When the modern state of Israel was born, over 800,000 Jews were expelled from Islamic countries, their property confiscated. Fortunately for them, there was an Israel to run to. There was an Israel that was armed and prepared to defend them too. That did not exist in 1938.
Yes, I'm aware of that sad history of the Nazi era. I was merely commenting on another post stating, as I understood it, that Austria had had a particular notorious history of antisemitism going back before then and noted that such a statement ran somewhat counter to the existence of a thriving Jewish community during the late 19th and earlier 20th century.
As far as possible places for Austrian Jews to escape to in the period directly before the Anschluss, some went to the US (though limited by the Roosevelt Administration), some to Britain (like Freud), some (ultimately less fortunate) to other western European countries, some to Canada, and some to Palestine. Yes, there was no modern Israel at the time and the Jews in Palestine had to organize their own militia groups for self-defense, but European Jews in Palestine had a much greater chance of survival if they migrated there than if they had stayed. But it is difficult in retrospect to criticize those who made the wrong decision and stayed, because it would have been impossible for many to foresee a Holocaust of such immense proportions.
Well, yes they did. Many Jews knew that from both personal and historical reasons. Your idea of 'thriving' and mine are a tad different. Sometimes the Jews did well, and sometimes they did not. From about the middle of the 1800's just up to the Nazis was one of the periods where Jews were 'prospering'. That is to say, the rulers of Austria allowed the Jews to integrate into the society. Up until the Nazis came in, the Jews generally fared well.
The question is how could things turn around so fast? How did the Jews become so expendable as the Nazis rolled in? There was little resistance to the Nazis taking over. A Major center of murder, Mauthausen was in Austria.
No, not all Austrians are so hateful, but more than enough were to participate in this horror.