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Prison Elite

How Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg Survived Nazi Captivity

By: Erika Rummel

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Paperback | 22 June 2021

At a Glance

Paperback
224 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.6 x 15.2 x 1.8

Paperback

$70.75

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After the Anschluss (annexation) in 1938, the Nazis forced Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg to resign and kept him imprisoned for seven years, until his rescue by the Allies in 1945. Schuschnigg’s privileged position within the concentration camp system allowed him to keep a diary and to write letters which were smuggled out to family members.

Drawing on these records, Prison Elite paints a picture of a little-known aspect of concentration camp history: the life of a VIP prisoner. Schuschnigg, who was a devout Catholic, presents his memoirs as a "confession," expecting absolution for any political missteps and, more specifically, for his dictatorial regime in the 1930s. As Erika Rummel reveals in fascinating detail, his autobiographical writings are frequently unreliable.

Prison Elite describes the strategies Schuschnigg used to survive his captivity emotionally and intellectually. Religion, memory of better days, friendship, books and music, and maintaining a sense of humour allowed him to cope. A comparison with the memoirs of fellow captives reveals these tactics to be universal.

Studying Schuschnigg’s writing in the context of contemporary prison memoirs, Prison Elite provides unique insight into the life of a VIP prisoner.

Industry Reviews

'Quite nice in Sachsenhausen' - Erika Rummel's remarkable work focuses on a little-known chapter of the National Socialist dictatorship. While the atrocities in concentration camps are well documented, the existence of VIP sections within various camps is not common knowledge. Rummel approaches the less covered theme through the eyes of a most controversial figure in Austrias contemporary history. A new perspective worth reading!

- Hannes Leidinger, Lecturer at the Institute for Contemporary History, University of Vienna and member of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War

A clear-sighted reading of the diaries and letters of pre-war Austria's last Chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, during his seven-year internment in Nazi prisons and camps - where, as a privileged prisoner, he was more witness than victim of Nazi atrocity. Part political memoir, part prison diary, part psychological coping mechanism, in Rummel's astute hands these hybrid texts disclose a man in daily struggle not just with his own incarceration, but also with his political role in Austria's downfall.

- Jane Caplan, Professor Emeritus of Modern European History, University of Oxford

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