Historian Porat: "Don't think statues should be torn down"

Der Standard, June 10, 2023
German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000173677/historikerin-porat-lueger-denkmal-finde-nicht-dass-statuen-abgerissen-werden-sollten

Israeli historian Dina Porat has been studying anti-Semitism for decades. In Vienna, she told how she would deal with Karl Lueger's legacy.

On the occasion of its 125th anniversary, the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) 2023 also looks back on the dark chapters of its past. At an event earlier this week, research results on members of the Hochschule für Welthandel, the predecessor institution of the University of Economics and Business Administration, who were expelled by the National Socialists were presented.

The awarding of honorary doctorates to individuals close to the Nazis was also examined in an extensive research project, and now a revocation has been announced: Walther Kastner (1902-1994), a longtime director of the Austrian Control Bank for Industry and Trade, was instrumental in the systematic "Aryanization" of Jewish businesses. WU revoked his award on Monday.

The fact that anti-Semitism was virulent in Austria long before 1938 was the topic of Israeli historian Dina Porat's lecture. The long-time chief historian of the Israeli memorial Yad Vashem spoke about Jewish life in Vienna from the end of the 19th century until 1938, a life between social acceptance and rejection. In an interview with the STANDARD, she pleaded for contextualizing problematic pasts without covering traces.

STANDARD: Ms. Porat, you have been researching Jewish life in Vienna in the decades before Nazi rule. How widespread was anti-Semitism in the imperial city at the beginning of the 20th century?

Porat: I have the impression that there was a kind of division in Viennese society from the end of the 19th century until the Anschluss. There were intellectual and cultural circles in which Jews were very prominently represented. They were a small minority in the population, but in intellectual life, in art and in science, they played leading roles and were recognized. At the same time, however, anti-Semitism grew as a reaction to the emancipation of the Jews.

STANDARD: In 1867, Emperor Franz Joseph had signed the Basic Law of the State, which meant legal equality for Jews after centuries of persecution and discrimination. Did that spur anti-Semitism?

Name: When Jews began to claim their civil rights and increasingly participate in society, to be involved, there was a backlash. Suddenly it was said: They're everywhere and taking over everything. On top of that came Karl Lueger ...

STANDARD: ... the mayor of Vienna from 1897 to 1910, who played politics with anti-Semitism.

Porat: Lueger was an avowed racist and anti-Semite who openly agitated against Jews. This went down well with parts of the population; as is well known, it also made a big impression on Hitler. He mentioned Lueger in Mein Kampf and said that he was a role model for him in terms of ideology and rhetoric. But Lueger also influenced someone else, in an entirely different way.

STANDARD: Who do you mean?

Porat: Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism. Herzl also lived in Vienna, and when Lueger was elected mayor, that was a sign for Herzl that the situation for Jews in Austria-Hungary was not stable. He wrote in his diary that the emancipation and civil rights of Jews in the Danube Monarchy were not secure and therefore another solution was needed. Lueger's success in Vienna thus had very different effects.

STANDARD: Lueger and his legacy continue to preoccupy Vienna to this day. His monument stands on the square named after him in the first district - for years there has been a dispute about how to deal with it. Just last week, the city announced that the controversial Lueger statue would be tilted 3.5 degrees to the right as part of an artistic contextualization. For some, that's not enough; they're calling for the square to be removed and renamed. In your view, what is the right way to deal with historically charged names and monuments?

Porat: I have thought a lot about this question. But I think you can't erase history and culture. I don't think statues should be torn down, I'm in favor of contextualization. A plaque that everyone can see, that explains everything: this is Karl Lueger, former mayor of Vienna, who propagated racist and anti-Semitic ideas. By the way, I see it the same way in art, in music. There, too, we encounter anti-Semitism in many facets.

STANDARD: How can anti-Semitism be contextualized in pieces of music?

Porat: Think, for example, of Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion. It's great music, wonderful, but the text is tinged with Christian anti-Semitism. Should that no longer be performed? Of course not. But do you know what the Israeli Philharmonic does when they play the St. Matthew Passion? When they get to the worst passage, they stop playing briefly, it's quiet for half a minute, and then they go on.

STANDARD: Your lecture on the acceptance and rejection of Jews in early 20th century Vienna also deals with the writer and salonnière Berta Zuckerkandl. What fascinates you about her person?

Porat: Berta Zuckerkandl ran a Viennese salon until 1938, interrupted by the First World War. It was the salon par excellence, everyone was there - even though she only served tea. It was a cultural center; Auguste Rodin and Gustav Klimt met in Berta's salon, and the later Alma Mahler-Werfel met Gustav Mahler there. Berta was also a talented writer and a respected journalist. She also helped Austria enormously after World War I.

STANDARD: How so?

Porat: Berta had a sister, Sophie, and she married a brother of the French prime minister, Georges Clemenceau. When the war was over, Austria was in ruins: The monarchy had fallen, there was no more foreign investment, there was a lack of everything. The victorious powers were not ready to support Austria. In this situation, Austrian politicians approached Berta and asked her to use her contacts in France. She did: she wrote to Clemenceau, with whom she was closely connected. And he actually changed his attitude.

STANDARD: Then it became dangerous for Berta Zuckerkandl as a Jew in her hometown.

Porat: Despite everything she had done for Austria, she had to leave her Vienna in 1938. No one helped her here. She fled with the help of a French friend, but had to leave behind her large house full of works of art. The Nazis came two days later. There were paintings by Klimt in her Vienna house, but she died penniless. Klimt, by the way, painted Berta's cousin Amalie, the picture hangs today in the Vienna Belvedere. It was not restituted. (David Rennert, 10.6.2023)

What is a Sabich - and how does it taste?

Der Standard, June 5, 2023

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000172876/was-ist-ein-sabich-und-wie-schmeckt-es

Actually a Sabbath breakfast, today a popular take-away dish, at least in Israel: We found a very good Sabich sandwich in Vienna in an underpass underpass.

Sabich, which is served in the same bread as falafel pita, is little known in this country. Israeli street food is traditionally filled with fried melanzani, lettuce, tomatoes, parsley, tahini sauce, sometimes hummus, but almost always with amba, a hot and sour mango sauce, and s'chug, a green sauce made from chili, garlic and coriander. In no case should you forget the boiled eggs. That's because the ingredients of a sabich are derived from the Sabbath breakfast of Iraqi Jews.

According to the story, sabich as a street food, which is offered all over Israel today, has only existed since 1961, when Sabich Tsvi Halab, a Jewish refugee from Iraq, opened a small restaurant in the Tel Aviv district of Ramat Gan and sold sabich as a sandwich.

Today, the family of the street food pioneer still runs a Sabich store near the original location. In Vienna, you can get sabich at Taïm am Schottentor, a small Israeli snack bar in the subway underpass in the direction of U2. The deep-fried melanzani are quite filling, and falafel is also available as an alternative. But that's the subject of another video. (RONDO, Kevin Recher, 5.6.2023)

Horten Auction: Christie's to Donate to Jewish Organizations

Die Presse, May 23, 2023

German original: https://www.diepresse.com/6291175/horten-auktion-christies-will-an-juedische-organisationen-spenden

The auction house is said to have offered large sums of money to Jewish organizations following massive criticism of Heidi Horten's jewelry auction.

There is no end to the criticism surrounding the auction of the jewelry of Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten, who died in 2022, which yielded an interim result of 186 million euros. According to the "Kronen Zeitung" (Tuesday edition), the auction house Christie's, which came under fire because of the controversy surrounding the Nazi past of the German entrepreneur Helmut Horten, husband of Heidi Horten, has made high money offers, citing the "Jerusalem Post".

Christie's confirmed on Tuesday on request that these offers have gone to organizations that contribute significantly to research and education on the Holocaust. However, as the Jerusalem Post reported, the Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and another Jewish organization have rejected the offers. As before, the auction of the pieces from Horten's jewelry collection is sparking fierce criticism. "Christie's must postpone this auction until full clarification is obtained on this connection to Nazi-era acquisitions," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, deputy director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, for example.

Helmut Horten was a member of the NSDAP

According to a historian's report published in January 2022 and commissioned by the Horten Foundation, Heidi Horten's husband Helmut was a member of the NSDAP for a long time. In 1936, three years after the Nazis seized power, he took over the Alsberg textile department store in Duisburg at the age of 27 after its Jewish owners had fled. He later took over other stores that had previously been owned by Jewish owners. He was therefore accused of having profited from the "Aryanization" of Jewish businesses during the Nazi era.

According to the historian's report by Peter Hoeres, Horten reached an agreement on reparations with the Jewish previous owners of the Alsberg textile department store after the end of the war. A department store in Wattenscheid was returned to the original owners. In the case of a business takeover in Königsberg, on the other hand, according to the analysis, Horten probably resisted reparations under civil law because he knew that there were no enforceable legal claims against him.

The opinion states that a "certain ambivalence" has emerged. Horten have sought out-of-court settlements. "The settlements reached can be considered fair and beneficial to the former previous owners, although in the case of Duisburg the financial means could only be a weak consolation for the injustice suffered."

According to the expert report, Horten's thinking had not been "determined by Nazi ideology," yet he had enjoyed a "certain esteem from the Nazi authorities." His company in Duisburg was used as a distribution company, and Horten had been efficient at it. According to a statement from the denazification proceedings, Horten was briefly imprisoned in 1944. He was expelled from the NSDAP that year. The reason, according to the report, was quarrels with Nazi officials and suspicion of improper distribution of goods. "Overall, it is evident in all cases that business always came before politics. If the political framework accommodated his business activities, Horten apparently did not question them either and used his advantage," the report said.

(APA)

Hitler speech on Railjet: ÖBB boss condemns incident

Kurier, May 16, 2023

German original: https://kurier.at/chronik/oesterreich/hitler-oebb-zug-matthae-israelitische-kultusgemeinde/402451743

ÖBB board is "aware that incident causes disturbance in Jewish community". Two "railway-savvy" youths as suspects.

After excerpts of a Hitler speech were played on an ÖBB rai-jet on Sunday evening, ÖBB CEO Andreas Matthä addressed the president of the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG), Oskar Deutsch, in a letter obtained by APA on Tuesday.

"I am personally deeply shocked by this incident and have immediately arranged for internal investigations to be started," Matthä wrote.

The incident was also the subject of a video published by ÖBB on Twitter. It says that there is room for all people on the trains. "But there is no room for anti-Semitism, xenophobia, hatred and exclusion," it continues.

ÖBB CEO Matthä said he was aware that the incident on the Railjet was causing "disturbance in the Jewish community" and casting a "bad light on the railroad and the country". "Anti-Semitism and hatred have no place at ÖBB - neither on the train nor anywhere else," Matthä assured. He added that the railroad would do everything possible to clarify the case and implement measures to avert such incidents in the future. Deutsch invited the ÖBB board to the IKG in response to the letter.

Two youths suspected

According to Matthä, the suspects are two youths who had already attracted the attention of ÖBB for trespassing on railroad facilities or trains or for wearing ÖBB uniforms. It is assumed that the suspects "have very good knowledge of operational procedures and also technical equipment due to their 'railroad affinity'." They have already been contacted by the police and summoned for questioning as suspects, the exact time of questioning is not known to him, writes the ÖBB boss. Investigations are underway for re-activation under the Prohibition Act and disruptive behavior as well as unauthorized entry into certain areas of railroad facilities.

The incident happened on a Railjet that was traveling from Bregenz to Vienna. On the train, excerpts from a historical recording of a Hitler speech could be heard. This was followed by several shouts of "Sieg Heil". According to the railroad, the recordings were made directly on the train via the intercoms. ÖBB is aware of a total of three cases in which the loudspeakers were "hijacked." The first two incidents occurred in the previous week, always on the route between St. Pölten and Vienna, an ÖBB spokesman told APA.

Youth Book Tip: Insight into the Jewish Orthodox World

Die Presse, May 5, 2023

Hoodie's parents are strictly religious, he himself prefers not to know the rules too well. Isaac Blum's book tells a lot about life. And also about terror.

Young people don't have too much patience. In terms of reading, that means the first sentence of a book has to draw them in. Publishers know that, so there's no time for gimmicks, weather or the like. And this is especially true for books for which a glossary is offered for download. Well, the first sentence of "The Glory and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen" delivers, anyway: "Later I tried to explain to Rabbi Moritz what was ironic about the fact that I had saved the whole community by my horrible crime, of all things."

Too much drama? No, not at all. The book about the Jewish-Orthodox hoodie who falls in love and into whose life anti-Semitic terror then blows up is really funny at first. For instance, when the teenager reflects on his Orthodox Jewish life of rules. Or when he encounters modernity in the person of a sassy, non-Jewish girl (who is also the daughter of the mayor). One gets a glimpse into a world that probably often seems completely absurd to young readers. And soon suspect that Hoodie's "horrible crime" may not be so horrible in our terms. By then, though, the story has developed its pull. And the glossary? Not only explains words like kosher, gefilte fish or kippa. But also the mourning period Schiv'a, Kofer ba-ikar as a term for apostates and also Cherem - the ban that excludes someone from the Jewish religious community. These are the words that Hoodie uses.

Literature reference

Ruhm und Verbrechen des Hoodie Rosen

Isaac Blum, from the American by Gundula Schiffer. Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim 2019. 224 pages, 15.50 euros. Ages 14 and up.

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.

Fierce debate about exhibition at the Jewish Museum

ORF, February 2, 2023

German original: https://religion.orf.at/stories/3217486/

The director of the Jewish Museum Vienna, Barbara Staudinger, is facing sharp criticism in connection with the exhibition "100 Misconceptions About and Among Jews," which has been running since November. Now Jewish supporters are coming forward.

According to the "Kurier", Oskar Deutsch, President of the Jewish Community (IKG) Vienna, criticized the exhibit as partly problematic. Middle East expert Ben Segenreich and publicist Paul Lendvai are also among those who have criticized the exhibit. Staudinger has now received support from nine Holocaust survivors, the Standard reported Thursday (online edition).

They addressed a letter to IKG President Deutsch as well as Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) and the museum's supervisory board. Although one could be divided about the exhibition, they were "appalled" "when the director is defamed as an anti-Semite, the exhibition is even partly moved into the vicinity of ‘reengagement in National Socialist activities’ (nationalsozialistische Wiederbetätigung) or some accuse her of not being Jewish."

Criticism yes, character assassination no

Criticism is important, but "nothing justifies character assassination and agitation! Tolerance and respect are needed," "Der Standard" further quoted from the letter. The IKG was asked to "no longer remain silent, but to bring the discussion back to a factual level."

The letter was signed by Robert Schindel, Timothy and Franziska Smolka, Zwi Bar-David, Gerda Frey, Helga Feldner-Busztin, Peter Munik, Siegfried Loewe and Angelica Bäumer.

Director Staudinger herself had recently announced in interviews that she would be adding "another textual level of context" to the exhibition in the coming weeks. "100 Misunderstandings About and Among Jews" is on view at the Jewish Museum in Dorotheergasse until June 4.

Who Will Remember the Holocaust in the Future?

Die Presse, January 27, 2023

German original: https://www.diepresse.com/6243448/wer-erinnert-sich-kuenftig-noch-an-den-holocaust

by Katrin Nussmayr

The era of contemporary witnesses is slowly coming to an end. This not only affects the culture of remembrance, but also research: some questions can only be asked today.

If Anne Frank were still alive, she would be 93 years old today. When she died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, she was fifteen. There are hardly any Holocaust survivors left who experienced the horror of the Nazi era as adults. Those who today - also on the occasion of the International Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday - can tell a young generation about their memories, were mostly children themselves at that time. And they, too, are becoming fewer and fewer: the era of contemporary witnesses is coming to an end.

For historian Heidemarie Uhl, who studies the culture of memory and the politics of history, this end has two dimensions: On the one hand, moral authorities would also disappear with the contemporary witnesses - and their attitudes to certain places. At liberation ceremonies of concentration camps, for example, we could still hear the perspective of those who experienced these camps. "If these people are no longer there, who will speak? Politicians, artists? It won't be the same." Second, he said, we will soon have to rely on what remains: countless interviews on video and audio recordings. But new questions can then no longer be asked. However, "every generation has new questions for history."

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Michaela Raggam-Blesch, who is researching at the Institute of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna on how so-called mixed marriage families were able to survive during the Nazi era - a topic that has not been dealt with academically for a long time. She has conducted more than 60 interviews with contemporary witnesses in her career. "I realize more and more what a great privilege this is. For younger female colleagues, it's not so easy anymore."

Controversial Show at the Jewish Museum: If not Here in Vienna, Then Where?

Der Standard, January 27, 2023

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000142956910/umstrittene-schau-im-juedischen-museum-wenn-nicht-hier-in-wien

The exhibition "100 Misunderstandings About and Among Jews" looks controversial topics straight in the eye. No topic is taboo. Bruno Kreisky would have been pleased with it

by David N. Myers

In guest commentary, U.S. historian David N. Myers defends the current exhibition at the Jewish Museum Vienna. He says it offers a "range of perspectives combined with a healthy dose of chutzpah."

On a recent visit to Vienna for a conference sponsored by the Kreisky Forum, I had the opportunity to see the thought-provoking exhibition 100 Misconceptions About and Among Jews at the Jewish Museum Vienna. I had to wonder what Bruno Kreisky would have thought of this exhibition. After all, he himself was a walking embodiment of misunderstandings, defying stereotypes. A Vienna-born Jew who fled the city after the Anschluss and returned. A man who became the head of government of the country that expelled him. A Jew of the generation for whom Zionism and support of Israel were natural, but who distinguished himself by his advocacy of the Palestinian cause.

As someone who defied stereotypes himself, Kreisky would have enjoyed the exhibition. 100 installations challenge the view of Jews - as uniformly smart, frail, staunch supporters of Israel or marked by a tragic past. In fact, Jews make up only 0.2 percent of the world's population. They represent a remarkably diverse group of individuals in terms of their religious, cultural, and political sensibilities. The only stereotype that could be incontestably true is the expression, "two Jews, three opinions."

Debunking Stereotypes

At the same time, Kreisky may have been surprised by parts of the 100 Misunderstandings. A work that aims to highlight misunderstandings and debunk stereotypes is, by definition, troubling. After all, it is the job of art to take us out of our comfort zone and force us to question our own prejudices. This applies equally to Jews and non-Jews, by the way, because as the exhibition shows, misconceptions about Jews are fabricated by non-Jews as well as Jews.

"If viewers are uncomfortable or shocked, the exhibit works as it should."

The exhibition looks controversial issues straight in the eye. The most harrowing of the exhibits for me was Australian artist Jane Korman's remarkable 2010 video titled Dancing Auschwitz. It shows her, her father (a Holocaust survivor), and their three children dancing to Gloria Gaynor's disco hit I Will Survive at sites of Nazi genocide. When I first saw this video, I was shocked. It breaks through the view that Auschwitz is sacred and exposes its cruel profanity in a most comical way. At the same time, the image of the multi-generational Jewish family dancing in Auschwitz conveyed for me, as a Jew, a sincere sense of triumph over the murderous hubris of the Nazis. To be honest, this is a work of art that can only work because it was produced by Jews. Only members of an in-group have the license to engage in such satire and humorous approach, and outsiders do not, all the more so in the case of the Holocaust.

Crossing Borders

Dancing Auschwitz is transgressive; so are many of the other exhibits. If viewers are uncomfortable or shocked, the exhibit works as it should. At its core is the distinctly human impulse to achieve some measure of normalcy, something that Jews were denied throughout their long history, particularly during World War II.

In a broader range of images, 100 Misunderstandings reflects the impulse to place Jews on a pedestal as objects of anthropological fascination. No subject is off-limits. Is this spirit of iconoclasm too transgressive for a sober and correct Vienna that wants to venerate Jews as part of its postwar penance? Most likely, yes.

Other Vienna

But there is another Vienna. It is important to remember that cultural iconoclasm and innovation are native to Jewish Vienna. There is the well-known list of Jewish innovators of the late 19th and 20th centuries, including Mahler, Schoenberg, Schnitzler, and of course Freud. Vienna was also home to the wickedly satirical Karl Kraus and his magazine Die Fackel, which spared no topic.

100 Misunderstandings recalls the tradition of iconoclasm and innovation for which Vienna was once famous. The exhibition has stirred controversy by featuring both challenging images and dissenting Jewish opinions. But it is this range of perspectives, combined with a healthy dose of chutzpah, that captures Jews as they live, in their manifold diversity, rather than in one-dimensional, monochromatic and idealized form, as they often appear to us in death. Vienna is a fitting and necessary setting for this bold exploration of the myth and reality of the Jew. If not here, then where? (David N. Myers, 1/27/2023)

David N. Myers is Distinguished Professor and holds the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA in Los Angeles. He is the author of numerous books in the field of Jewish history, including most recently (with Nomi M. Stolzenberg) "American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York" (Princeton University Press, 2022).

Vaccination and Zyklon B

Der Standard, January 26, 2023 (Opinion)

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000142916743/impfen-und-zyklon-b

In Salzburg, an anti-vaccination activist was acquitted of trivializing Nazism

by Hans Rauscher

A jury in Salzburg has now acquitted a man who had diligently participated in the Corona denier - propaganda and - according to the indictment - trivialized the Holocaust. The jury did not consider the following actions of the 40-year-old occupational therapist to be a violation of the Nazi Prohibition Act:

The defendant, who also campaigned for the anti-vaccination party MFG, held a patch in the shape of a Jewish star with "unvaccinated" in front of the camera. With this, according to the indictment, he equated the opponents of vaccination with the persecuted Jews. He also posted a portrait of Adolf Hitler on Telegram with the caption, "Hitler never killed anyone himself. They were all just people doing their job." To this, one posted: "Read Leuchter's report: Hitler and the Nazis did not own gas chambers. Zyklon B was used for disinfection."

That sort of thing clearly falls under denial of Nazi crimes for anyone familiar with history - and for any expert witness in previous trials. Yet the defendant did not remove the verbatims and also posted the question of fact deniers of all kinds: "One may not question the mainstream?"

One may, the jury found. The verdict is final. For the time being, one can only note how conspicuously often Corona “blabbering,” conspiracy theories and Nazi trivialization appear in the same brains. (Hans Rauscher, 26.1.2023)

New Center for Research on Anti-Semitism

ORF, January 26, 2023

German original: https://science.orf.at/stories/3217343/

Stars of David at anti-COVID demonstrations, ideas of secret world elites and disproportionate criticism of Israel: anti-Semitism changes its form, but its content remains the same. A new center of excellence at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) is to research hatred of Jews, especially in the present day.

"Anti-Semitism is articulated differently today than in the past, because history never repeats itself one-to-one, but puts on different costumes, so to speak," ÖAW President Heinz Faßmann told science.ORF.at at the presentation of the new research center.

Not a historical phenomenon

The occasion is tomorrow's Holocaust Memorial Day. It commemorates January 27, 1945, the day on which soldiers of the Red Army liberated the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz. Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. However, anti-Semitism is anything but a mere historical phenomenon; it is still widespread.

In 2020, a study commissioned by Parliament investigated the prevalence of anti-Semitic attitudes in Austria. 28 percent of respondents considered the statement "A powerful elite (e.g. Soros, Rothschild, Zuckerberg ...) is using the Corona pandemic to further expand its wealth and political influence" to be very or rather true. This year, updated figures on this are to be published. The Academy intends to participate in the study in the future and, if necessary, conduct it itself - every two years, changes in attitudes will then be compared.

Stocktaking and networking

Participation in the study is one of four focal points to which the new "Center of Excellence" will devote itself. First and foremost is a stocktaking: Under the direction of contemporary historian Helga Embacher from the University of Salzburg, an overview of the state of anti-Semitism research is to be compiled.

Holocaust Remembrance Day: Music for the Memory of the Human

Kronen Zeitung, January 26, 2023

German original: https://www.krone.at/2913329

It is a venture: since November, a young ensemble has been rehearsing the difficult "Quartet for the End of Time" by Olivier Messiaen. On Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is celebrated on Friday, they face the audience at an unusual performance venue.

Friday, January 27, is International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust, as the Nazi genocide of European Jews during World War II is known.

A Special Piece in a Special Place

In the heart of Linz, namely in the hall of St. Barbara Cemetery, a very special ensemble is performing to mark the occasion: Four students from Linz's Stifter Gymnasium have joined forces; they are between 17 and 19 years old and are all musicians. Together, they are venturing into the exceptional piece "Quartet for the End of Time" by Olivier Messiaen. "The work touches us so much," says Stephan Deinhammer, the pianist.

"Memory is important to us"

Why exactly is this work fitting for Holocaust Remembrance Day: "When Messiaen composed it, he was an inmate in a POW camp. The work is a bridge to something deeply human. And the liberation of Auschwitz was the return of the human."

Deinhammer performs with Leonhard Gaigg (clarinet), Klara Brunnhofer (violin) and Feline Gröpler (cello). The young ensemble's goal for their concert at the Barbara Cemetery: "We want to create a space for remembrance with this music."

Vienna Must Not Become More Like Kassel

Wiener Zeitung, January 25, 2023 (Commentary)

German original: https://www.wienerzeitung.at/meinung/kommentare/2175872-Wien-darf-nicht-verkasseln.html

by Edwin Baumgartner

"documenta 2022" and no end: The anti-Semitic tendencies of the Kassel art show are obvious. There is a risk of repetition, because in matters of art, politics' hands are tied. "The freedom of art can also protect against state intervention in cases of racist or anti-Semitic tendencies within the framework of proportionality," Berlin legal scholar Christoph Möllers has now stated.

The moral question is, of course, whether one would expose other ethnic groups, nations and/or religions to the same defenselessness as it happens in this special case with Jews and Israel.

Change of Scene.

In Vienna's Jewish Museum, an exhibition is running on alleged misunderstandings related to Jews and Israel. The exhibition wants to educate about Jews and Judaism, and it wants to do so in a humorous way. But it often allows for anti-Semitic readings, even though these are not intended. Nevertheless, more and more Jews feel irritated or hurt by this show, because: Some of the artworks and objects on display are contextualized in an inadequate or distorting way, writes Oskar Deutsch, president of the Jewish Community of Vienna, in a letter to museum director Barbara Staudinger.

Again, the question arises: Would one deal with other ethnicities, nations and/or religions in their museum in the same way? Or is the Jewish Museum just making an unintentional contribution to the "Kasselification" of Vienna?

In Conversation: Barbara Staudinger, Director of the Jewish Museum Vienna

ORF, January 19, 2023

German original and link to audio (to be available on March 16, 2023):
https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20230316/712618/Barbara-Staudinger-Direktorin-des-juedischen-Museums-Wien

"Discussing must be learned (again)!"

(Audio) Renata Schmidtkunz in conversation with the Director of the Jewish Museum Vienna, Barbara Staudinger.

Die Kunst des Diskutierens, des Austausches von Argumenten, ist ein wichtiges demokratisches Prinzip. Diese Debattenkultur gilt es in Zeichen multipler Krisen und aufgeladener Stimmung hochzuhalten. Im jüdischen Museum Wien hat Direktorin Barbara Staudinger daher erstmals einen "Debate Club" ins Leben gerufen.

Dieser begleitet in den nächsten Monaten regelmäßig die Ausstellung "100 Missverständnisse über rund unter Juden", die Vorurteile und stereotype Bilder hinterfragt. Damit setzt die 1973 geborene Wienerin, die das jüdische Museum seit Juli 2022 leitet, neue Akzente. Für Erstaunen sorgte bei manchen anfangs die Tatsache, dass sie keine Jüdin ist. Staudinger verweist auf ihre wissenschaftliche Kompetenz, wie ihre zahlreichen Publikationen zu jüdischer Kulturgeschichte.

Sie studierte Geschichte, Theaterwissenschaften und Judaistik an der Universität Wien. In ihrer Promotion befasste sie sich mit der "Rechtsstellung und Judenfeindschaft am Reichshofrat 1559-1670". Barbara Staudinger arbeitete einige Jahre als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Institut für jüdische Geschichte Österreichs in St. Pölten, fokussierte sich aber zunehmend auch auf die Arbeit in Museen. So war Staudinger von 2005 bis 2007 Kuratorin am Jüdischen Museum Augsburg, das sie von 2018 - 2022 auch leitete. Für ihre Arbeit in Wien hat sie sich vorgenommen, Geschichten zu entwickeln, die nicht nur berühren, sondern zum Nachfragen, forschen oder Weitererzählen anregen.

Im Gespräch mit Renata Schmidtkunz spricht sie darüber, welchen Platz die Geschichte des Antisemitismus in einem Museum hat und warum auch der Philosemitismus, der Juden und Jüdinnen zu etwas Außergewöhnlichem macht, ein Problem ist.

How Exhibitions Propagated Images of the Enemy

ORF, January 19, 2023

German original: https://science.orf.at/stories/3217207/

Propaganda played an essential role in National Socialism. Exhibitions were particularly "successful" in stirring up hatred, especially against Jews. Historian Rosemarie Burgstaller explores these visitor magnets in a guest article.

Under National Socialism, a large number of defamatory exhibitions took place, the aim of which was to slander world views, states and populations, right down to groups and individuals, and to declare them enemies. The zeal that was exercised until the downfall of the Nazi regime in order to stir up hatred and resentment among the population against the Jewish minority was enormous. For a long time, exhibitions were an underestimated medium for the dissemination of anti-Semitic and racist propaganda under National Socialism. Images of the enemy were not only disseminated in relevant events, such as the hate exhibition "The Eternal Jew.”

In many cases, anti-Semitic and anti-Communist sections and special shows were attached to popular product fairs and performance shows. Discrimination and slander were subliminally incorporated into exhibition displays through codes or with the help of details and allusions, for example in the context of craft shows. The focus was on two enemy image complexes: The Jewish-coded political-ideological opponents of communism and the Soviet regime, and hatred of Jews. Anti-Semitism also formed the basic constant of almost all other enemy images transported in these exhibitions, such as the Weimar Republic, liberalism and democracy, or the attacks on freethinkers, Freemasons and Slavic populations.

Images of the enemy were conveyed in business-promoting areas as well as in the area of charitable events. For example, through Nazi-infiltrated aid organizations, such as Brothers in Need and the Geneva-based International Pro Deo Commission, anti-Soviet and anti-Semitic enemy image exhibitions of the Nazi regime were disseminated not only in the German Reich but throughout Europe, for example in Great Britain, Poland, and France, with the support of collaborating local institutions.

In 1936, propaganda reached new dimensions

At the 1936 Nuremberg Party Congress of the NSDAP, the anti-Soviet agitation of the Nazi regime had reached a new dimension. The second Four-Year Plan announced here was dominated by economic autarky and accelerated military rearmament. In July of that year, the Spanish Civil War had begun. During this phase, the regime engaged in extensive alliance propaganda against the Soviet Union at exhibitions and trade fairs. In particular, the large-scale enemy image exhibitions that began in the fall of 1936 were intended to demonstrate unity.

Italy and Hungary were involved in the "Great Anti-Bolshevik Show," which opened in the library building of the Deutsches Museum in Munich in November 1936, with their own special shows. This exhibition was presented in seven major cities of the German Reich until 1938 and, according to the organizers, attracted more than 800,000 visitors. Parallel to this one, numerous other anti-Semitic and war-preparing traveling exhibitions such as "A Glimpse of the Soviet Paradise" and "World Plague Bolshevism" were on the road in rural areas. The traveling show "World Enemy No. 1: Bolshevism," built into truck trailers, toured Germany for a year and a half and was reportedly visited by more than 1.4 million onlookers at some 60 locations.

"The Eternal Jew" - also in Vienna

In the following year, 1937, the hate exhibition "The Eternal Jew" opened at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. From August 1938, the anti-Semitic machination was also shown in Vienna, then in other cities. "The Eternal Jew" has inscribed itself in the historical memory of the federal capital. For example, the striking advertising poster served as a temporal marker for the year 1938 in the Austrian feature film "Der Bockerer."

This exhibition was advertised in a particularly lurid manner. Its structure, its staging impetus and the intensive advertising can be used to illustrate how strongly voyeurism and curiosity were relied upon to attract the public.

The war meant the even closer linking of propaganda and violence. There are numerous surviving examples of exhibitions of enemy images being held in the run-up to anti-Semitic measures and deportations. These include the traveling exhibition "Le Juif et la France" in the occupied cities of Paris, Bordeaux and Nancy in 1941/42 and the deportations of the Jewish population of Hungary in 1944.

Crowd pullers under National Socialism

According to surviving sources, hate exhibitions were among the crowd pullers under National Socialism. Even the Social Democratic exile newspaper Der sozialistische Kampf, referring to Austria, stated in 1939: "The only cultural events where mass participation has really been achieved so far are the exhibitions: 'The Eternal Jew,' the 'Anti-Comintern Exhibition,' and 'Degenerate Art.'" Several hundred thousand visitors were probably not uncommon. Official protests by democratic governments hardly ever took place. And if they did, it was mostly about content-related demarcation, but never about a general criticism of anti-Semitic discrimination.

Outside Germany, on the other hand, counter-exhibitions were organized by expellees or by communist organizations. These actors did not go unnoticed by the National Socialists. Even small-scale exhibitions that provided education against the crimes of National Socialism were increasingly tried by the Nazi regime at a high political level with aggression that seemed disproportionate.

The Austrian Irene Harand, who in 1935 published "Sein Kampf. Antwort an Hitler" (His Struggle. Answer to Hitler), initiated a letter-sealing stamp campaign with portraits of important Jewish personalities in response to the exhibition "Der ewige Jude" (The Eternal Jew) in Munich in 1937. This campaign was one of the few acts of resistance against a National Socialist exhibition of enemy images.

About the author

Rosemarie Burgstaller is a historian and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna. Her book "Staging Hate. Enemy Image Exhibitions in National Socialism" was published by Campus Verlag in 2022.

When "Black September" was About to Strike in January

Die Presse, January 19, 2023
German original: https://www.diepresse.com/6238430/als-der-schwarze-september-im-jaenner-zuschlagen-wollte

by Thomas Riegler

In early 1973, Palestinians wanted to take Jewish hostages with the help of neo-Nazis. But the attack on the Schönau camp in Lower Austria was thwarted in time. It then also led to the founding of the Cobra special unit.

In early 1973, Palestinians wanted to take Jewish hostages with the help of neo-Nazis. But the attack on the Schönau camp in Lower Austria was thwarted in time. It then also led to the formation of the special Cobra unit.

It was only a detail, but it stood out: one of the passports of three alleged Israeli tourists had been issued on a Jewish holiday. It couldn't have been. The porter at a hotel near the Westbahnhof became suspicious. When the state police's "hotel control" came by to take a routine look at the guest registrations, the man raised the alarm. The officers laid in wait. The trio was confronted as they came down from the room.

Sure enough, they were not Israelis, but Palestinian terrorists. They were part of the "Black September" group that had taken eleven Israeli athletes hostage at the Munich Olympics just a few months earlier, on September 5, 1972. Two of the athletes were immediately murdered, nine others died in a failed rescue attempt. The name "Black September" has been synonymous with terror ever since.

In 1973, Austria would have been threatened with a similar signal as the Olympic attack, if the terrorists had had their way. They had a symbolic target in their sights. Since 1965, a transit camp for Jewish emigrants from the Eastern Bloc had been located in Schönau an der Triesting Castle. Austria was their transit station, or so the Soviet Union demanded. By 1986, a total of 270,000 Jews were to emigrate via Austria to Israel and other countries. In the Arab world, this was seen as a demographic strengthening of Israel that had to be stopped. This was the task of "Black September," which was in fact a front organization of the secret service of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

According to a report by the Swiss Federal Police, the terrorists had been ordered to wait and scout the area. Then they were to attack Schönau in a group of "about 12 armed men" and take hostages. Shootings were "calculated in." But the operation failed already in the preparatory stage. As mentioned at the beginning, the first of two terrorist teams to enter the country was arrested at the hotel on January 20, 1973. There were also warnings from foreign intelligence services. A second team, also consisting of three men, was still trying to escape. But the Palestinians were apprehended in Tarvis, Italy, on January 27, 1973, and deported back.

Investigations revealed that "Black September" had help on the ground. Two right-wing extremists from Norbert Burger's National Democratic Party (NDP) had supported the Palestinians. One of them was the then 33-year-old Gerhard B. The son of a British occupation soldier, he had worked in Benghazi, Libya, for several years until he had to leave the country as a result of the Six-Day War (1967). Back in Vienna, B. founded an import-export company. In 1971, he met the Viennese contact of "Black September," Zuhair Shibl. He was a Jordanian born in 1931. The man had been in Vienna since 1969 and had married an Austrian woman that year "only according to Islamic law."

In March 1973, an Austrian state police officer made inquiries about Shibl with the officer for "Arab terrorism" in the British Home Office. According to this "Mr. Black," Shibl was noted as the "head" of PLO structures in Kuwait. In addition, a 1960 intelligence briefing described him "as a man fond of fast cars and drugs."

Shibl was also in contact with another NDP man. This was Harald E, then 25 years old. He had given the second trio of hostage-takers shelter in an apartment in the Großfeldsiedlung from January 22 to 26, 1973. Together with Shibl, he supplied the Palestinians with food. When they then wanted to leave, E. chauffeured the three men in a rented car to Arnoldstein, on the Carinthian border. From there, the terrorists set off for Italy, but did not get far.

When E. was being searched out, another NDP man "appeared" on the scene while the house was still being searched on February 14, 1973. The latter then tried to flush documents incriminating E. down the toilet. He had not wanted the evidence to disappear, but had used it instead of the toilet paper, was his justification, which was not believed.

Weapons never found.
The weapons for the Schönau raid were never found. It was not at all clear whether and how they should have been obtained. However, Shibl had asked E. "whether there were Kalashnikov rifles in the Austrian army, from which it can be concluded that he might have had something to do with the procurement of weapons.

Shibl could not be found out. He had left for Beirut in time at the beginning of February 1973. The hapless six-man hostage-taking squad, on the other hand, was deported from Austria to Syria in March 1973. There the men were probably promptly liquidated by the fascist Phalange militia.

The Austrian helpers had nothing comparable to fear. The case against B. was dropped, while E. was acquitted for lack of evidence. As an interview transcript from the Ministry of the Interior reveals, the aim was to get to the bottom of the "connection established for the first time" between right-wing extremists and Palestinian terrorists, but found no evidence of systematic cooperation: "According to our findings, the extreme right-wing NDP party is unlikely to have had any knowledge of this support from its members." However, one report notes that E., for example, was "visibly eager" to present his connection with the terrorists as a "solo effort of which his party friends knew nothing." Investigators had also noticed that Shibl had worn an NDP badge on his jacket lapel.

The Gendarmerie Command.
In order to ensure security for Jewish emigrants in the future, a separate association was launched on May 1, 1973: The Gendarmeriekommando (GK) Bad Vöslau. The volunteer force of 80 officers took over, in addition to the object protection in Schönau, the securing of the arrival or the departure of the emigrants at the airport Schwechat. The "Kronen Zeitung" then reported that the "code word" of this special group was "Kobra". In fact, the radio call name was "Scorpion," but "Kobra" stuck.

What could not be prevented was that international terrorism struck again on September 28, 1973: Two Arabs from the obscure group "Eagles of the Palestinian Revolution" took three Jewish emigrants and a customs officer hostage on a train coming from Bratislava. In order not to endanger human lives, Chancellor Bruno Kreisky decided to give in. The transit camp Schönau was closed, in return the hostages were released and the two terrorists were allowed to leave under safe conduct. However, the "Jewish transit" continued uninterrupted. There was no further attack against it.

This was also due to the fact that the protective measures were further strengthened. The former GK Bad Vöslau was professionalized as a special unit in 1978 and exists today as Einsatzkommando Cobra. The vacated Schönau Castle had served as the first headquarters. Today, it is privately owned. Nothing reminds of the world political importance of the place or of the events 50 years ago.

About the Author

Thomas Riegler is a historian in Vienna and a researcher at the Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (ACIPSS). His new book, "Austria's Secret Services: A New History," was published last year.

Either Stupid or Ice-Cold!

Die Presse, January 16, 2023

German original: https://www.diepresse.com/6239047/entweder-dumm-oder-eiskalt

Replica to A. Goldenberg. But, of course, Jewish museums in perpetrator countries like Austria are educational institutions.

We like to use the term "migration background" for those people to whom we attribute that they are culturally (also) socialized differently. And yes, people whose parents come from completely different cultural backgrounds often have different approaches. I think that's as legitimate as it is enriching, depending on how you deal with that "different access."

So if you work primarily for immigrant people or their children, you should be careful about how you phrase different things so that you're not constantly alternating between displaying your ignorance and and cultural gaffes.

As a speaker, you should always think about how things you say will be received. You should ask yourself beforehand, "Who is my audience? What do I want to achieve with what I say?"

In this country, people usually have "Nazi backgrounds." That probably sounds as unpleasant to the ears of the local people as "migration background" sounds to the ears of the people from there.

But it is just as true.

If one now refers to the fact that in Austria there are also resistance fighters, Jews and other people persecuted by the Nazis, I would like to remind briefly of the meaning of the word "socialization." In Austria in particular, as is well known, sensitivity towards racist, xenophobic or anti-Semitic statements or even deeds is still relatively unestablished.

A museum located in Israel - or, for that matter, in another country with a less anti-Semitic past and present than Germany or Austria - can act differently, can put things up for discussion differently, because the basis is different.

But an exhibition about stereotypes in a country, where in every survey easily about 40% agree with at least one anti-Semitic stereotype, should necessarily point out what the actual Jewish reality is. And not only in small print.

It does not contribute to understanding if one serially elevates individual cases or artistic interventions to an example, as in the current exhibition "100 Misunderstandings about and among Jews" at the Jewish Museum Vienna. In all surveys in Austria, a good 85% of Jews feel that their security is rather threatened - a Jewish museum that does not pay attention to this is a non-Jewish museum.

The exhibition pretends that anti-Semitism is not rising exponentially again here, as if this kind of humor could work because it would be identified as humor. That's either stupid or stone cold.

The author:

Sandra Kreisler (* 1961) is an actress, singer and works as a speaker in Vienna and Berlin. Her book "Being Jewish - Views on Life in the Diaspora" was published by Hentrich & Hentrich.

Jewish Delegation in Search of Traces in Neuberg

ORF, January 15, 2023

German original: https://burgenland.orf.at/magazin/stories/3190362/

Before 1938, about 210,000 Jews lived in Austria, also in Burgenland. After the Anschluss in March 1938, they were dispossessed and expelled. The Stein family from Neuberg (district of Güssing) was able to escape to Israel. Recently, their grandson visited Neuberg.

At the meeting of the visitors from Israel and the members of the Neuberg cultural initiative, both sides were able to learn more about the fate of the Stein family. Especially for the grandson Yuval, who lives with his wife near Tel Aviv, this was very important. "This is very moving for me. I have never been to Neuberg before. I only heard about this place from my father and also a little bit from my grandfather. To be here - where my ancestors lived, where my father grew up - this is very moving for me," Yuval Stein said.

Jakob and Cäcilia Stein ran two stores in Neuberg. We know about the couple and their two children Egon and Erika that they were well integrated in the village, although one can hardly find any more documents about them. "We have searched in the records that exist, for example in the parish. But there are no written records there. They were not members of the parish, but may have even participated in parish life," says Robert Novakovits.

Candlestick back with the family

In 1938, the family had to leave Neuberg with ten-year-old Egon and eight-year-old Erika. The family was imprisoned in Vienna and finally managed to emigrate to Israel. Apart from a chess set, they only took a few blankets with them. A candlestick remained in Neuberg as a gift.

"That was such a two-armed candlestick that the Stein family gave to my grandmother when they had to leave in a hurry back then. I saw this over and over again as a child, but didn't know exactly what it was about. I only knew that it was a gift from the Jewish family. We have now passed that on," says Martin Fabsits.

The candlestick has thus returned to the family to which it originally belonged. With this project, the Neuberg Cultural Initiative Association would like to reappraise the history of Neuberg. "It is important to know and honor the names and fates of people," says Renate Mercsanits.

A Jewish Museum Is Not a Cure for Anti-Semitism (Opinion)

Die Presse, January 11, 2023

German original: https://www.diepresse.com/6237098/ein-juedisches-museum-ist-keine-heilanstalt-gegen-antisemitismus

Why context matters and anti-Semitism does not disappear when you close an exhibit. A response to Ben Segenreich's critique.

So, an exhibition about misunderstanding leads to misunderstanding. We are talking about the current exhibit at the Jewish Museum Vienna, "100 Misunderstandings About and Among Jews." One focus is on philosemitism, i.e. positively exaggerated stereotypes about Jews. The Jewish genius, the romance of the shtetl, the Jewish sense of family. In addition, other sensitive topics are taken up, including Holocaust remembrance and dealings with the state of Israel.

The exhibition "rambles, distorts and confuses," wrote author and journalist Ben Segenreich in a "Presse" guest commentary on January 7. On Monday, publicist Paul Lendvai backed him up in a letter to the editor: "I would even close the exhibition immediately, because - as I have seen myself - it tends to inspire mocking remarks and laughter from schoolchildren."

Why such drastic reactions? Segenreich thinks the museum has "lost its way" in its approach to the Holocaust. One of his criticisms: a video performance showing a Holocaust survivor and his descendants dancing in former concentration camps. People who knew nothing or little about Judaism would thus learn that it was permissible to dance in Auschwitz, Segenreich writes. Whoever understands the video in this way must want to misunderstand it. In the museum it is placed in such a way that the critical voices cannot be overlooked: They stand large and prominent right next to the projection. The video, like other content that might offend survivors and their loved ones, is embedded in ample context. As is expected of a well-curated museum.

In places, Segenreich's commentary is not an exhibition critique but a catalog critique. The longtime ORF Middle East correspondent criticizes a text that uses the phrase "Zionist expansionist policy," and not as a quote. Segenreich knowledgeably cites why the term is wrong. "In passing" the Jewish state is scuffed up. Only: this problematic formulation was removed from the object description right after the exhibition began in November and can now only be read in the catalog. A small but important difference. One wants to avoid misunderstandings, after all.

"Elsewhere, one stumbles upon 'Israeli war and discrimination policies' or the accusation that the prestigious Jerusalem Holocaust research site Yad Vashem is engaged in 'propaganda for state Palestinian policies,'" Segenreich writes. One never stumbled upon these formulations on site, but only in catalog texts. Segenreich also fails to provide the full context, namely that the accusation is clearly identified in the text as the opinion of the artist, not the museum. This is how misunderstandings arise.

The exhibition - the first by Barbara Staudinger, who took up her directorship in July - is bold and humorous, but in places the information remains somewhat superficial.

But the Jewish Museum in Vienna does not have it easy: On the one hand, it has to assume that many visitors are not Jewish themselves; on the other hand, it is supposed to be a place where the Jewish community can find itself. It should bring the majority closer to a minority and at the same time depict the plurality within this minority. It wants to present a history of relations that is marked by discrimination and persecution, but not dominated by the narrative of the perpetrators. It must also, like any museum, deal with laughing students. And it must do so in a society that still has an anti-Semitism problem.

Another misunderstanding: a Jewish museum is not a cure-all for anti-Semitism. But anti-Semitism also doesn't disappear when you close the exhibition.

E-mails an:debatte@diepresse.com

Pseudo-Intellectual Babble at the Jewish Museum (Op-ed)

Die Presse, January 6, 2023

German original: https://www.diepresse.com/6235212/geschwurbel-im-juedischen-museum

Exhibition review. One can argue about tastelessness, but there are limits.

When an exhibition at the Jewish Museum Vienna addresses "100 Misconceptions About and Among Jews," one is pleased and hopes that something will be made clear. But that is difficult when you are constantly getting bumped in the head and made dizzy. For example, there is this exhibition poster. On it, you see a skinhead in a black leather bomber jacket decorated with Nazi symbols, with "Judenfreund" written on it. Really now? What is being insinuated there? Friends of Jews are Nazis? Nazis are friends of Jews? Is that generally the case, or is that a curious exception? And is this now the misunderstanding or already its correction?

Hitler as a fireplace rug

That is exactly what is so awful about this exhibition concept. One never knows exactly where the misunderstanding ends and the understanding begins. What is an isolated case, what is typical? There are useful sections that dispose of stereotypes, such as those about the Jewish mama, Klezmer music, or the Mossad. Commendably, the Bible verse "an eye for an eye," regularly abused by anti-Semites and ignoramuses, is described for what it is, not a revenge slogan but a humane, progressive principle of compensation. Unfortunately, this is coupled with an exhibit that turns everything in its head: Hitler as a fireplace rug. Are Jews barbaric hunters and retaliators after all? Also ambiguous is the debunking of Palais Eskeles as a "legend." The home of the museum, one learns, is not a Jewish palace at all. Well, I'll be! Then it must be a legend that Jewish palaces have helped shape Vienna's architectural history. But what about the palaces Ephrussi, Tedesco, Lieben-Auspitz, Wertheim, Epstein, Königswarter, Gutmann?

The fact that the old Jewish palaces are being pummeled is not so bad. Worse is how, in passing, the exhibit scuffs up the not-so-old Jewish state. One text uses the phrase "Zionist expansionist policy," not as a quotation, but as if it were part of common knowledge. This terminology fits in at a rally of the anti-Jewish terror group Hamas in Gaza, not at a Jewish museum in Vienna. The expression is factually incorrect: there has never been a unified Zionist policy, especially on territorial issues, let alone an "expansionist policy." Since 1979, Israel has withdrawn from the Sinai, from large parts of the West Bank, from southern Lebanon, from Gaza. Is this "expansionist policy"?

The nonsense has a system. Elsewhere, one stumbles upon "Israeli war and discrimination policies" or the accusation that the respected Jerusalem Holocaust research site Jad Vashem is engaged in "propaganda for the state's Palestinian policy." Nor does the museum shy away from invoking a notorious Israel-baiter like Norman Finkelstein, who blathers on about the "bloodlust of Israeli society" in lectures.

The exhibition has gone completely astray in its approach to the Holocaust. In a video performance, for example, one sees a Jewish family dancing in front of the gate to the Auschwitz mass murder camp. The fact that the survivor Adolek Kohn copes with his nightmares in this way is to be respected. But in the world there are about 15 million Jews, five danced in Auschwitz. The museum is supposed to inform people who know little or nothing about Judaism. What do they learn? One is allowed to dance in Auschwitz! Hooray, then it can't have been so bad, and there's no need to make such a fuss about it. The same spirit is conveyed by the photo montage in which a self-staging "artist" is waving a Diet Coke can around in front of emaciated figures on concentration camp beds in Buchenwald. One can argue about taste(lessness), but there are limits. What could have convinced the exhibition organizers that this almost 30-year-old British "work of art" had to be unearthed and presented to the Viennese public? For many Jews, such a thing is hurtful, even unbearable. Survivors and direct relatives of the murder victims are still among us. In the museum, of course, one knows this, but one has other priorities.

It is not an art museum

The concepts that are repeatedly, almost obsessively, linked to the Holocaust here are "instrumentalization," "marketing," "commercialization." Those who are not familiar with the subject must get the impression that the Shoah was the invention of a Jewish advertising industry. Misunderstandings are not cleared up, but spread. To a large extent, this is due to works of art. Thus, one can make excuses about artistic freedom or about the fact that, as it says in the catalog, "there is no 'right' or 'wrong,' but that it depends on the perspective". But a Jewish museum is not an art museum. Jewish museums are supposed to, again quoting from the catalog, "educate, train the eye, and stimulate thought." This exhibition rambles, distorts and confuses.

The author

Ben Segenreich (born 1952 in Vienna) is an author, journalist, and Middle East expert. He emigrated to Israel in 1983. He worked there as an ORF correspondent from 1990 to 2018. He has made contributions to numerous media in German-speaking countries.