Palais Ephrussi

[2] As noted by de Waal, shortly following Austria's annexation to Nazi Germany in the 1938 Anschluss, the building's then owner Viktor Ephrussi and his son Rudolf were arrested by the Gestapo and threatened with being sent to the Dachau Concentration Camp.

Their release was conditioned upon the 78-year-old Viktor Ephrussi signing away his ownership of the building and its entire contents, including many valuable works of art and the library in which were many rare incunabula.

Elisabeth de Waal, who visited Vienna in December 1945 after relocating to England, found paintings of her mother and grandmother still hanging on a wall, having evidently been kept for decoration by the Nazis.

In 1950, after considerable litigation, surviving members of the Ephrussi family scattered throughout the world regained legal title to the building (as well as to some of the many books and works of art taken from it).

From 1969 to 2009 the renovated palace served as the headquarters of Casinos Austria, whose management facilitated Edmund de Waal's research into the building's history.