Heinrich Wildner Tagebucher 1938--1944: Heute Geht Es Gegen Die Juden, Morgen Kann Es Gegen Die Anderen Gehen

One of the key themes of Holocaust research is the question of how contemporaries knew about the persecution of the Jews. Heinrich Wildner (1879-1957) his diaries from 1938 to 1944 show this knew a great deal. The former top diplomat, who has been sidelined but is still well connected, provides detailed information on what was happening in Vienna, on war and events at the front, on the behavior of many of his former colleagues and contemporaries from administration and politics, on rumors and jokes that were circulating. He also commented on the rapidly developing anti-German mood among the population. There are constant references to National Socialist atrocities, to disenfranchisement, persecution and murder of the Jewish population in Austria and in the occupied territories, to the expropriation of monasteries and large estates from nobles, to art theft, euthanasia, forced laborers and war crimes. In terms of content and wording, the texts show a frightening parallel to the current war in Ukraine. On September 3, 1939 there is the entry: "By the way, a strange war, it is not called war at all, but the use of force, which is opposed to violence."