Memorial March "Light of Hope": Lights against Forgetting

ORF (online), November 7, 2022

With "Lights of Hope" the November pogroms will be commemorated on Wednesday evening in the center of Vienna. The "Light of Hope" commemorative march has been organized since 2012 by the Youth Commission of the Jewish Community (IKG) Vienna.

The Lights of Hope are the centerpiece of the commemorative march, to which the Jewish youth, invites all interested people - Jewish or not, young or old - to remember the victims of National Socialism. The words "never forget" are at the heart of the event.

The young generation wants to show how important it is to maintain the chain of generations, according to the statement on the website of the IKG Vienna. The commemoration of the Nazi era and its victims is not only part of Jewish culture, but a task and responsibility of the entire civil society.

With the destruction of Jewish synagogues and houses organized by the Nazi regime throughout the German Reich, as well as the mistreatment of countless Jewish fellow human beings, those atrocities began in 1938 that ultimately led to the murder and extermination of the Jews in Europe.

Public Event to Set an Example

"Light of Hope" began as an internal event of the Jewish community of Vienna and has grown in recent years, according to the IKG Vienna. In 2016, it was decided to open the commemorative march and subsequent rally to the public for the first time, it said.

The reason for this was NS-glorifying and anti-Semitic postings by functionaries of the ÖVP-affiliated (ÖVP – Austrian People’s Party) action group at the Vienna Juridicum. In the course of the ÖH (ÖH - Austrian Students’ Association) election campaign in 2017, it became known that such postings were shared in Whatsapp and Facebook groups. As a result, the Dean of the Juridicum, Paul Oberhammer, and the Rector of the University of Vienna, Heinz Engl, took part in the "Light of Hope" rally to send a signal against anti-Semitism at the Juridicum.

Growing Interest

Since participation in the memorial march has been open to all, the IKG Vienna has recorded growing participation and greater media interest. In the commemorative year 2018, the march counted about 2,500 participants.

In 2020 and 2021, the Light of Hope march had to take place virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the commemorative march will be celebrated in-person as usual. It will start at 19:00 at Heldenplatz, at the entrance to the "House of History". The final rally of the memorial march will be held at Judenplatz.

Kaddish in Salzburg

In Salzburg, commemorative ceremonies will be held on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Alter Markt and at 7 p.m. at the Kollegienkirche. Jewish and Christian believers will gather there for a Kaddish (a prayer of remembrance). Pupils, students, artists, and teaching staff are also expected to join in an interfaith fellowship to give a face to the memory of the living and the dead, according to a release from the Catholic University Community of Salzburg.