When Hitler marched into Austria in March 1938, he was given a rapturous reception. Millions lined the streets and filled the squares of Vienna. Tobias Portschy, a self-appointed regional Nazi chief, considered what to give a man who already had almost everything he wanted and devised a somewhat particular gift from the Austrian people – the elimination of Jewish life in the Burgenland, picturesque farming country about 70km south-east of Vienna. The Holocaust had begun.Burgenland is an astonishing survey of Jewish history in Central Europe, an account of the opening salvo of what turned into the systematic industrial scale genocide of European Jewry, and a stern examination of the world’s wholly inadequate reaction. It is also a deeply personal memoir and family history. Impeccably researched and hugely ambitious in scope, it narrates the full arc of the Jewish experience in Central Europe over 300 years, told through the story of one family who remained steadfast in their identity throughout.David Joseph has dissected an uncomfortable history, and the results demand a substantial re-assessment of the orthodox narrative around the Holocaust and the role played by Austria.
