III — Vienna IKG Cemetery — Porgès family-plot analysis

This page provides analytical commentary on the Vienna Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (IKG) cemetery register of 100 named Porgès burials from 1840 to 1956. The full searchable table is on the companion page PorgesVienneZentralfriedhof.html. Here we identify the 17 multi-occupant family graves, the Holocaust-era burials, and the absent Christian-convert sub-population.

I — The 17 multi-occupant family graves

Each shared grave reveals family relationships that the obituary corpus alone cannot establish. The plots are organised below by section (Tor I, Tor IV) and within each by group/row/grave coordinates.

Plots in Zentralfriedhof Tor I (Israelite section)

Plots in Zentralfriedhof Tor IV (Israelite section)

II — Holocaust-era Porges deaths (1939-1944)

The IKG-Wien register contains 6 documented Porges deaths in the late-Nazi period, providing a documentary record of those who died in Vienna during the worst years of persecution. None are explicitly identified as deportation victims in the cemetery register itself ; the inferences below are drawn from death dates and burial-delay patterns.

III — The absent Christian-convert sub-population

The IKG-Wien register documents only those Porgès who maintained Jewish religious affiliation through their burial. Bohemian Porges descendants who had converted to Christianity were buried at Vienna's municipal cemeteries (Christian-section Zentralfriedhof, Döblinger Friedhof, or Oberdöblinger Ortsfriedhof) and are systematically absent from this register. Their absence is itself documentary evidence of the Vienna Christian-convert sub-population.

Cross-referencing with the obituary corpus and the JewishGen Vienna Converts from Judaism 1915-1945 database reveals at least the following Christian-convert Vienna Porgès buried at non-IKG cemeteries :

The combined picture — 100 Jewish Vienna Porgès burials in this register + at least 25 Christian-convert Porgès buried at municipal cemeteries — gives a total documented Vienna Porges population of approximately 125 individuals across the entire late-Habsburg and inter-war period.

IV — The Währinger Friedhof first generation (1840-1872)

The Währinger Friedhof was Vienna's principal Jewish cemetery before the Zentralfriedhof Israelite section opened in 1879. The 12 Währinger Porgès burials in this register represent the earliest documented Vienna-resident Porgès :

Anna Porges (b. 22/04/1790) is the earliest-born documented Vienna Porgès in the entire register — born in the late reign of Joseph II, dying at age 63 in 1853.

Friedrich + Emma Porges 1872 — both buried in Währinger Group 19 within 17 days of each other (Emma 17 February, Friedrich 6 March). Friedrich was 31, Emma 25. They were either husband and wife who died in a shared illness, or brother and sister who both contracted a deadly epidemic disease. Vienna in late 1871 - early 1872 had documented epidemics of cholera and typhus. Their plots are adjacent (graves 216 and 219, three plots apart).

V — Summary statistics

For the full searchable / sortable register, see PorgesVienneZentralfriedhof.html.

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