None of the synagogues escaped the destruction during the '' Kristallnacht '' pogroms of November 1938 following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany . A fragment of a Torah scroll was saved by Heschel Messias from one of the synagogues as it burned . The Jewish population was increasingly isolated and terrorised and was finally deported and exterminated in concentration camps such as Auschwitz . The once thriving communal life was completely destroyed . Only a handful of survivors were able to hide until the end of the war , from an original population of several thousands
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Leopoldstadt