They were generally those more "with it," more industrious, and above all more Exiled Reason affluent than my parents. Healthy anti- Semites limited themselves to being only as anti-Semitic as was absolutely neces- sary—necessary, that is, if Jews were to Kurt Baier be excluded from certain sectors of public life and the social and business worlds. was raised in in a petit-bour- Healthy anti-Semitism was contrasted to Igeois, conservative, and strict Catholic the "excessive" variety, which carried family. Our small house was furnished opposition to Jews beyond this plainly with inherited Biedermeier furniture, necessary minimum. We were all familiar already grown a bit shabby. The walls with indisputable examples of it. There were hung with a few portraits of ladies was, for instance, the numerus clausus and gentlemen—said to be ancestors—in (quota system), which kept Jews out of Biedermeier clothing, copies of Dutch medicine and law: one would not, after masters, and several framed postcards all, want to have one's wife examined by from Johannes Brahms, in which he a Jew. There were also clear examples of promises to come over to play chamber excessive anti-Semitism, for instance, that music. My stepfather—my real father espoused by Schönerer. And there were died when I was quite young—was very borderline cases, such as Lueger, who musical and was particularly proud of might be classified in either way. I knew these postcards, which had been sent to a how to rate these gentlemen before I knew distant relative. He played the cello and what measures they actually proposed. the flute and sang in a Catholic men's Politically naïve as I was, this healthy choir. Although he was not fond of anti-Semitism appeared to me to be self- evening parties, there was usually cham- evidently sound. Of course, we had ber music on Thursday evenings. Jewish friends, but they were obviously Although less musical, my mother played "lt seems right, then, to consider quite different from the typical Jews about the piano on these occasions, having been those who fled less whom we read so much in the papers. taught by an aunt who was supposedly the admirable than those who stayed You can, then, picture my emotions last pupil of Liszt. But my mother's great to take part in active resistance. upon discovering, when examining the rel- passion was literature. Her favorite author ... We must take into account that evant documents just before the Anschluss, was Thomas Mann, whose voice often most left involuntarily and under that my real father was, by Nazi definitions, came through clearly in her letters. most inauspicious conditions, that most likely a "full" Jew or, at the very least, I mention all this to give you a picture many later joined in the struggle a "half' Jew. Almost nothing, I believe, can of the cultural interests and general out- against Hitler from abroad, and make the concept of injustice clearer to a look of my family. We were apolitical in that many found, in emigrating, person than involuntary membership in a the sense that we knew little about politics not the new life they dreamed group against which the law and public and wanted to know nothing more. Like about, but ruin." opinion practice strict discrimination. It many people of this kind, we were con- then became clear to me in a flash—as was vinced that our outlook and our political as I had a spiritual home, it was the eigh- not clear to many so-called Aryans at that opinions sprang directly from our good teenth-century Enlightenment, while they time and perhaps remains unclear to them sense, which we regarded as nonpartisan probably would have felt most content in even today—that racial laws such as the and morally superior. As I view it now, my the Biedermeier period. And of course I Nuremberg decrees, and also attitudes such own point of view was largely a reaction had a certain affinity for liberalism—in as healthy anti-Semitism, are unjust. This against that of my parents. I was vaguely any case, for that liberalism that wags insight is particularly hard to convey to oth- liberal, because they were conservative; define as the inability to stand up for one's ers when they hold high hopes of personal cosmopolitan, because they were patriotic own cause in a dispute. gain from the so-called Aryanization of and nationalistic; freethinking, because But something characteristically Aus- Jewish businesses. they were religious; and so forth. Insofar trian was added to this pallid form of In March 1938, in this utterly unsettled Enlightenment liberalism. Certain of my and disturbed state of mind, I awaited the Kurt Baier is Professor of Philosophy at many relatives—regular Sunday visitors inevitable. We all heard on the radio the the and a member who occasionally discussed, besides the farewell address of our unbeloved chan- of the Academy of Humanism. He is former usual family gossip, more important mat- cellor, Dr. Schuschnigg, and listened in president of the American Philosophical ters of some general interest—leaned shock as the Austrian national anthem was Association, Eastern Division. toward so-called healthy anti-Semitism. played for the last time. Soon afterward

Summer 1995 27 we saw and heard the thunderous jubila- peddle my hopeless wares. But in June tion with which vast numbers of Austrians 1940, just as this new existence had greeted the arrival of the German troops opened up, I was interned, along with all and the "liberation" of Austria. Anyone other German and Austrian citizens. All who lived through this and witnessed the refugees were included, among them ruthless brutality and unbridled cruelty many who held important positions in the with which the elimination of all political British government, such as the well- opponents and the persecution, abuse, and known author Franz von Borkenau, to humiliation of Jews was carried out, at the mention only one. We were given a choice time of the Anschluss or soon thereafter, between waiting out the war in a concen- must forever harbor doubts about the tration camp on the English Isle of Man or much-sung golden hearts of the Viennese. of emigrating to Canada, where, we And anyone who observed the great and expected, we would find freedom. I, of certainly justified fear felt by many who course, chose Canada. Presumably be- had not been or who, like many of our cause of the chaos resulting from the acquaintances, could not make a cred- evacuation of the British troops after their itable pretense of having been, illegal Adolf Hitler disastrous defeat at Dunkirk, we ended up Nazis, was soon forced to recognize that to report, for fate took me quite unexpect- on a terrible ship for prisoners of war and this understandable fear would move edly to far-flung lands. But I must be brief, refugees, concerning which damning many Austrians to deny their politically for I still owe you an explanation of how I books and television films are still appear- compromised or Jewish friends, who thus arrived at philosophy and how my philo- ing, even after all these years. We soon had little hope of help from the so-called sophical career abroad is connected with learned that this ship, the Dunera, was to other Austria. It thus seemed advisable for the exile of the intelligentsia from Austria. go to , not Canada. But here anyone not prepared to sacrifice his life To avoid misleading you about the life again we had great luck. The Dunera was out of political conviction in a battle of an emigrant, I must emphasize that I pursued by a German submarine and was against this unstoppable avalanche to van- was unusually lucky at critical turning hit by a torpedo which, however, failed to ish as quickly as possible. points. Each new blow that struck me explode. We experienced only a terrifying My worldly wise and affluent uncles and soon proved to be a blessing in disguise. noise, the powerful shock of the impact, aunts did in fact advise me to emigrate In August 1938, after overcoming many and hundreds of shattered plates, which while it was still possible, warning me that difficulties in , I received permis- were flung off their shelves. the position of Jews and those of mixed race sion to travel to England, where I planned After eight ghastly weeks we finally would probably become worse. They antic- to remain only briefly while awaiting a arrived in Sydney, wretched and starving. ipated the introduction of measures against visa for Brazil, which was, however, Everything we still owned when we "inferior" races, such as those against denied after a few months while I was still embarked had been stolen by the guards. I blacks in South Africa and the United in England. The blow hit me hard, as I had was barefoot, wearing a pair of green States. But the "final solution" was not sus- been quite confident I would eventually pajamas over the only underpants I still pected even by these shrewd realists, go to Brazil, where acquaintances pre- possessed. I owned nothing else. In worldly wise and free of illusion as they pared to help me. In England I could see Sydney we were immediately loaded onto were. In my fear and my revulsion at this no way to make a living. But just a few a long train that took us on an endless brutal regime, I had to concede that they days later I quite unexpectedly received journey through the backwoods of were right. Moreover, emigration aroused an English work permit. Australia. The land had been devastated in me certain romantic fantasies. I saw an My ecstasy was short-lived, for I soon by a terrible bushfire that had been burn- opportunity to flee the restricted conditions discovered that the firm proposing to ing over a year. Everywhere we looked the of this small, narrow-minded country, to employ me was assigning me the task of eucalyptus trees gleamed and flickered. acquaint myself with the wide world of selling something quite unsaleable. As I After almost two days we reached our unlimited possibilities, of rising new coun- was working on commission, I was again destination in the interior, which appeared tries and splendid opportunities, where I close to despair when a new miracle to be an immense desert. Two thousand would develop and use my talents. occurred. World War II, which had broken internees were corralled into a camp built out in 1939, gave my firm a substantial for one thousand. As we watched the mas- hese were, it seems to me, the reasons business opportunity. Our export trade, sive gates slam shut behind us, looked Tfor and causes of my emigration: the which had prospered during World War I through the tangle of barbed wire and saw end of my career in the law, the expecta- because the British fleet had been able to nothing but sand as far as the eye could tion that, as a person of mixed race, my intercept German imports to Indonesia, reach, and entered the primitive wooden position would worsen, and the challenge now revived for the same reason. My firm huts in which we were to await the end of of the unknown. needed someone to carry on business cor- the war, to find only one straw pallet for And now to the question, "How was respondence in German. I obtained this every two prisoners, I believed I must your life as an émigré?" Here I have much position and was relieved of having to indeed abandon all hope.

28 FREE INQUIRY But once again I was lucky. Several The second of the three was Douglas lease permit me to conclude with times we were moved to new camps. The Gasking, who taught me elementary logic, Pthree more general comments, admit- third, far better appointed than the first, philosophy of science, and epistemology, tedly without being able to furnish solid was in the Australian state of Victoria. and he became a lifelong friend. The third evidence for my claims. This state ran an enlightened study pro- was Alexander Cameron (Camo) Jackson, I believe that the influence of the phi- gram for people who lived too far from who revealed to me the mysteries of losophy developed by the Vienna Circle the capital, Melbourne, to attend classes at Wittgenstein's Blue and Brown Books. during the twenties and thirties upon phi- the university there. Such people were His lectures had a profound and lasting losophy throughout the world was greatly allowed to enroll as "external" (non-resi- influence on my philosophical outlook. increased by the emigration of its strongest dent) students. They received books and Within the space of a few years, I passed proponents. After leaving Austria, most of lecture notes, sent their essays to profes- the exams for my bachelor's and master's the Viennese philosophers taught in sors who conscientiously corrected them, degrees in philosophy, was appointed England, in other parts of the British and were eventually allowed to take their Assistant, then Assistant Lecturer in Commonwealth, and in America: examinations in the country as well. Philosophy, and was granted leave to Wittgenstein in Cambridge, Carnap in Through the intercession of a saintly study at Oxford for a doctoral degree, Chicago, Feigl in Minnesota, Neurath in woman, Margaret Holmes, of the which I received in 1952. That same year New York, Waismann in Oxford, and Australian Student Christian Movement, I accepted an invitation to Cornell Bergmann in Iowa. Popper, who was not to whom all internees in Australia owe University in New York State, but returned an actual member of the Vienna Circle, but eternal gratitude, we received permission to Melbourne after a most stimulating was influenced by its philosophy, taught in to enroll at the as semester in America. In 1956 I was New Zealand during the Second World external first-year students. She got us the appointed Foundation Professor of Phi- War and later became professor in required books and lecture notes, ad- losophy at Canberra University College, London. Alfred Ayer, an Englishman who vanced us money for tuition, and arranged which later became part of the Australian had come to Vienna to study the doctrines for oral and written examinations to be National University. of logical positivism at their source, later administered in our camp. Thus it was In 1962 I was appointed chair of phi- taught in London and Oxford. Through that, while still a prisoner, I completed, losophy at the University of Pittsburgh, their own teaching and that of their numer- with three others, my first-year examina- where my assignment was to transform an ous and gifted students, who gained influ- tions. I had, of course, chosen Philosophy undistinguished philosophy department. ential posts in these English-speaking I, which had no prerequisites and was in Once again I was lucky. Two of my col- countries, they were able to present their any case my first choice. What I could not leagues already there turned out to be views to a wide-ranging, cultivated, and risk in Vienna, where it was hopeless in unusually gifted, ambitious, and enterpris- relatively open-minded public. I have those days for those without independent ing German émigrés. Adolf Grünbaum already mentioned George Paul, who means to embark on a career in philoso- from Cologne, who had studied physics brought Wittgenstein's approach to phy, was here no risk at all. and philosophy at Yale, was a student of Australia, where it quickly took root, not Shortly thereafter Japan attacked Pearl Carl Hempel. Hempel, a member of the only among philosophers, but most partic- Harbor and the United States declared war Berlin Circle and a disciple of ularly in the social sciences. Other mem- on Japan. Douglas MacArthur landed in Reichenbach, the Berlin Circle's great phi- bers of the Circle and their students were Australia, and a new miracle occurred. We losopher of science, had instilled in equally influential in their new university had been told that release in that country Grünbaum a love of philosophy of science environments. Had they remained in was unthinkable and illegal. But now and an admiration for Reichenbach. The Vienna, I doubt if their books and teaching every able-bodied person was needed for other, Nicholas Rescher, an emigrant from would have had the decisive influence in the war effort, and we were permitted to Hanover, studied with Hempel in Prince- the English-speaking world that gave them leave the camp to join the army. ton. Hempel, who as some of you will refuge. The members of the Vienna and After the armistice I concluded my know, had also studied in Vienna and a few Berlin Circles found in these two countries studies in philosophy at the University of years ago returned to Vienna to deliver a a more fertile cultural soil and a substan- Melbourne, where I first became ac- much-admired lecture about the accom- tially larger and more influential university quainted with the teachings of the Vienna plishments of the Vienna Circle, was until following than they could have hoped for Circle. Three of my professors had been recently one of the most respected, influ- in Austria and Germany. students of Wittgenstein at Cambridge. ential, and beloved members of our philos- This raises the question of whether One of them, George Paul, later became a ophy department in Pittsburgh. National Socialism actually wished to Fellow of University College, Oxford. He With the help of Grünbaum and expel the Jews and the intelligentsia who was married to the sister of the famous Rescher, we succeeded in building a large rejected it. I do not believe that racism in mathematician and philosopher F. P. faculty of first-class, world-famous philoso- general or the anti-Semitism that ignites Ramsey. From him I learned about basic phers, including Wilfrid Sellars, Alan hatred of Jews is satisfied with exile. On problems in moral and political philoso- Anderson, and . With pride I the contrary, anti-Semites of this stamp phy, and to him I trace my lifelong inter- can report that our department is considered want not only to exclude them from est in ethics. one of the three best in the United States. respected and influential professions and

Summer 1995 29 to prevent their mixing with non-Jews, but they resisted, and fought for political those who can make influential friends in to pin a yellow star on them, to lock them reform, suffered more, and were more their new home, who are young and into isolated ghettos, and to oppress them deserving than those who simply fled to adaptable, and who are blessed with a in various ways. Much of this cannot be make a new and better life elsewhere. I thick skin, a lot of money, and immense achieved if Jews are allowed to move. have much sympathy for this viewpoint. good luck. Many refugees who lacked Moreover, exiles may gain influence and Courage and a willingness to sacrifice these advantages did not survive. Above power abroad, possibly enabling them to oneself are needed to follow this heroic all, bear in mind that it is extremely dif- change things at home to their advantage. path and court the risks it entails. The ficult to gain a foothold in most of those Jew-haters remain anxious and dissatis- choice is even more admirable when made few countries that admit immigrants at fied as long as Jews can be found any- from principled conviction and without all. In their new homes most refugees where. For them, the final solution at least hope of personal gain, let alone when one will at best be regarded as outsiders, but in their own country is the only logical firmly believes that one's cause is hope- more commonly as intruders, as aliens solution. Right after the Anschluss emigra- less. Those who in these situations mus- who somehow lied, cheated, or bribed tion was still relatively easy. There were tered courage and were willing to risk the their way in, as scabs who get scarce jobs still many who, from pity or for money, supreme sacrifice seem to me indeed by underbidding the indigenous worker. were ready to help Jews emigrate. But as a more admirable than those who fled Only rarely will they be seen as equals, committed few gained greater control and abroad to start a new life or those who let alone be treated as fellow citizens or lending aid became increasingly danger- stayed at home to do their so-called duty. countrymen or comrades. Xenophobia, ous, the flood of emigrants narrowed to a Yet to forestall certain misunderstand- mistrust, and professional jealousy will trickle, and finally dried up altogether. ings that might easily arise, I want to accompany them almost everywhere. I think the role of Jews under National emphasize two final points. The first con- Jews can perhaps cope better with all Socialism is not comparable to that of cerns the question of whether one can rea- this, for they are used to it, but non-Jews other suppressed or exploited ethnic sonably demand or even expect such sac- often find it devastating. Even in those groups. Black slaves in America, for rifice from the suppressed, scorned, and rare cases in which they are accepted instance, were not exiled, let alone exter- hated, and particularly from Jews. After without prejudice, few refugees will feel minated, for they were valuable property. all the injustice, the meanness, the brutal- at home. They remain uprooted and They were needed just as the so-called ity, are they still supposed to possess that alienated and will again and again be guest workers in Austria and other loyalty to a state or to people that might smitten with homesickness; worst of all, European countries were needed until give meaning to self-sacrifice? Could after a time they become strangers even recently—for performing the undesirable such loyalty survive or even develop, in their original homeland. work that the master race would not carry when so many Austrians were clearly It seems right, then, to consider those out voluntarily or as cheaply. Jews had enthusiastic Jew-haters or, out of thor- Austrians who fled less admirable than never been dragged into the country, like oughly understandable cowardice, acted those who stayed to take part in active slaves, or invited, like guest workers, and as if they were; when the resistance was resistance. Yet, in making this judgment, they have never been used to do the heavy known to have very few members and, one should not forget that many of the labor of slaves or domestic animals. They therefore, to have little chance of success; emigrants hardly had an opportunity to have been branded as alien, repugnant, when the very best to which Jews could join the resistance, even those who (with useless, greedy, lecherous, rapacious ver- look back and for which they could hope little enough reason) felt sufficiently min, liberation from whom can be was widespread healthy anti-Semitism attached to their motherland for this achieved only through extermination. For that in bad times could always be whipped choice to make sense. We must take into Jews, exile would be much too lenient. up to the excessive variety; when they had account that most left involuntarily and Jewish scientists and artists were not con- to admit to themselves that they would under most inauspicious conditions, that ceptualized as scientists or artists who never be regarded as equal citizens, but at many later joined in the struggle against happened to be Jews, but as Jews who also best as reluctantly tolerated aliens; when a Hitler from abroad, and that many found, insolently and fraudulently claimed to be Jew could hardly expect to be cordially in emigrating, not the new life they scientists or artists, and were, therefore, welcomed into the resistance? dreamed about, but ruin. marked for the final solution, not for exile. My second point concerns the fate of Those Jews who understood this sensed the emigrants. There have always been This is a slightly revised version of an address deliv- their only chance to avoid the worst was emigrants, but in the past most left vol- ered in German in October 1987 by Dr. Baier, trans- lated by Elizabeth Hughes Schneewind; at a sympo- to flee before the ever-tightening net of untarily, in the hope of finding a new and sium "Vertriebene Vernunft" (literally 'Exiled the final solution closed around them. better life. In this century, by contrast, Reason") referring to the emigration from Austria of My third and last observation concerns most emigrants have been refugees. For a significant part of its intelligentsia after the so- called Anschluss, Hitler's invasion and annexation emigration. Some of those who did not them, emigration is often especially hard, of Austria in 1938. The original address was pub- sympathize with the Nazis but remained for they have had no choice; they cannot lished in a book edited by Friedrich Stadler, entitled in Austria believe that the life of the emi- delay while pondering whether they are Vertriebene Vernunft II. Emigration und Exil Osterreichiser Wissenschaft. Internationales Sym- grant was relatively easy, that those who properly equipped for emigration, which, posium 19. Bis 23, Oktober 1987 in Wien Jugend und stayed behind, especially but not only if to be sure, may be very agreeable for Volk, Wien 1988. •

30 FREE INQUIRY