 70,000 living in barracks in Bohemia; 8,000 of these are in Prague. There were about 52,000 in Budapest. All fugitives who have settled in Hungary, however, have been removed to Austria proper. Dr. J. Bloch of Vienna, estimates that the total number of Jewish refugees from Galicia is about half a million. The situation of these refugees is somewhat better than that of the Jewish refugees in Russia, inasmuch as the Government has placed them in concentration camps, attends to their minimum wants and gives each one an allowance of 70 heller (14 cents) daily. With the rise in the prices of food, the daily allowance has risen to about 90 heller (18 cents) per capita. They are treated well by the population, and in many cases are provided with some work.