The Kriegerheim building originally housed an orphanage established in the late 19th century by Bertha Krieger-Kohn and her husband, Dr. Samuel Krieger. After the Anschluss in March 1938, the building was used as a school for Jewish girls and the Youth Aliyah's training headquarters. In June 1938, the Jewish community board in Vienna established vocational training courses as part of the Jews' efforts to train themselves in professions that would be relevant and useful in the countries to which they hoped to immigrate.
This photograph was published as part of an album dedicated to vocational training courses prepared by the Jewish community of Vienna in November 1940. In the course of one year, more than 24,000 men and women participated in approximately 1,600 courses. The courses played an important role, both in terms of providing employment for unemployed Jews as well as repairing and restoring torn clothing and other products. By the time the courses were terminated in February 1941, more than 45,000 people had participated in them.
In February 1940, the Jewish community established a home for the elderly in the Kriegerheim, which was closed in June 1942. From 1942-3, the building was used as a gathering point for Jews pending deportation to the east, to the ghettos and death camps. From late 1943, dozens of Jews lived there who were protected from deportation thanks to their non-Jewish spouses. In 1944, the building housed a hospital for Jewish forced laborers who were brought from Hungary.
In 1954, the building was demolished, and today there is a square in its place. A plaque on the wall of one of the buildings in the square commemorates the Kriegerheim building and the Jews who passed through its doors.
