'Dealers of Souls': Jewish Criminals in the Habsburg Empire at the Fin de Siècle

• In Event: Policing the Migrants: Narratives of Border Crossings during and after the Habsburg Empire

Abstract

At the end of the 19th century, the figure of the sleazy Jewish so-called white slave trafficker was an exceptionally popular motif in newspaper reporting and literature in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Answering nationalist as well as moralist anxieties, corresponding accusation fostered a dichotomy between female (Christian) victims and male Jewish perpetrators. Women, however, frequently played a crucial role in Jewish networks working outside the realm of legality, particularly in the context of transgressions and crimes connected to sexual deviance. By presenting two case studies of Jewish women actively involved in facilitating female migration, this papers aims to question common perceptions of Jewish criminals in the fin-de-siècle Habsburg Empire and to highlight the female protagonists’ scopes of action.

Author

• Margarita Lerman, Hebrew U of Jerusalem (Israel)