New book by Gauss: criticism of left-wing hatred of Jews

Salzburg ORF, February 11, 2025

German Original: https://salzburg.orf.at/stories/3292853/

In his new book “Essays against the Zeitgeist and hatred of Jews”, the Salzburg writer Karl-Markus Gauss criticizes various actors in art, culture and at universities who locate themselves politically “left” and yet would spread anti-Semitism and massive propaganda against Judaism.

“Hatred of Jews has been driven far out into society by digital pulpit preachers who have hijacked important and legitimate causes such as anti-imperialism, anti-racism, and anti-colonialism.” Karl-Markus Gauss formulates this literal reproach in “Guilt of Ignorance”, the central text in his volume of essays against the zeitgeist and hatred of Jews, which was officially released on Tuesday.

Gauß against solidarity with Hamas murderers

Gauß deals, among other things, with the pro-Palestinian solidarity rallies that took place in the art scene and at universities immediately after the Hamas massacre:

“They know nothing, that's what makes them so unflappable. They have no idea, and that's where they get their conviction from. Their ignorance cannot be forgiven, because it is self-inflicted. These are not children from socially disadvantaged families, they have not broken off their schooling, these are students who have made it to a highly prestigious academy, and these fools from good homes are on their way to representing tomorrow's German society.”

Reversal of perpetrator-victim roles

Gauss was stunned not only by the reversal of the roles of perpetrator and victim that was practiced in this context (“The Jews were not declared perpetrators when they were massacred, but because they were massacred. Because nothing fuels hatred of Jews more than their persecution.”), but also by the composition of the groups that took part:

“It is said that only education can help against anti-Semitism. But that is wrong. Among the high-ranking members of the SS who propagated racial fanaticism and planned its implementation in the Shoa, there were numerous academics. The Austrian historian and cultural philosopher Friedrich Heer once described the horror that seized him when he was led to the Gestapo headquarters in Vienna for interrogation and walked along corridors where the names of high-ranking SS officials with doctorates and professorships were posted on the doors.

Has war long since also reigned in the private sphere?

The Salzburg author, publicist and essayist has added some articles already published in newspapers and magazines to his “ungeordneten Aufzeichnungen 2023/2024” (Disordered Notes 2023/2024).

Gauß also addresses the unsettling upheavals and failed friendships that extend into the private sphere: “It's war. I notice it in the sudden arguments I get into with some acquaintances, and in which we quickly become spiteful towards each other.”

In the new book, he also deals with Jean Améry and Boris Pahor, Theodor Herzl or Leopold Weiss and Eugen Hoeflich, “two Viennese high school students in Palestine”. In addition, there are texts being published for the first time, such as his speech given in May 2023 at the 78th liberation celebration of the Ebensee concentration camp or his acceptance speech for the Jean Améry Prize for International Essay Writing.

Accusation against colleague Gessen: “Reckless comparison”

Gauß has received many prizes in his career – but there is one he would prefer to give back, he hints: the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding, which he received in 2021. The reason for this is a comparison made by the Russian-American essayist Masha Gessen, who received the prize three years before him: she compared the terrorist attack by Hamas with the uprising of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. “I take personal umbrage at Masha Gessen for this nefarious comparison.”

Presentations in Vienna and Salzburg

Gauss will present his new book at the Jewish Museum in Vienna on February 20th, starting at 6:30 p.m. On February 27th, he will be at the City Library in his native Salzburg, where the event will begin at 8:00 p.m. in the Panorama Bar.

Bibliography:

Karl-Markus Gauß: “Schuldhafte Unwissenheit. Essays wider Zeitgeist und Judenhass”, Czernin Verlag, 128 pages.

Tree Planted in Vienna to Mark the Jewish New Year

Mein Bezirk, February 13, 2025

German original: https://www.meinbezirk.at/leopoldstadt/c-lokales/baum-anlaesslich-des-juedischen-neujahrs-in-wien-gepflanzt_a7151826

On the occasion of the Jewish New Year of Trees, IKG Vienna President Oskar Deutsch and City Councillor for Social Affairs Peter Hacker (SPÖ) planted a tree in the courtyard of the Maimonides Center in Leopoldstadt.

VIENNA/LEOPOLDSTADT. Thursday, February 13, marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year of Trees, Tu biSchwat. One tradition that is already a fixed part of the program of the Jewish Community (IKG) Vienna on this day is the planting of trees at the Jewish Maimonides Center in Leopoldstadt.

This year, IKG President Oskar Deutsch and City Councillor for Social Affairs Peter Hacker (SPÖ) planted a cherry tree in the courtyard of the senior citizens' center. In honor of the supporter, the tree was named “Peter” after the city councilor himself.

Hacker is pleased about the cooperation between the city and the IKG: “We are proud that the Jewish community is growing and are happy to support it. Also because it is a great part of a colorful city. Just as we imagine life in our city.”

Rootedness of generations

The traditional tree planting has several important meanings in Judaism. The planted cherry tree not only stands for the rootedness of Viennese Jews in the Land of Israel, but also for responsibility towards generations.

Auch Hacker sieht die Baumpflanzung als einen symbolischen Akt, nicht nur im Hinblick auf die Verantwortung und Geschichte der Stadt: "Ich mag auch die Idee, einen Baum zu verpflanzen, der sich verwurzelt und dadurch auch den Standort definiert."

Schönborn Receives Star in Vienna IKG City Temple

ORF, February 12, 2025

German original: https://religion.orf.at/stories/3228848/

On Tuesday evening, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn was honored by the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (IKG) Vienna for his services to Jewish-Christian dialogue with the dedication of a star in the dome of the city temple.

According to a statement, the former Archbishop of Vienna had significantly shaped the exchange between religions for over three decades, said IKG President Oskar Deutsch. In doing so, Schönborn had also drawn attention to the fact that Christianity was based on Jewish roots and that Jesus was a Jew.

Deutsch particularly emphasized Schönborn's reliable support of Jewish interests in public discourse and in politics – a unique connection between the Jewish community and the Christian churches in Europe, as it is practiced in Vienna. “We hold the Cardinal in high regard for his strong commitment to interreligious exchange and for always defending and supporting the Jewish community,” Deutsch continued.

Coming to terms with Christian antisemitism

At the same time, Deutsch pointed out that even after the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, Schönborn “always proved to be a rock-solid friend and warned against antisemitism – no matter what kind – and also actively took initiatives.” In addition, Schönborn, who was invited to a meeting of the Cultural Board on Tuesday as the first cardinal, spoke out against a ban on slaughter, according to Deutsch. He has also done important work in the area of Christian anti-Semitism.

In his acceptance speech, Schönborn said he was deeply moved by the gesture of the IKG: “It is a moving moment for me. It is very extraordinary that I am allowed to stand here, it moves me very much,” said the Cardinal. And also that a star now bears his name in the city temple touches him deeply.

Schönborn: the connection between Judaism and Christianity

In his acceptance speech, he also addressed one of his most important theological concerns: with the Council's declaration “Nostra aetate” (1965), the Roman Catholic Church had made a “Copernican revolution” and finally rejected the old theory of substitution, according to which the Church had taken the place of Israel. In the past, this doctrine had led Christians to intensify anti-Semitic resentment, with devastating consequences.

Today, it is clear in the Catholic Church, as in other Christian churches, that God's covenant with his people Israel – as Paul already emphasized – is irrevocable: “The new covenant is not substitution, that is a very crucial idea for understanding the irrevocability and thus the recognition of Judaism by Christianity”. Deepening this insight theologically and actually overcoming it has been one of his central concerns as a theologian and bishop and will continue to be so. After all, it is the deepest reason for the deep bond between Christians and Jews.

The Israeli Ski Team is Under Police Protection in Saalbach-Hinterglemm

Der Standard, February 9, 2025

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000256337/das-israelische-ski-team-steht-in-saalbach-hinterglemm-unter-polizeischutz

Lukas Zahrer from Saalbach-Hinterglemm

Increased security measures are in place for the association. Barnabás Szőllős talks about the advice from Israel to remove traces that would point to his team.

A little over a year ago, Barnabás Szőllős crashed face-first on the Streif in Kitzbühel so violently that he lost his helmet on impact. The Hungarian-born skier, who races for Israel, suffered multiple facial fractures and severe concussion. The all-rounder recovered over the summer, resumed training in November and got into shape for the Alpine Skiing World Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.

“The first descent was still tough, but today was really fun,” said Szőllős after the second downhill training session on Thursday. A monster program awaits the 26-year-old in Pinzgau: Szőllős plans to start in all races. He withdrew from the super-G on Friday. On Sunday, he will take on the Schneekristall slope in the downhill (11:30 a.m.). In the second week of competition, the team combination with his brother Benjamin is scheduled, with Benjamin competing in the slalom. This will be followed by the qualifying races for the giant slalom and slalom, with the hope of two more races on Friday and Sunday.

Getting used to speed

Szőllős lives in Murau, and he and his brother and sister Noa form a private team. For speed training, he joins other nations. “Physically, I'm fine. I miss speed training to get that speed back into my body. You can't train that off-piste anywhere,” says Szőllős.

He gets his skis from the Vorarlberg-based manufacturer Kästle, and Uvex and Vist provide helmets and ski clothing. Some money comes from Israel to cover travel and accommodation at races. He says he pays the bulk out of his own pocket: “If we perform well at major events, we get a little more money from the association afterwards. To do that, we have to do well.”

Israel lettering removed from team clothing

The war in the Middle East is on Szőllős' mind, and he describes the situation in Israel as “difficult”. The National Olympic Committee advised the team to remove the Israel lettering from the team clothing. For security reasons. “We have to be careful. The racing suits still say Israel, but we should take everything off the clothing. For security reasons, it's better that we are bare,” says Szőllős.

Does he feel unsafe? ‘Not in Austria. Everything is safe there.’ There is a police presence in the Israeli team hotel around the clock. Szőllős: ”They are always at the reception and see who goes in and out.”

The sixth-placed athlete in the 2022 Olympics in the Nordic combined event has big plans for the World Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm. “It's very difficult without training,” he says. “But in Cortina four years ago, I was in the top 30 in everything. That would be very cool.” (Lukas Zahrer, 6.2.2025)

Leokadia Justman: Austria's Anne Frank

ORF, February 4, 2025

German original: https://religion.orf.at/stories/3228630/

The story of the Polish Jewess Leokadia Justman, who survived the Nazi era with the help of Tyrolean resistance fighters, has recently been discovered and documented. Her story is reminiscent of that of Anne Frank.

The discovery of Justman's life story is an important historical testimony. Her escape and rescue from the Nazis in Tyrol was documented by an interdisciplinary research project and can be seen in an exhibition at the Innsbruck Landhaus until October. The exhibition shows historical finds and documents the escape story. This was recently also published in German translation by Tyrolia Verlag under the title “Brechen wir aus!” (Let's escape!).

Justman's story was uncovered by Tyrolean contemporary witness Martin Thaler. Thaler remembered a young woman named Lotte, who his mother hid during the Nazi era. It later turned out that it was Justman, who had fled from the Warsaw ghetto to Tyrol under a false name. Her father, Jakob Justman, was murdered in the Reichenau concentration camp, while she and her friend Marysia were arrested by the Gestapo. Thanks to the help of five Tyrolean police officers and three women in the resistance, they were able to escape and survive.

Interdisciplinary research project

Innsbruck historian Niko Hofinger recognized the significance of the story and began researching it. He was supported by retired detectives Peter Hellensteiner and Toni Walder, who found evidence in police archives supporting the story's authenticity.

Catholic theologian and Jesuit Dominik Markl then initiated an interdisciplinary research project to make the story available to a wider public.

Escape with false papers

Justman was born in 1922 in Lodz (Poland) into a liberal Jewish family. After the Nazi invasion of Poland, her family was expelled to the Warsaw ghetto. In 1942, her mother was deported to Treblinka and murdered. Her father Jacob obtained false papers for his daughter and a number of young people of the same age.

Since the German Reich was experiencing an extreme labor shortage, Poles were welcome anywhere in search of work. Disguised as Polish Christians, they managed to escape to Tyrol by train in March 1943.

Hidden by police officers

In March 1944, she and her friend Marysia were betrayed and arrested. Thanks to the help of Nazi opponents within the police apparatus, they were protected from deportation in the Innsbruck police prison for a long time. The police officers strongly advised them to flee. The opportunity arose when a U.S. bombing raid destroyed the office wing of the prison.

The young women were hidden for weeks in the apartment of police officer Rudolf Moser and Marianne Stocker, who were supporting a local resistance group. When it became unsafe there, police officer Anton Dietz provided them with false identities, so that they could travel on to Lofer disguised as Christian Polish laborers. Justman found accommodation with a family as a maid.

The pastor of St. Martin/Lofer, Josef Wintersteller, and his housekeeper were the only people there to whom Justman revealed her Jewish identity. Wintersteller supported her in all matters and gave her hope for a new life after the war.

First Jewish Wedding in Tyrol after the War

After the war, Justman returned to Innsbruck and became secretary of the Jewish Committee. In Innsbruck, she met Joseph Wisnitzki, a Jewish refugee who had been able to go into hiding as a gardener in Bludenz until the end of the war. The two married in September 1945, the first Jewish wedding in Tyrol after the Nazi reign of terror. The couple later emigrated to the United States, where they started a family.

She had her father's body exhumed and buried at Innsbruck's Westfriedhof Cemetery. And at her instigation, five policemen and two women from Tyrol who had helped her at the risk of their own lives were recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” by the international Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem.

Restoration of the City Temple: Vienna Pays a Third

ORF, January 29, 2025

German original: https://wien.orf.at/stories/3291051/

The city of Vienna is paying a third of the costs incurred in the restoration of the Jewish City Temple in Seitenstettengasse. In total, the project is expected to cost around ten million euros. The federal government could take over another third, with the rest being financed by donations.

Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) and the President of the Jewish Community Vienna, Oskar Deutsch, announced the (planned) distribution of the costs. The City Temple is considered the spiritual center of the Jewish community in Vienna and is the largest synagogue in Austria. It was built in 1826 by Joseph Kornhäusl, who also designed the tower named after him in the center of Vienna, the Theater in Josefstadt and the Husarentempel in Mödling.

One million euros already donated

The restoration work is to begin this fall and should be completed within a year. For Deutsch, the project is also a sign that Jewish culture is to be continued in Vienna. The Jewish Community plans to finance another third of the restoration costs through donations. According to Deutsch, about one million euros have already been raised through fundraising.

Eine Finanzierung eines weiteren Drittels durch den Bund ist noch nicht zugesagt. Allerdings habe man mit allen Parteien diesbezüglich positive Gespräche geführt, so Deutsch. Ausnahme bleibt die FPÖ, mit der die Kultusgemeinde per Beschluss nicht spricht. Der IKG-Präsident nutzte den Auftritt mit Ludwig auch, um abermals vor einer Regierungsbeteiligung der FPÖ zu warnen. „Wir werden politisch auch wieder bessere Zeiten haben“, merkte er aber an.

The Forgotten Jewish Soccer Star from Vienna: Who Was Otto Fischer?

Der Standard, January 16, 2025
German original: https://wwo.derstandard.at/story/3000000252454/der-vergessene-juedische-fussballstar-aus-wien-wer-war-otto-fischer

Author and historian Alexander Juraske has written a biography of the footballer Fischer and the Jew Fischer – and with it a life on the eve of the Holocaust.

Andreas Hagenauer

It almost seems as if Otto Fischer had a hunch. On March 2, 1932, the then 31-year-old wrote in the autograph book of his niece Alice Tichy: “May the cuckoo get you, with thunder and pistols, if you forget who your Uncle Otto is. In memory of your Uncle Otto Fischer.”

Around ten years later, he was already dead. Murdered by the Nazis in the course of mass shootings in the Latvian port city of Liepāja. The memories of the brilliant left winger, the darling of the Vienna crowd, faded, lost in the vastness of football history. As a footballer, Fischer was celebrated during his lifetime, but as a Jew, he was repeatedly the target of anti-Semitism.

The cuckoo

The Viennese historian and author Alexander Juraske asked himself exactly this question: “At an event, contact was made with Fischer's great-nephew Robert Beig. On the one hand, the fact that Fischer was very well known during his active years and has now been almost completely forgotten was exciting for me. He is also the Jewish player with the most international appearances for Austria,” Juraske tells Der Standard.

In his biography Otto 'Schloime' Fischer – A Jewish Football Star from Vienna, Juraske focuses on Fischer the footballer, but also on Fischer the Jew, who was repeatedly subjected to anti-Semitic clichés and hostility. “Anti-Semitism was always there. It had different faces, different forms: a stereotype here, a joke there. But it was always there,” says Juraske. So in his biography of Fischer, he not only tells the story of Fischer's life and the rise of Austrian football, but also puts it all in a social context, that is, the ”tension between Jewish participation and anti-Semitism on the eve of the Holocaust.”

Gasse gegen Gasse

Otto Fischer was born into a Jewish family in Vienna's Favoriten district on January 1, 1901. His parents, Heinrich and Netty Fischer, came from Moravia. Heinrich worked as a representative for a spirits company, while Netty ran the household. Otto was the youngest of four children.

The family's center of life was Buchengasse 44, an apartment building typical of the working-class district. The Fischer family took their Jewish heritage for granted; they practiced Judaism without being orthodox. Holidays were observed, Yiddish was frowned upon. Favoriten was a melting pot even then, with immigrants from Bohemia and Moravia shaping the character of the neighborhood.

After the First World War, football experienced a major boom in Austria, with returning soldiers bringing the sport into the country. Football, previously a middle-class pastime, became a mass phenomenon. The boys of Vienna organized themselves into “wild teams” and played against each other in the streets of the district. Fischer played for Buchengasse, while Matthias Sindelar, who was two years Fischer's junior, represented Quellenstraße, another team from Favoriten.

The clubs were also interested in the wild teams, which were seen as an important source of young talent for Viennese football. Juraske says: “Floridsdorf and Favoriten were the breadbaskets of Viennese football.” At that time, Otto Fischer may have been called “Schloime” by his friends, a nickname that stuck. However, the anti-Semitic Austrian satirical magazine Kikeriki also frequently used the Yiddish variant of “Solomon” to spread anti-Semitic stereotypes.

Star in Vienna

Fischer was known for his speed, technical skills and dribbling abilities. Although he was rather small and slender, he was later to delight audiences as a left winger. At that time, football was dominated by the “Danube football”, a style of play that developed in the interwar period in the football metropolises of Budapest, Prague and Vienna. It was based on the Scottish short-passing game, was shaped by MTK Budapest and, according to Juraske, was more of a “label from outside Austria”. However, it ultimately ensured that Austrian players and coaches were in high demand. Football also became a driver of transnational migration.

As a teenager, Fischer joined the Hertha sports club, the Favoritner club, which was also rooted in the Jewish population: some players and officials were Jews. In 1920, he transferred to the Karlovy Vary FK in Czechoslovakia to play as a professional footballer. After a brief stint with Hagibor Prague, he returned to Vienna in 1922 to join the Vienna team, where he celebrated his greatest successes. “Schloime” was a star. In later photos, Fischer also appeared somewhat melancholy, and the media compared him to Charlie Chaplin. In September 1923, Fischer was called up to the national team by Hugo Meisl for the first time. He played a total of 173 championship games in the top division, scoring 52 goals. He played for Austria seven times. In 1928, he suffered a serious knee injury that ended his career.

A star in Latvia

After retiring from playing, Fischer switched to the coaching bench, initially in Serbia, the Czech Republic and Croatia, before accepting an offer from the Latvian club Olimpija Liepāja in 1936. Latvia was still a safe third country and became one of the last places for Jewish refugees to enter without a visa. With his offensive playing style, he won the Latvian championship in 1936 and 1938. In 1940, the Red Army invaded Latvia. The Nazi occupation of Latvia in 1941 abruptly ended Fischer's life. The master trainer was arrested, and Olimpija club officials tried in vain to intervene with the occupiers. Fischer was murdered in a mass shooting. Like most of his family members, his wife Anna also fell victim to the Nazis.

Only his sister Ernestine and her two children Paul and Alice survived the Holocaust. By remembering Fischer the footballer, but also Fischer the Jew, Juraske paints a picture of the times that shows the rise of football, but also how increasingly difficult life became for the Jewish population. So the cuckoo has nothing to catch. (Andreas Hagenauer, 16.1.2025)

Dialogue: Church Leaders Met With Chief Rabbi

ORF (Austrian Public Broadcasting), January 14, 2025
German original: https://religion.orf.at/stories/3228426/

In the run-up to the Day of Judaism on Friday, January 17, the Bishop of Linz, Manfred Scheuer, invited all diocesan representatives for Jewish-Christian cooperation to a meeting for the first time in order to strengthen the Catholic Church's commitment in this area.

The meeting took place on Monday at the premises of the Coordinating Committee for Christian-Jewish Cooperation in Vienna. The Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Jaron Engelmayer, also took part in the meeting. The pastoral theologian Regina Polak gave a keynote speech. Martin Jäggle, President of the Coordinating Committee, was also present as host.

It was the first meeting of its kind, which served to improve networking and the exchange of experiences throughout Austria. Bishop Scheuer subsequently expressed his gratitude to Kathpress for the exchange, in which the Catholic side was primarily concerned with listening and learning. Such a meeting is also a good opportunity to dispel confusion, said Scheuer.

Bishop concerned about anti-Semitism

Scheuer was concerned about reports that Jews were considering leaving Austria due to increasing anti-Semitism. “It is our concern that Jews feel safe here and that Jewish life is growing,” said the bishop.

On behalf of the Church, the bishop called for sensitive language and practice in relation to Jews in Austria. Bishop Scheuer is responsible for the dialogue with Judaism in the Austrian Bishops' Conference.

For “Judaism-sensitive pastoral care”

Prof. Polak expressed her dismay at the increase of anti-Semitism in Austria, which also exists among Catholics. On the other hand, she strongly encouraged the Christian-Jewish dialogue. In the face of rampant anti-Semitism, Catholics are urged to stand by Jews and Jewish communities in this country.

At the same time, it is important that a “Judaism-sensitive pastoral care” be learned in parishes that does not unintentionally reinforce anti-Jewish stereotypes – for example in the liturgy or in sermons. At the same time, Polak pointed out that such a dialogue is a source of joy, establishes new friendships and deepens one's own faith.

Late restitution of three paintings to the heirs of Max Oppenheimer

Der Standard (Olga Kronsteiner), November 12, 2024

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000244587/spaete-restitution-dreier-gemaelde-an-die-erben-nach-max-oppenheimer

The return from the Vienna Museum (Wien-Museum) has now become public in the run-up to the auction at Dorotheum. The case had been known for decades

Head slightly tilted, one eye squinted, brush in one hand, palette in the other, Max Oppenheimer remains in a concentrated pose: a small table with painting utensils just squeezes between his spread legs and the easel. It is an impressive self-portrait that, like two other portraits painted by the artist, will be auctioned at Dorotheum on November 19.

What does the trio have in common? It was most recently housed in the Vienna Museum and was restituted this year “to the legal successors of Max Oppenheimer”, as has now been announced in the run-up to the auction. Official communication on this process would not take place until 2025, specifically via the restitution report submitted to the municipal council for a vote.

Unlike at federal level, where the Art Restitution Advisory Board publishes its resolutions promptly after the meetings of the Advisory Board, the City of Vienna publishes information once a year in the fall and thus after the reporting period of the previous year.

Restorer in the service of the Gestapo

As DER STANDARD found out from the office of the responsible city councillor Veronica Kaup-Hasler, the recommendation for restitution was made by the Vienna Restitution Commission in March on the basis of a detailed dossier from February. Late, but still, because the relevant coordinates of the case had been known for decades. The main protagonist was a certain Julius Fargel, a painting restorer who had joined the NSDAP in 1932 and was employed by the Vienna Municipal Collections from July 1939. He also worked as a master appraiser for the Dorotheum and the Gestapo. The Municipal Collections benefited enormously from his function for the Gestapo's administration office for Jewish removal goods (Vugesta) in particular: Fargel's low valuations enabled him to make favorable acquisitions, while he donated other objects, more than 200 in total.

In 2003, the Vienna Museum published a list on its website of those objects whose owners were not known beyond doubt at the time of the Nazi takeover in March 1938 and asked for any useful information. In the course of this, a decision was also made in principle that all objects that had come into the collection via Fargel should be restituted. The identification of the former owners and the search for their legal successors is still ongoing in some cases.

Plundered from Mopp's apartment

Marie-Agnes von Puttkamer published the circumstances surrounding Max Oppenheimer's deprivation in 1999 in the catalog raisonné of his paintings. When Mopp, as he renamed himself to match his signature in his later exile, “saw the Viennese police wearing swastika armbands when he looked out of the window of his studio in the Hofburg two days before the Anschluss, he understood immediately” - he took only his Amati violin, his passport and other small items and took the next train to Zurich.

His apartment in Neulinggasse with its French antiques and first editions of Mozart and Beethoven was looted, including all the paintings, drawings and prints that were not in his studio in the Hofburg. Mopp emigrated to the USA via Switzerland and arrived in New York in January 1939. In February, the restituted paintings were donated by Fargel to the municipal collections.

After the end of the Second World War, a few works stolen from Mopp's apartment turned up here and there in Vienna. With the help of his brother, he endeavored to recover them, but to no avail. A claim for the return of the three paintings in the municipal collections was never recorded. Presumably because he was more interested in selling the monumental painting The Philharmonic to a museum in his home town: begun in 1934, the triptych had accompanied him into exile in America; the three wooden panels on which the canvas had been mounted weighed 600 kg.

Charitable organizations as heirs

His wish was not to be fulfilled during his lifetime. It was not until months after his death in May 1954 that the responsible Federal Ministry decided to purchase it for the Federal Artotheque for 52,000 schillings. It has been on permanent loan to the Belvedere since 1979, mostly in the depot; the last time visitors were able to catch a glimpse of the imposing painting was in the summer of 2023 (exhibition Kolossal).

The unsigned self-portrait only made sporadic appearances: in 1994 as part of a solo exhibition at the Jewish Museum Vienna, from March 2019 to July 2022 as a loan to the Leopold Museum and most recently, until it was handed over to the Dorotheum in August, in the Vienna Museum's new exhibition.

The estimated value is between 160,000 and 220,000 euros, while the portraits of the Swiss publisher Martin Hürlimann and the sculptor and graphic artist Moissey Kogan are expected to fetch up to 30,000 euros each. The proceeds will benefit the general public in some way, as the legal successors are two Austrian charitable organizations that do not wish to be named. (Olga Kronsteiner, 11/12/2024)

Edtstadler Regrets Increasing Polarization Due to Protests Against Rosenkranz

Der Standard (Max Stepan), November 11, 2024

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000244339/edtstadler-bedauert-zunehmende-polarisierung-wegen-protests-gegen-rosenkranz

Measures to protect Jews are to be evaluated in the Forum against Anti-Semitism. Thirty-eight of 41 measures from the National Strategy have already been implemented.

Vienna - Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) wants to devote herself to the fight against anti-Semitism in the final phase of her term of office - she no longer wants to be part of a new government. On Monday, the National Forum against Anti-Semitism (NFA) met for the first time as part of the National Strategy against Anti-Semitism in 2022.

The forum consists of representatives from the federal government, the federal states and civil society institutions, among others. Its purpose is to discuss current developments and projects. According to Edtstadler, the “worrying developments in Europe” will also be a topic. On Thursday evening, for example, there were violent riots against Israeli fans in Amsterdam after the soccer match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The NFA also discussed the evaluation of the National Strategy against Anti-Semitism, which was presented in 2021. A total of 41 measures were set out in the strategy, 38 of which have already been implemented, according to Edtstadler. These include an amendment to the Prohibition Act and a law against hate speech online.

A documentation center for the prevention and combating of anti-Semitism is still being worked on, as are teacher training and continuing education programs for teachers in this area, and the supplementation and strengthening of basic training courses for the general administrative service and the executive service.

Protest against Rosenkranz

The topic of the forum will probably also be the action against the President of the National Council, Walter Rosenkranz (FPÖ), which took place at the weekend: the Jewish Students' Union prevented a wreath-laying ceremony and commemoration of the FPÖ politician at the Shoah Wall of Names. In general, a number of Jewish representatives are critical of the new President of the National Council because of Rosenkranz's membership of a fraternity.

In any case, the protest is legitimate, “it is always necessary that freedom of expression against persons or parties may be expressed,” said Edtstadler on Monday. However, it is a shame that “there is only black and white and no more shades of gray and that we live in such a polarized society. It is time that we stood together again as a society,” said Edtstadler.

The president of the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG), Oskar Deutsch, was even more outspoken: “The decision of the Jewish Students' Union must be accepted. It is simply not possible to be a member of a fraternity and participate in this commemoration in a way that attracts media attention.”

Third meeting already

The NFA met for the third time. Last year, the forum agreed, for example, to increase the visible presence of security forces around Jewish institutions. On Monday, extremism expert Ahmad Mansour, among others, spoke at the NFA. Edtstadler hopes that the initiatives against anti-Semitism will continue even after her time in government. (Max Stepan, 11/11/2024)

History of the Gusen concentration camp reappraised

orf.at (Hanna Ronzheimer), November 9, 2024

German original: https://science.orf.at/stories/3227507/

More people died in the Gusen concentration camp, the former sub-camp of Mauthausen, than in Mauthausen during the Nazi era. However, the camp quickly fell into oblivion. Now the memorial site is being redesigned. In a new publication, the history of the concentration camp has been comprehensively reappraised for the first time - including new facts and figures.

The Gusen concentration camp in the Upper Austrian municipality of Langenstein consisted of three camps, which were operated as a branch of the Mauthausen concentration camp. The prisoners had to build them themselves from December 1939. The prisoners were mainly political prisoners from Poland, Italy and Spain. They were forced to work in the quarry and for the armaments industry and had to dig tunnel systems in the mountain.

Thousands of people died here as a result of forced labor and murder; the book mentions 32,000 known victims for the first time. What happened here was quickly forgotten in Austria after the war because most of the buildings were demolished and residential buildings were built on the site.

In the countries of the victims' families, on the other hand, the history of the Gusen concentration camp has been dealt with intensively for a long time, explains Gregor Holzinger, head of the research center of the Mauthausen Memorial and co-editor of the book: “Gusen is very well known, especially in Poland, much better known than Mauthausen. It wasn't like that here. For example, I never learned anything about Gusen at school, only about Mauthausen.”

New information center on site

But that is currently changing. There has been a small memorial on site since 2005, but in the next few years much more is to happen here in terms of remembrance and coming to terms with the past. An information center was opened in Gusen itself this week, where visitors can find out about the redesign of the memorial site.

Various research projects are running in parallel with the preparations. New findings and original documents are presented in the book. These include, for example, the documentation of “shootings on the run”.

According to the new surveys, 1,498 prisoners were shot “on the run” in Gusen between 1938 and 1945. These were mostly disguised and targeted murders by the SS. “Afterwards, however, everything was done bureaucratically to conceal these murders,” explains Gregor Holzinger. “In principle, it was just a psychological aid for the perpetrators, for the shooters, to show them: You did everything right, you can keep doing it like this,” Holzinger continues.

Reappraisal from perpetrator families

Photographic material from the perpetrators is also new. Previously, there were only photos taken by the Allies or Nazi propaganda material. Now the third generation from the perpetrator families is contributing more and more photographic material from private albums to the reappraisal.

For Gregor Holzinger, this is an important new source for coming to terms with history. The private photo albums make it clear how close the relationships between the relatives and the local population were. “We have some photos that show the soldiers out and about in private with women from the local population. They drank together in the pub, there were engagements and weddings.”

The integration of the soldiers into the everyday life of the population probably also contributed to the fact that it was only in the 2000s that a decision was made to come to terms with the past. Now - late, but nevertheless - an intensive start has been made.

(Hanna Ronzheimer, ORF Knowledge, 11/9/2024)

IKG President Deutsch: “We want nothing to do with FPÖ politicians”

Die Presse, November 8, 2024

German-Original: https://www.diepresse.com/19046208/ikg-praesident-deutsch-wir-wollen-mit-politikern-der-fpoe-nichts-zu-tun-haben

The Jewish Community commemorated the victims of the November pogroms with representatives of top politics; National Council President Rosenkranz was not invited. “What Mr. Rosenkranz does in front of the cameras is one thing, and what he then does in the cellar is another,” says IKG President Deutsch.

Today, Friday, the Jewish Community (IKG), together with representatives of the government and the National Council, commemorated the victims of the November progroms at the Shoah Wall of Names in Ostarrichipark. FPÖ politicians were not invited, the Freedom Party President of the National Council, Walter Rosenkranz, wanted to lay a wreath at the memorial on Judenplatz. However, he was prevented from doing so by Jewish demonstrators.

The Kultusrat had unanimously decided on a “cordon sanitaire” against the FPÖ and explicitly against Walter Rosenkranz, explained IKG President Oskar Deutsch to “Ö1” before the memorial event. This is nothing new: “We want nothing to do with FPÖ politicians.”

Deutsch: “Then I can no longer be there in future”

Rosenkranz is a member of a German nationalist fraternity, emphasized Deutsch. He commented on the separate commemoration: “We are remembering the victims. What Mr. Rosenkranz does in front of the cameras is one thing, and what he then does in the cellar is a second thing.”

The office of President of the National Council is also linked to the management of the National Fund and the Cemetery Fund as well as the awarding of the Simon Wiesentals Prize. Deutsch explained that he would no longer be able to be there in future if Rosenkranz was in charge. (kron)

Cityguide App: Take a Walk Through Jewish Vienna with “Ivie”

Kurier, October 24, 2024

German original: https://kurier.at/chronik/oesterreich/cityguide-app-ivie-wientourismus-juedische-wien/402961092

The Vienna Tourist Board's app offers a new city walk to 13 significant sites of Jewish Vienna.

On October 12, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and the highest holiday in the Jewish calendar year, falls on a Thursday this year. The Vienna Tourist Board is taking advantage of this to present an extension of its city guide app “Ivie”: the new city walk is dedicated to Jewish Vienna.

The app guides visitors to 13 places of great importance to Jewish Vienna, including the Jewish Museum, the Sigmund Freud Museum, the Jewish-influenced Carmelite Quarter, and the oldest Jewish cemetery in Austria, located in Vienna's Rossau district. You will be taken to the museum at Judenplatz, the Arnold Schönberg Center, the Jewish City Temple and the Shoah Wall of Names, Vienna's newest and largest Holocaust memorial.

The route also leads to Theodor Herzl's first resting place in the Döbling Cemetery – and Ivie also explains why the father of the State of Israel is no longer buried there.

Part of Vienna's identity

“Vienna is a cosmopolitan city that offers space for all cultures and religions. Jewish life is an essential part of Vienna's identity and an enrichment for the city. In the new 'Jewish Vienna Guide', the Vienna Tourist Board makes this diversity fully accessible to visitors and residents alike,” says Vienna Tourist Board Director Norbert Kettner, welcoming the new Ivie launch.

Without its Jewish residents, the history of Vienna would be unthinkable, says Barbara Staudinger, director of the Jewish Museum Vienna: “Traces of what was once the third largest Jewish community in Europe can be found everywhere: from the Ringstrasse to the municipal housing, from the 1st district to Floridsdorf. There are well-known and lesser-known places to discover in the city that not only tell the story of the four Jewish communities, but also, and above all, the diversity of Jewish cultures in the city of Vienna.”

The new walk complements the existing Ivie offering, which already includes more than 20 walks and tours. The topics are wide-ranging: from Freud to Beethoven, from Sisi to the city's LGBTIQ+ highlights.

“I was very rebellious”: Doctor and contemporary witness Helga Feldner-Busztin passes away

Die Presse, October 22, 2024

German original: https://www.diepresse.com/18994187/ich-war-sehr-aufmuepfig-aerztin-und-zeitzeugin-helga-feldner-busztin-verstorben

Helga Feldner-Busztin survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp. She later practiced as an internist in Vienna and began talking about her memories of the Nazi era in the 1990s. She lived to the age of 95.

The contemporary witness and Holocaust survivor Helga Feldner-Busztin has died at the age of 95. She was born in Vienna in 1929 and was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943 as a so-called Jewish mongrel, where she remained until liberation. She campaigned against forgetting as a contemporary witness into old age and was awarded the Ute Bock Prize for Civil Courage in 2018.

"Then came the terrible star, you were really, really outcast. And that was a role that was very difficult for a rather rebellious twelve or 13-year-old to find her way into. Because I was very rebellious,” Helga Feldner-Busztin later reported on the fall of 1941, when Jews in Vienna had to wear a yellow star cut out of cloth by employees of the Vienna Jewish Community.

“I was walking along the (Franz-Josefs) quay with the star, and suddenly a woman came and gave me a slap and said, 'You Jewish Pig!' For nothing. Well, I was suitably shocked, wasn't I? But later, by chance, at a similar place, also on the quay, another woman came up and put a bag of fruit in my hand and said: 'You poor child!”

Helga Feldner-Busztin was born Helga Pollak in Vienna in 1929 into a largely Jewish family. Her mother, a Jew who had been baptized a Protestant as a child, officially converted to Judaism in 1931. In 1943, Feldner-Busztin, her mother and her sister Elisabeth, later Scheiderbauer, were imprisoned in Theresienstadt concentration camp. First by chance, then through the actions of her mother, she escaped deportation to an extermination camp, according to the memorial project “Weitererzählen”. (tes)

An Elephant in the Room

Wina (Alexia Weiss), October 2024

German original: https://www.wina-magazin.at/ein-elefant-im-raum/

The amendment to the National Fund Act adopted this year stipulates, among other things, that the fund, which was established in 1995, hold an annual conference. On Tuesday, the fund invited guests to the first such symposium on the topic of “Remembrance and Responsibility” in parliament. However, the outcome of the parliamentary elections in September, in which the FPÖ came first, hung over the review of the work of the National Fund and the outlook for remembrance work and the fight against anti-Semitism in the future.

“There is an elephant in the room,” said Andreas Kranebitter, managing scientific director of the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW). In nine days, the new President of the National Council is to be elected from the ranks of the FPÖ MPs. ‘He will also be the Chairman of the National Fund,’ said Kranebitter, before making another eye-catching comment: ”I will no longer be sitting here.”

This is not a reaction of defiance to an election result, but to act as if one were fighting anti-Semitism together with people who speak of “globalists” is “not on”. Taking responsibility here also means “standing up against some practices”, he said in the direction of politics.

What he meant by that, not wanting to sit here anymore, WINA Kranebitter asked after the conference. He emphasized that they would not withdraw from committee work, as this would be counterproductive. However, he would definitely not participate in public appearances such as the annual conference of the National Fund or the presentation of the Simon Wiesenthal Prize. The DÖW would not lend itself to such things. And it was important to him to make this clear publicly and in a setting such as this conference.

IKG President Oskar Deutsch also had strong words on the matter: “It is unacceptable that the second-highest-ranking person in the country is a member of a right-wing extremist party. It cannot be. If we know what the President of the National Council has to do, such as chairing the National Fund and the Cemeteries Fund, he is also responsible for the Simon Wiesenthal Prize and much more, then this is a mockery of the victims, those who are still alive and those who have already passed away.” There is no law that requires the party with the highest number of votes to provide the President of the National Council. So there are alternatives. And the election of the National Council presidency is by secret ballot. He therefore called on the MPs to “make the right decision” next week.

A second current topic of this afternoon's conference: the massive increase in anti-Semitism worldwide and also in Austria following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. “All the efforts of the past years, all the remembrance work seemed to be bearing fruit,” emphasized Hannah Lessing, Chair of the National Fund. For a long time, it was therefore justifiably assumed that people learn from history. And yet the situation is now as it is. What can and must be done in the future?

“We have to get out of our bubble,” said Barbara Glück, Director of the Mauthausen Memorial and a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Fund. And: ‘If we stand still, we have lost.’ Perhaps the memorial sites have sometimes taken the easy way out. ‘We sat in our places and waited for people to come to us.’ But it is also important to go out. Speaking of social media: the Mauthausen Memorial is now also represented on TikTok. 300,000 people visit the memorial each year. “With just one video, we can reach three times as many people.”

The IKG President once again emphasized that the last government in particular “did an enormous amount in the fight against anti-Semitism”. “On the other hand, anti-Semitism is not only overtaking us, but, to use an athletic analogy, it is lapping us.” He emphasized that it is the responsibility of all of civil society to take a stand against it - whether in a restaurant, on the soccer field or on the streetcar.

Earlier in the day, outgoing National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka emphasized that while it would be wrong to pretend that anti-Semitism could be permanently eradicated, we must do everything we can to put it in its place. And the fight against anti-Semitism is not the responsibility of the Jewish community, “that is our responsibility”. Reply from Deutsch: He does see it as the responsibility of a Jewish community to fight anti-Semitism, “but not on the front line”.

In any case, remembrance culture also means active engagement in the present, according to Sobotka. For too long, the focus in this fight has been placed only on racially motivated right-wing national anti-Semitism. This had attempted to give anti-Semitism a scientific foundation with eugenics. However, something similar is currently happening from the left: here, too, attempts are being made to create such a foundation, with the apartheid state of Israel and post-colonialism as buzzwords. In addition, there is anti-Semitism among immigrants and in the arts pages.

Like Sobotka and Deutsch, Kranebitter emphasized that the entire society and thus all institutions and organizations are responsible for the fight against antisemitism. “Combating antisemitism is a task for society as a whole, not just for the politics of memory.” Explaining the increase in hostility towards Jews with the failure of institutions such as the DÖW or the memorial sites is “a mantle we do not need to be draped in”.

Mauer Wants to Rescue Nazi Victims from Oblivion

ORF, October 6, 2024

German original: https://noe.orf.at/stories/3275827/

The Nazi crimes in the “Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Mauer-Öhling are to be reappraised. The cemetery and a burial ground were examined for the first time. A complete reappraisal is no longer possible, because parts of the cemetery were built on into the 2000s.

The continuous noise of cars booms over the cemetery wall from the adjacent road. The B121 had a greater impact on the cemetery than noise. A little over 20 years ago, the two-lane road in Mauer (Amstetten district) was widened to four lanes, and the cemetery wall was moved inwards into the cemetery area for this purpose. Anyone driving on the B121 drives over graves from the Nazi era.

“One of the unanswered questions is how many graves really disappeared under the asphalt. At least 80 graves along the road were abandoned, 40 of them were occupied by Nazi euthanasia victims,” says Philipp Mettauer, a historian at the Institute for Jewish History. He is scientifically accompanying the project.

The so-called Mauer-Öhling sanatorium and nursing home was one of the largest in the Ostmark. 2,400 people died here or were sent to Hartheim and Gugging for planned killing. They were psychiatric patients, forced laborers, resettlers and prisoners of war. The real extent only became known in 2019 through a research project.

Cemetery: When the cemetery was overcrowded

Almost 80 years after the end of the war, the process of coming to terms with the past is now beginning. The cemetery and a burial ground were surveyed using geomagnetics and ground-penetrating radar, because it is not known exactly where the graves are located. Most of the cemetery resembles a meadow. “The coffins are lined up one after the other. It was very densely packed here,” says archaeologist Volker Lindinger, who carried out the measurements, glancing at the ground-penetrating radar screen.

Almost nothing is known about the burial ground, right next to the cemetery. The way it was treated can be categorized into the decades in which the victim theory applied in Austria. The field was the scene of a final phase crime. Three weeks before the end of the war, 200 people were buried there, killed by doctors and nurses, by overdoses, injections and a converted electric shock device.

The cemetery, with space for 1,000, was already double occupied. Pits were dug in the adjacent field, 200 dead in mass graves. It is unclear who they were. Then they literally let grass grow over it, planted a forest. “We know the least about this, there is only one photo,” says historian Mettauer. The field was also reduced in size by the B121 road expansion.

The mystery of the wall's relocation

There was also the option of examining the narrow green strip between the B121 and the cemetery wall – the area that was used as a cemetery until 2001. However, this is not going to happen: “There are likely to be graves outside the cemetery. We can't measure there for safety reasons because cars pass by at high speed. I don't subject my employees to that,” explains archaeologist Lindinger. One or more lanes would have to be temporarily closed for this.

These measurements could provide insights into how far the wall was really moved back in the early 2000s. The Federal Monuments Office approved four meters. In the files of the road construction department, the meters vary and the plans are also different: “There are different sources: at least five meters, some say seven, it could also be nine,” says historian Philipp Mettauer.

Unterführung statt jüdischem Friedhof

In den Aufzeichnungen der Friedhofsverwaltung ist lediglich von zwei Gräbern, einem Schädel und einer Hand voll Knochen die Rede, die beim Straßenausbau gefunden worden seien. Das sei angesichts der Dokumente, Bilder und Daten „unrealistisch“, so Mettauer.

So ein großer Umbau war am Friedhof Mauer jedenfalls nichts Neues: In den 1960er-Jahren wurde der jüdische Teil am Friedhof verkleinert, weil eine Unterführung für Fußgänger und Radfahrer gebaut wurde. „Das ist vollkommen in Vergessenheit geraten“, sagt Mettauer, „wie viele Gräber dabei zum Opfer gefallen sind, wissen wir noch nicht“.

Dabei ist Österreich im Staatsvertrag zur Kriegsgräberfürsorge verpflichtet: „Die NS-Euthanasieopfer sind Kriegsopfer. Da hat die Republik Österreich die Verantwortung übernommen, die Gräber auf ewig zu erhalten und zu pflegen.“

In Mauer, there was a longer silence

The Institute for Jewish History has been working for some time on a scientific reappraisal. The project was given momentum by the 2026 state exhibition, which is taking place at the state hospital in Mauer. The situation in the region was “special” for decades: “If we compare it with Vienna, with Spiegelgrund or Steinhof, it only became an issue in the 1990s. Here in Mauer-Öhling, in Amstetten, it was a taboo for another ten, twenty years longer,” says Mettauer.

Considering the extent of the crimes, this is astonishing: ‘It was only in 2010 that the medical records were put into the archive. For so long, the lid was kept on it and the blanket of silence was thick.’ The files were not complete; some of them had previously been deemed not worthy of archiving and thrown away.

But generational change has brought a change of attitude, Mettauer reports. The children and grandchildren of the third and fourth generations are actively researching their family history and scrutinizing the working lives of their forebears as orderlies or doctors in Mauer. The taboo has been broken.

New Stones of Remembrance in Front of the Uniqua Headquarters

Mein Bezirk, October 4, 2024

German original: https://www.meinbezirk.at/leopoldstadt/c-lokales/neue-steine-der-erinnerung-vor-der-uniqua-zentrale_a6933119

Four “Stones of Remembrance” and a memorial plaque were unveiled in front of the Uniqua headquarters in Leopoldstadt, commemorating the fate of 56 Jewish victims of Nazism. The initiative is part of the “Path of Remembrance” in the 2nd district and is supported by Uniqua to promote historical reappraisal at the location.

VIENNA/LEOPOLDSTADT. Four new “Stones of Remembrance” were unveiled in front of the Uniqa headquarters. These are part of the “Path of Remembrance”, a project of the “Stones of Remembrance” association, which commemorates the fate of Jewish victims of National Socialism.

In the presence of Roswitha Hammer and Daliah Hindler, representatives of the association, and René Knapp, member of the management board of the Uniqa Group, a memorial plaque was also attached to the building at Untere Donaustraße 27.

Coming to terms with history

Both new memorials draw attention to the fate of the 56 Jewish people who once lived at Untere Donaustraße 23, 25 and 27 and were deported from there to Nazi extermination camps.

UNIQA is supporting the campaign as part of its long-term efforts to come to terms with the history of its location. “In addition to the ‘Namensturm’, which has been lit since 2018 and commemorates the anniversary of the so-called ‘Reichspogromnacht’, supporting this project is also an expression of how we see ourselves as an international company that is opposed to any form of exclusion, racism and violence,” explained René Knapp at the opening.

The accompanying historical-biographical research was carried out by Albena Zlatanova and Wolfgang Gasser, historians at the “National Fund of the Republic of Austria for the Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism” under the direction of Hannah Lessing.

Concentration Camp Survivor Daniel Chanoch Has Passed Away

ORF, September 20, 2024

German original: https://ooe.orf.at/stories/3275300/Daniel Chanoch, who was born in Lithuania and survived six Nazi concentration camps, has passed away at the age of 92. Chanoch had expressed the wish to see a memorial erected at the site of the former Gunskirchen subcamp in Upper Austria, the Mauthausen Committee reported in a press release on Tuesday.

Chanoch was also deported by the Nazis to the concentration camps in Dachau, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Mauthausen. He described Gunskirchen as “hell on earth” and persistently campaigned for the establishment of a memorial.

“We will do everything in our power to fulfill Daniel Chanoch's wish for a memorial in Gunskirchen. Our thoughts are with his family in these difficult hours,” said Willi Mernyi, chairman of the Austrian Mauthausen Committee, in a statement.

Exhibition: The Shoah Will Not Let Go of Families

ORF, September 17, 2024

German original: https://religion.orf.at/stories/3226649

Family secrets, obsessive preoccupation and silence: the trauma of the Shoah continues to affect the children and grandchildren of those who suffered a severe trauma. The exhibition “The Third Generation. The Holocaust in Family Memory” at the Jewish Museum Vienna sheds light on this continued impact in the families of survivors.

Curated by Gabriele Kohlbauer-Fritz and Sabine Apostolo, the exhibition takes a very personal approach to this sensitive topic: artworks, videos and everyday objects reflect the very personal way in which the horror of the Shoah is dealt with. Survivors were often unable to talk about what they had experienced, let alone come to terms with it – all the more burdening was its manifestation in families, explained Kohlbauer-Fritz in an interview with religion.ORF.at.

The grandchildren are often the decisive factor in survivors' engagement with the past, which often comes late; what could not be said to the children and what was always palpable for them, but not visible, can finally come to light in the more unbiased interaction with the third generation. The exhibition reflects the unspoken in families, which cannot be grasped, with transparent “flags” draped behind the objects: images and texts can be vaguely seen but not read.

Lullabies about Auschwitz

The “Trauma Room” is dedicated to the seepage of horror into childhood, where you can listen to lullabies in Yiddish and Romani that have Auschwitz as their theme. “Inherited traumas were heavily investigated by psychoanalysts who belonged to the second generation,“ says Kohlbauer-Fritz. The repressed is depicted in the eerily colorful ‘Kindertapete’ (Children's Wallpaper) by artist Jonathan Rotsztain (”Patterns,” 2019) in the form of nightmarish images: persecution and fear as a legacy, inherited trauma as a child's everyday life.

The fact that in many families there was and is one person who was and is “responsible” for remembrance, so that others did not have to deal with it, is the subject of the impressive sculpture “Witch” (1995) by Dwora Morag, who saw herself in this role and cast her face in a huge “memorial candle”. Dan Glaubach's “Re – vision” (1996) impressively demonstrates the depth of trauma experienced by survivors. What is probably a snowy landscape with vineyards for most people was interpreted by Holocaust victims as concentration camp roll calls.

What is the grandchild generation allowed to do?

The Israeli-German documentary film “The Apartment” (2011) tells the story of the enigmatic friendship between a Zionist family and a high-ranking Nazi, which continued even after the war and was apparently supposed to be kept secret from the children and grandchildren. Among other things, this raises the question of the responsibility of the third generation in their role as “enlighteners”, says curator Apostolo: “Are they allowed to do everything?” The desire to “find out everything” often collided with the older family members' need to forget.

Simple objects – a sewing box, a Jewish prayer shawl (tallit), a summer dress – were loaned to the museum, many of them from the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG); they come from the USA, Canada and several European countries and are representative of the passing on of (family) history.

The history of Burgenland's Jews also extends to the present day, with many of them deported by the Nazis. The town of Mattersdorf was recreated in Israel as “Kirjat Mattersdorf,” as evidenced by a street sign in Hebrew, Arabic and German.

Remembrance in film and pop culture

Memories have to be recreated in a project that uses the recesses in old door frames to make new mezuzahs, small script capsules that devout Jews attach to the front door. The exhibition also juxtaposes these with elements of memory in popular culture, including the results of the “memory journey” of the successful novel “Everything is illuminated” (2022) by Jonathan Safran Foer and more recent drawings inspired by Art Spiegelman's famous Holocaust comic “Maus”.

Exhibition note

“The Third Generation. The Holocaust in Family Memory”, Jewish Museum Vienna, Dorotheergasse 11, 1010 Vienna, from September 18

Christian Boltanski's photo installation “Le Lycee Chases en 1931” (1987) shows the (deliberately) blurred photos of pupils at a Jewish school, further distorted by the yellow light of numerous spotlights – a symbol of the disappearance of their identities. Juxtaposed with the artwork is a later examination of it, a project that sought to identify and locate the people depicted – very successfully, according to curator Apostolo: people in the pictures were recognized by their descendants.

A little humor

Among the many sad and harrowing exhibits, there is also a little humor. An excerpt from the cabaret “3rd Generation Cabaret” can be seen in the exhibition; the program will then be performed at the Theater Nestroyhof Hamakom.

The self-portraits by Canadian photographer Rafael Goldchain, “I Am My Family” (1990-2008), are also amazingly funny. In them, Goldchain poses as his own “relatives” in various disguises – male and female, with beards or wigs, dead or still alive, some invented.

The re-traumatization of October 7

The final section, “The Third Generation: The Holocaust in Family Memory,” deals with the massacre of October 7, 2023. The stories of Jews and non-Jews who were murdered, abducted, and tortured, or who hid among corpses to survive, led to a collective re-traumatization.

The room dedicated to this event deals with the shock, anger and despair that followed, as well as the resurgence of anti-Semitism worldwide, but also with the question of the loss of empathy with others – also and especially in war.

Johanna Grillmayer, religion.ORF.at

Exhibition: Shoah Does Not Let Families Go

ORF (Austrian Broadcasting, September 12, 2024

German original: Der Wiener Stadttempel soll nach 36 Jahren umfassend saniert werden - Inland - derStandard.at › Inland

The largest and oldest active synagogue in Austria was the only one not to be completely burned down in 1938 nt, the listed building complex will be 200 years old in 2026.

The Vienna City Temple of the Jewish Community (IKG) in Seitenstettengasse is not only the largest synagogue in Austria, it is also the oldest that is still active. Only the Seitenstetten Temple was not completely burnt down by the Nazis during the pogrom night in November 1938. This also had to do with its location in the narrow city center.

"Come to its gates with thanksgiving, to its courts with praise!" is written in Hebrew above the street-side entrance. The synagogue is not only the spiritual center of the Jews, around 800 of whom come to services on the high holidays, it is also visited by around 12,000 people a year as part of guided tours, including many schoolchildren.

Local inspection

On Thursday morning, a brief site inspection took place with IKG President Oskar Deutsch, IKG Secretary General Benjamin Nägele, Chief Rabbi Jaron Engelmayer and architect Eric-Emanuel Tschaikner (KENH Architekten ZT GmbH). They told the media representatives about the comprehensive plans for the city temple and the community center in Seitenstettengasse.

The listed building complex, which was opened in 1826, was designed by Austrian architect Joseph Kornhäusel in the neoclassical style. Rather inconspicuous on the outside, as prescribed by the laws for non-Catholic sacred buildings at the time, the city temple only reveals its full beauty when you enter it. Guests are particularly impressed by the sky-blue dome with 600 stars.

However, it has been 36 years since the last renovation. In the fall of 2025, after the major holidays (Rosh ha-Shanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, as well as Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles), extensive work will therefore begin and be completed as planned in the fall of 2026 - before the holidays. The renovation of the community center will then begin in 2026. In the same year, the ICG will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the temple.

A lot has been planned for this time: including the restoration of the street-side and listed windows, the renovation of the façade of the ensemble, an improved fire protection concept including necessary conversion work, the renewal of the entrance situation and the foyer, the activation of a second staircase, the redesign of the foyer and the adaptation of security precautions. The Seitenstetten Temple was the scene of terrorist attacks in 1979, 1981 and 2020.

Barrier-free places

Furthermore, the sanitary facilities are to be renovated and made partially barrier-free, floors and furniture need to be repaired or replaced, and the lighting, building services, ventilation, acoustics and heating are to be renewed and made energy-efficient. The prayer pulpit is also to be adapted, prayer benches replaced and additional barrier-free spaces created.

This will cost around 9.8 million euros, with the IKG inviting the whole of Austria to contribute to the financing through donations. "Today I am proud to be able to say: The City Temple, like Judaism itself, belongs to Austria," said IKG President Oskar Deutsch on Thursday, "it is a symbol of our republic and therefore affects us all. The City Temple and the community center stand for a lively Jewish presence."

Deutsch invites "the entire population to get involved" and support the project: "Every donation helps us. In doing so, you are sending a signal for an open, democratic and diverse Austria." Incidentally, for donations of 2500 euros or more, one of the stars in the dome will be dedicated to the donor.