In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind Read Online Free PDF Page A

On the evening of March 13, Ludwig and I were listening with earphones as the broadcaster described the advance of German troops into Austria on the morning of March 12. Hitler had followed in the afternoon, crossing the border first at his native village, Braunau am Inn, and then moving on to Linz. Of the 120,000 citizens of Linz, almost 100,000 turned out to greet him, screaming “Heil Hitler” in unison. In the background, the “Horst Wessel song,” a hypnotic Nazi marching song that even I found captivating, blared forth on the radio. On the afternoon of March 14, Hitler’s entourage reached Vienna, where he was greeted by a wildly enthusiastic crowd of 200,000 people in the Heldenplatz, the great central square, and hailed as the hero who had unified the German-speaking people (figure 2–4). For my brother and me, this overwhelming support for the man who had destroyed the Jewish community of Germany was terrifying.

     
    2–2 My parents’ toy and luggage store on the Kutschkergasse. My mother with me, or perhaps my brother. (From Eric Kandel’s personal collection.)
     
    Hitler had expected the Austrians to oppose Germany’s annexation of their country and to demand a relatively independent German protectorate instead. But the extraordinary reception he received, even from those who had opposed him forty-eight hours earlier, convinced him that Austria would readily accept—would indeed welcome—annexation. It seemed as if everyone, from modest shopkeepers to the most elevated members of the academic community, now openly embraced Hitler. Theodor Cardinal Innitzer, the influential archbishop of Vienna, once a sympathetic defender of the Jewish community, ordered all the Catholic churches in the city to fly the Nazi flag and ring their bells in honor of Hitler’s arrival. Greeting Hitler in person, the cardinal pledged his own loyalty and that of all Austrian Catholics, the majority of the population. He promised that Austria’s Catholics would become “the truest sons of the great Reich into whose arms they had been brought back on this momentous day.” The archbishop’s only request was that the liberties of the Church be respected and its role in the education of the young guaranteed.

     
    2–3 My brother and I in 1933. I was three years old and Ludwig was eight. (From Eric Kandel’s personal collection.)
     
    That night and for days to come, all hell broke loose. Viennese mobs, both adults and young people, inspired by Austrian Nazis and screaming “Down with Jews! Heil Hitler! Destroy the Jews!” erupted in a nationalistic frenzy, beating up Jews and destroying their property. They humiliated Jews by forcing them to get on their knees and scrub the streets to eliminate every vestige of anti-annexation political graffiti (figure 2–5). In my father’s case, he was forced to use a toothbrush to rid Vienna of the last semblance of Austrian independence—the word “yes” scrawled by Viennese patriots encouraging the citizenry to vote for Austria’s freedom and to oppose annexation. Other Jews were forced to carry paint buckets and to demarcate stores owned by Jews with the Star of David or with the word Jude (Jew). Foreign commentators, long accustomed to Nazi tactics in Germany, were astonished by the brutality of the Austrians. In Vienna and Its Jews , George Berkley quotes a German storm trooper: “the Viennese have managed to do overnight what we Germans have failed to achieve…up to this day. In Austria, a boycott of the Jews does not need organizing—the people themselves have initiated it.”

     
    2–4 Hitler enters Vienna in March of 1938. He is greeted with great enthusiasm by the crowds, including groups of girls waving Nazi flags emblazoned with swastikas (above). Hitler speaks to the Viennese public in the Heldenplatz (below). The largest turnout in the history of Vienna, 200,000 people, came to hear him. (Photos courtesy of Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischer