Parliament Commemorates the Victims of National Socialism

ORF (Austrian Public Broadcasting), May 3, 2024

High-ranking representatives of the Republic commemorated the victims of National Socialism yesterday on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance against Violence and Racism.

In his opening speech in Parliament, National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) called for unconditional solidarity with Israel and criticized the EU for not having sufficiently condemned the terrorist organization Hamas in the Middle East conflict.

Sobotka began by referring to Austria's history. In the 1920s and 1930s, German eugenics led to repression against Jews, while today it is “postmodernism”, “where Israel is denounced as an apartheid state”, which leads to attacks on the Jewish community.

“The far-right face” has been known for a long time, and the attack on Israel by the radical Islamic group Hamas has led to open anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism on the left. Sobotka once again emphasized that Austria had “imported anti-Semitism through migration from Islamic countries”.

Many types of anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism researcher Monika Schwarz-Friesel added to the three “currents” of “left-wing, right-wing and Muslim anti-Semitism” mentioned by Sobotka with “centrist anti-Semitism”, the “anti-Semitism that has always been educated and morally superior”.

On 7 October, Jews everywhere, not just in Israel, were hit by the force of re-traumatization. The current hatred of Israel is not rooted in the Middle East conflict, but has its origins in “old anti-Semitism”, said Schwarz-Friesel.

“Since its foundation, the Jewish state has been hated because it exists and not because it does anything,” said the researcher towards the end of her speech, for which she received a standing ovation.