The Sill River Crime: November Pogrom Violence and Post-War Justice in Innsbruck

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Tiroler Nachrichten, No. 211, Wednesday, 17 September 1947, p. 2.

Article: Two 70-year-old Jews pushed into the Sill

"For a change from the people's court trials against legionnaires recently conducted, this time two accused came before the people's court who had participated in the JEWISH MISTREATMENT on the night of 10 November 1938. The main accused was the 41-year-old municipal assessment officer and former police sergeant Theodor HALLER, co-accused the actor Josef SCHÄFFER, born 1896, formerly a bakery assistant.
Both were charged with participating in the mistreatment of the married couple POPPER. Haller was additionally accused of having partly mistreated, partly grossly insulted several police officers imprisoned at the time. While Schäffer admitted to having led the OFERER group into the Saggen that evening, but not having participated in any actions, Haller attempted to defend himself in a very convoluted manner. He nevertheless had to admit to having been involved when the 71-year-old Popper and his 73-year-old wife were pushed into the Sill at the Sillzwickel. On the other hand, the accused denied having mistreated another woman and pushed her from the moving car on the journey to Reichenau; however, Haller did admit to having insulted, but not mistreated, the imprisoned police officers in their cells.
Police Sergeant SALCHNER as well as Police Majors MAUERBERGER and LIEBL confirmed as witnesses that Haller was culpable for their handover to Dachau. Major Liebl described Haller as a man who one day came to his cell with Lt. Col. Walter and advised, "to kill these people, that would be best."
For the purpose of investigating the hitherto unknown woman and further police inquiries, the hearing was adjourned until 14 October." (Source: Tiroler Nachrichten, No. 211, Wednesday, 17 September 1947, p. 2.)

The Sill River Crime: November Pogrom Violence and Post-War Justice in Innsbruck

“In the early morning hours of 10 November 1938 in Innsbruck, at least 25 families were attacked and four people murdered. The Reich Security Service noted of the pogrom night in Innsbruck: ‘If any Jews escaped harm during this action, it is likely because they were overlooked.’” — Documentation on the Innsbruck November Pogrom
On 17 September 1947, the Tiroler Nachrichten reported on a trial that reached back into one of the darkest nights of the Nazi era. The proceedings before the Volksgericht (People's Court) concerned two men accused of participating in the violent persecution of Jews in Innsbruck on the night of 9-10 November 1938—the November Pogrom, also known as Kristallnacht. The trial of municipal assessment officer Theodor Haller and actor Josef Schäffer, for their alleged role in assaulting a 71-year-old man and his 73-year-old wife and pushing them into the freezing Sill River, represents a fragment of post-war justice. This case opens a window onto the specific brutality of the pogrom in Tirol, the long-delayed reckoning with its perpetrators, and the complex historical memory of this period in Austria.

The Historical Context: The November Pogrom of 1938

The violence for which Haller and Schäffer stood trial was part of a centrally orchestrated nationwide pogrom. Following the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris by a young Polish Jew, the Nazi leadership used the event as a pretext to unleash a massive wave of anti-Jewish violence across the Greater German Reich.
On the night of 9-10 November 1938, paramilitary SA and SS forces, along with Hitler Youth and German civilians, attacked Jews, their homes, businesses, and synagogues. The results were devastating:

• Over 1,400 synagogues and prayer rooms were destroyed.
• More than 7,000 Jewish businesses were vandalized or looted.
• Approximately 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and deported to concentration camps like Dachau.
• The official death toll was at least 91, though modern estimates, including deaths from subsequent imprisonment and suicides, range into the hundreds, or even between one and two thousand.

Historians widely view Kristallnacht as a critical turning point—a public, violent rupture that marked the transition from systematic discrimination and exclusion to open physical aggression and state-sanctioned terror, a direct prelude to the Holocaust.

“One of the Bloodiest Scenes”: The Pogrom in Innsbruck

 While violence erupted across the Reich, the pogrom in Innsbruck was exceptionally brutal relative to the size of the local Jewish community. As one analysis notes, “Innsbruck… was one of the bloodiest scenes in the entire German Reich”.
In the weeks before the pogrom, the Nazi regime had already tightened the noose. After a visit by Adolf Eichmann to the Gestapo in Innsbruck in September 1938, 24 heads of Jewish families were arrested. By the time of the November pogrom, about one-third of Tirol’s Jewish population had already fled the region.
On the night itself, the violence was intimate and vicious. The article from the Tiroler Nachrichten details one specific crime: the attack on the elderly Popper couple at the Sillzwickel, where they were pushed into the river. This was not an isolated incident. Research confirms that in Innsbruck, at least 25 families were assaulted in their homes in the early hours of 10 November, and four people were murdered. The report that any Jew who escaped harm was simply “overlooked” chillingly underscores the intent to inflict universal terror upon the entire community.

The 1947 Trial: A Case of Post-War “People’s Justice"

The 1947 case reveals the challenges of this post-war justice. The main accused, Theodor Haller, a former police sergeant and then a municipal official, defended himself in a “very contorted manner.” While he admitted to being present when the Poppers were pushed into the Sill, he denied other charges, such as throwing a woman from a moving car. Witnesses also implicated him in the persecution of anti-Nazi police colleagues, including recommending they be murdered before their deportation to Dachau. His co-defendant, Josef Schäffer, was more forthcoming but downplayed his role. The court found the case complex enough to adjourn for further investigation into other unidentified perpetrators.
This trial was a small part of Austria's difficult and often inconsistent confrontation with its Nazi past—a process that, as evidenced by later political controversies over naming streets and acknowledging the Nazi involvement of prominent figures, remained deeply contested for decades.

The trial reported in 1947 was conducted by a Volksgericht (People’s Court). It is crucial to distinguish this post-war Austrian court from the infamous Nazi Volksgerichtshof.

Nazi Volksgerichtshof (1934-1945)

Feature        Nazi Volksgerichtshof (1934-1945)
Purpose
A political tool to eliminate enemies of the Nazi regime (treason, “crimes against the national interest”) under a facade of legality.

Legal Procedure
A kangaroo court; denied basic rights, no presumption of innocence, no meaningful appeal.

Outcomes
Notorious for harsh sentences; between 1934-1945, it sentenced at least 12,000 civilians to death.

Post-War Austrian Volksgericht (1945-1955)

Feature           Post-War Austrian Volksgericht (1945-1955)
​Purpose
Established to prosecute serious Nazi crimes (war crimes, crimes against humanity) during the Allied occupation.

​Legal Procedure
Operated within a formal legal framework, though often criticized for being too lenient.

​Outcomes
Focused on denazification; sentences ranged from fines to prison terms; death penalty was possible but not its defining feature.

Resistance and Repression in Tirol: The Broader Landscape

The persecution during the pogrom and the subsequent trial of its perpetrators occurred against the backdrop of Tirol’s experience under National Socialism, which included both widespread complicity and notable resistance.
Immediately after the Anschluss in March 1938, a wave of arrests swept Tirol to neutralize potential opposition. In Hall in Tirol alone, the Gestapo arrested political opponents, including doctors, businessmen, and activists. Among them was police inspector Friedrich Corazza, who had arrested illegal Nazis before 1938 and was subsequently deported to Dachau concentration camp.
Despite this repression and the rapid growth of the NSDAP in Tirol, a resistance movementformed. It was fragmented by geography but gained coherence towards the war’s end. Key figures like Karl Gruber and Friedrich Würthle helped unite various groups. Their crowning achievement was the liberation of Innsbruck in early May 1945, where resistance fighters, in coordination with the American OSS, seized key buildings before Allied troops arrived, creating a powerful narrative of “self-liberation”. However, this narrative often overshadowed the suffering of Jewish victims and the contributions of others, including many women.

Conclusion: Memory, Justice, and the Lesson of the Sill

The brief 1947 newspaper report is more than a court notice. It is a trace of a crime, a record of belated accountability, and a starting point for historical inquiry. The murderous assault on the Popper couple at the Sill River was a singular act of cruelty within a night of statewide terror, which itself was a prelude to genocide.
The post-war trial, while an attempt at justice, also highlights the limitations of denazification. Perpetrators like Haller could give “contorted” testimony, and many crimes likely went unpunished. Remembering this history in full complexity—the victims of the pogrom, the failures of justice, the reality of both resistance and widespread collaboration—is essential.
As the historian Elisabeth Walder notes regarding the memory of the 1938 arrests, to remember is “to become aware of the past, to learn from it, and to ensure that history does not repeat itself”. The story of the Sill River crime, and the long journey to a courtroom in 1947, underscores the enduring need for vigilance, for a justice that seeks truth, and for a memory that refuses to forget the victims whose lives were shattered on that November night.
*This article was written based on historical documents and research for the website NS-Widerstand. To learn more about individual victims and resistance fighters in Innsbruck, the project “Widerstand und Verfolgung in Innsbruck 1938–1945” provides thirty detailed biographical portraits.*

14 October 1947 – Continuation of the Court Proceedings

On 14 October 1947, the trial against Theodor Haller and Josef Schäffer before the People's Court was continued in order to conclude the investigations into the mistreatment of Jews in Innsbruck during the November pogroms of 1938, which had been adjourned in September. A further blog post on the website NS-Widerstand will appear on this topic, detailing the continuation of the proceedings and its historical classification.

Person register online at, https://www.novemberpogrom1938.at/personenregister/ (Access: February 8, 2026)

Julius Popper (1867 – 1944 in Surrey, England), Laura Popper née Weiß (1875 – 1943 in Surrey, England), Robert Popper (1909 – 2000 USA), Siegfried Popper (1902 – 1960 N. Y. / USA). Helene Rosenstein née Schreiber (1884 – 1968 USA).
Online, https://www.novemberpogrom1938.at/personenregister/, (As of: February 8, 2026)