UCF presidents Trevor Colbourn and Steven Altman as well as Vice President for Academic Affairs Richard Astro, Vice President for Research Michael Bass, and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Edward Sheridan, were all important to this project in creating an atmosphere conducive to research.
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Numerous individuals within the Jewish community of Central Florida have shown a keen interest in this project and have been supportive in many ways. I am especially indebted to Mrs. Tess Wise, executive director of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida, who has enthusiastically assisted my work almost since its inception and who put me in contact with several Austrian Jewish refugees now living in the Central Florida area. All of those refugees, whose names are mentioned in the bibliography, helped give me a greater appreciation of what it was like to be a Viennese Jew in the First Austrian Republic and immediately after the Anschluss. The Holocaust Center, with the funding of Yumi and Hedy Schleifer, also provided me with a scholarship that made possible my studies in Jerusalem.
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More recently, several colleagues at the University of Central Florida and around the country have selflessly devoted countless hours to reading my manuscript and providing me with indispensable suggestions for its improvement. Pride of place clearly belongs to Professor Donald L. Niewyk of Southern Methodist University who meticulously and expeditiously read both the first and second drafts of the manuscript and saved me from numerous errors and contradictions. Professor John Haag of the University of Georgia was particularly helpful on matters regarding his specialty, the history of the University of Vienna. Professor Robert Schwarz, emeritus of Florida Atlantic University, offered me the unique insights of a scholar and Austrian Jewish refugee. My colleague at the University of Central Florida, Moshe Pelli, director of the Judaic Studies Program, was a treasury of information on questions regarding the broader aspects of Jewish history. Professor Elmar B. Fetscher of the UCF history department generously volunteered to proofread portions of the first draft. A former colleague at the University of Wyoming, Professor Emeritus William R. Steckel, provided me with three unique photographs he took in Vienna shortly after the German annexation.
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I must also mention three people especially close to me who have always been an inspiration in my labors. From my mother, Blanche M. Pauley, I inherited a love of reading. My father, Carroll R. Pauley, first introduced me to the fascinations of history when I was a child by taking our family to many exciting historical sites in both Europe and the United States. I deeply regret that he did not live to see the final product of this study. My wife, Marianne,
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