As increasing numbers of Soviet Jews applied to emigrate to Israel in the period following the Six-Day War, many were formally refused permission to leave.

[3] On 28 September 1973, three to seven[A 1] Jewish emigrants were taken hostage, among them a 73-year-old man, an ailing woman and a three-year-old child, on a train at the Austria–Czechoslovakian border by a Syrian-based Palestinian Arab militant group, As-Sa'iqa.

[3][4] In addition to demanding a free passage to an Arab country, they gave the Austrian government an ultimatum to close the Schönau transit center or they would execute the hostages.

[1] Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir diverted her return flight from the Council of Europe to try to convince Kreisky to not give in to the demands.

[1][3] On December 10, 1973, the Schönau Castle Jewish center was closed permanently and subsequently replaced by the Wöllersdorf National Association of the Red Cross of Lower Austria for refugees, where emigres could stay for no more than 14 hours while awaiting airline flights to Israel.