Description

‘A truly major work, both deeply moving and incredibly powerful. A masterpiece of research, structure and writing . . . unforgettable’ – Sir Antony Beevor’Painful, profound, prescient . . . a magisterial work’ – Sonia Purnell, internationally bestselling author of Kingmaker and A Woman of No Importance
In 1938, Vienna was the second largest Jewish city in Europe, home to nearly 200,000 Jewish people.

By 1946, only a few thousand had survived.

In this heart-wrenching story of loss, fear, courage and hope, acclaimed historian Douglas Smith chronicles the Nazi destruction of Jewish Vienna. Drawing on hundreds of long-forgotten voices, from Jews to Nazis to Gentile collaborators and bystanders, The City Without Jews centres on one remarkable person: Mignon Langnas.

Watching as nearly every Jew she knew was expropriated, forced to migrate, or deported to the killing fields and death camps in the East, Mignon vividly recorded her world in diaries and letters, creating an indispensably detailed and poignant account of life under Nazi rule. What emerges from the wreckage of a city bent on Jewish eradication is a gripping and fundamentally human history like no other – one of betrayal, sacrifice, impossible choices and survivor guilt.

Publisher Review

This is a truly major work, both deeply moving and incredibly powerful. It is a masterpiece of research, structure and writing. Never before has anyone so brilliantly integrated the history of the Nazi onslaught on the Jews of Vienna – a more vicious explosion even than in Germany – with the intimate experience of their victims. It is an unforgettable story of greed, betrayal and hypocrisy, self-sacrifice, impossible moral choices and survivor guilt — Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad Shocking and profoundly moving, this meticulously researched history of the Nazi destruction of Jewish Vienna is a fierce and important work — Clare Mulley, Women’s Prize shortlisted author of Agent Zo Painful, profound, prescient. Douglas Smith’s The City Without Jews is a magisterial work but also an intimate one and all the more powerful for it — Sonia Purnell, author of Kingmaker and A Woman of No Importance Douglas Smith once again demonstrates his impressive historical scope and meticulous scholarship . . . this unflinching narrative is an important contribution to the canon of Holocaust history — Helen Rappaport, author of The Romanov Sisters Powerful and well-researched . . . Reading the stories of Vienna’s Jews in their own voices leaves an indelible scar . . . A magnificent history of Vienna’s antisemitic past * Starred Kirkus review * The City Without Jews exposes the descent of one of the world’s most beautiful cities into hell, through the lives of one family torn apart in the process. Moving gracefully between the grand and the intimate scale, this beautifully written book will change the way you see Vienna forever — Rebecca Clifford, author of Survivors In Douglas Smith’s extraordinary work, the city of Vienna becomes a character for which we feel and grieve. Superbly researched and written, this book unflinchingly and beautifully documents the fate of Viennese Jews during the Nazi years. It is moving, compelling and important reading. A tour-de-force — Ariana Neumann, author of When Time Stopped