The reaction of the "native" Jewish population of Vienna to the arrival of the Jewish refugees from the East was complicated. The upper class was shocked by the poverty and backwardness of these Ostjuden. The Austrian-Israelite Union's Monatschrift for NovemberDecember 1914 described the unfortunate living conditions in the barracks where most of the refugees were housed. They were at least equipped with electricity, kitchens, and washrooms, all of which would have been suitable for soldiers, but which were very inadequate for whole families. The Monatschrift appealed to its readers to supply the refugees with jobs, clothes, and shoes, which were desperately needed with winter approaching.
29 Jewish officials praised the work done by the government to establish children's homes, schools, kitchens, and libraries for the refugees. Dr. Bloch's Oesterreichische Wochenschrift stated in March 1915 that the friendliness of the Christian Social mayor and administration of Vienna toward Jews would not be forgotten by them. 30
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As time went on and tens of thousands of the refugees remained in Vienna far longer than anyone, including the refugees themselves, had anticipated, resentment against them began to grow for consuming the already short supplies of housing, food, and fuel. Upper-class Jews now began to see them as a threat to their goal of complete social acceptance by the Christian Viennese. Meanwhile, poorer Viennese Jews, fearing economic competition from the refugees, saw them as a danger to their existence. 31
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In fairness to the Jews and gentiles of Vienna, it should be pointed out that their hostility to Jewish refugees was not unique. Many Berlin Jews reacted in the same way to the 70,000 Ostjuden who immigrated to the German capital between 1917 and 1920. 32 Hungarians and Czechs were even less friendly toward the refugees. As late as April 1918 there were still 41,365 Jewish refugees in Bohemia out of a total of slightly fewer than 65,000, and in neighboring Moravia there were 18,487 Jewish refugees among the 35,413 people who had fled their war-ravished homelands. 33
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When Galicia was temporarily cleared of Russian troops in the summer of 1915, the Viennese municipal government considered interning Jewish refugees who refused to return to their homes, an idea that was repeatedly discussed after the war. In 1915, however, the minister of interior, Baron Haynold, was sympathetic to the refugees, calling them "victims of war," so no such drastic action was taken. But the city council still put pressure on remaining refugees to leave by removing their public assistance and offering free transportation back to Galicia. The number of Jewish refugees consequently declined from 125,000 to 77,000 by October 1915. For many of the remainder, however, a return to their native villages ( shtetl ) was a virtual impossibility because they
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