Politicians open to Shoah center

ORF, January 31, 2023

German original: https://wien.orf.at/stories/3192730/

Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) is open to the establishment of a Shoah Center in Vienna. The president of the Jewish Community (IKG) Vienna, Oskar Deutsch, has also advocated for such a memorial in Austria.

At the presentation of the second implementation report of the National Strategy against Anti-Semitism, Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) said she was "ready to talk." Oskar Deutsch justified the need for a Shoah Center in Vienna by pointing out that there are fewer and fewer contemporary witnesses. He got the idea during a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles, where Holocaust survivors interact with younger visitors via holograms.

"Yes, there are fewer and fewer contemporary witnesses," Edtstadler also said. Therefore, she said, one must also think about how to set up alternative forms of commemoration in the future. There have not yet been any concrete talks on the proposal from the IKG. Deutsch has just been re-elected president of the IKG Vienna by the board of trustees and wants to devote more time to this project during his current term of office, as he had emphasized just recently at a Holocaust memorial.

Reported anti-Semitic incidents on the decline

The occasion for Edtstadler's appearance together with Deutsch as president of the Jewish Community of Vienna was the second progress report on the National Strategy against Anti-Semitism at the Federal Chancellery. It was true that the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents had recently fallen by a third, which the minister described as gratifying. However, she does not see “a reason to sit back and relax.” Especially among young people, there has been an increase.

With its national strategy, Austria is a pioneer and a driving force in Europe, the Minister emphasized once again, and Deutsch also confirmed this. In the meantime, 15 EU countries have followed this example, Edtstadler said. In Austria, 26 of the 38 planned measures have been fully implemented, and all the others are in progress. As examples, she cited the Austrian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Act as well as measures in the area of training for security authorities, the judiciary, the armed forces and in the field of integration.