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Not noted for panhandling

A good conduct certificate from the police in 1938

“...herby it is confirmed, that within the last five years there are no suspicious matters noted that would prohibit travel, especially not panhandling.”

VIENNA

At first glance it may seem abstruse. A certificate of good conduct from the police confirms to an employee of an insurance company, Franz Resler of Vienna, that he has not made himself suspicious, especially “not by panhandling.” At second glance, however, it is exactly the emphasis on panhandling that points to all the existential crises in which many Austrian Jews increasingly found themselves in 1938. With the “Anschluss” the Nazis had massively increased the economic pressure on Jews living in Austria. “Aryanisation” of companies and occupational bans deprived numerous people of their livelihood. As a result, Franz Resler and his wife Anna planned their emigration to Argentina, where Franz Resler’s sister Fanny had been living since the 1920s.


SOURCE

Institution:

Jüdisches Museum Wien

Original:

Good conduct certificate for Franz Resler issued for the purposes of his immigration to Argentina; Archive Inv. No. 5769/3

 

on the days before