Abstract

Intolerance in Vienna

On June 23, 1931, the Rotary International Convention opened in Vienna amid thunderous applause and moving phrases on "world amity," "international brotherhood," and "the cultivation of friendship across the seas." About a mile away from the convention hail vicious attacks broke out at the University of Vienna against foreign and Jewish students. The rioting lasted five days, and more than a score of students were cruelly beaten. At the time protests from the Social Democrats, the minority student groups and even the Clericals against this arbitrary racial discrimination in an educational institution proved of little avail. The protest, however, had done some good. The Viennese authorities so disliked the international publicity which followed - that a quietus was rapidly put on the rioters.