Pogrom memorial
The pogrom memorial is located in the center of Innsbruck , on Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz , and commemorates the November pogroms of 1938 , during which Innsbruck citizens Josef Adler , Wilhelm Bauer , Richard Berger and Richard Graubart were murdered. The monument was erected in 1997.
November pogrom in Innsbruck
After the assassination attempt on the German Legation Councilor Ernst vom Rath in Paris, perpetrated by Herschel Grynszpan , Hitler and Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels met on November 9, 1938 at a camaraderie in the old town hall of Munich . Then Hitler left the hall and Goebbels gave a speech in which he made the death of von Rath public. The “hateful, anti-Semitic speech” culminated in “the appeal for revenge and retribution”. The Gauleiter and SA leaders present thereupon issued orders throughout the Third Reich to destroy Jewish shops, set fire to synagogues and confiscate valuables. Police intervention was prohibited.
The Tyrolean Gauleiter Franz Hofer gave the order that same night at one o'clock in the morning that “the boiling folk soul must rise up against the Jews”. The murders began two hours later. The SS leaders selected as Innsbruck victims:
- Josef Adler , chief building officer of the Federal Railway, leading exponent of the Zionist movement and member of the cultural council
- Wilhelm Bauer , co-owner of a manufactured goods store,
- Richard Berger , co-founder of the Zionist local group Innsbruck and chairman of the religious community
- Richard Graubart , co-owner of the Graubart shoe store on Museumstrasse.
The use of firearms was prohibited. Adler, who suffered from a brain disease, was so badly injured by blows to the head that he died of the consequences two months later. His wife also suffered a concussion. Berger was killed with a stone on the banks of the Inn and then thrown into the river. Bauer was killed by the National Socialists with pistol blows and knife wounds, after which they tore the telephone cables from the wall and locked the entrance door from the outside so that the woman could not get help. Greebeard was murdered by stabbing in the back.
19 more Jews were injured, and Jewish homes and businesses looted and destroyed. The Innsbruck synagogue in Sillgasse was also devastated.
Origin of the monument
During the youth state parliament on November 17, 1995, young people suggested erecting a memorial for the victims of the pogrom night in November 1938 in the center of Innsbruck. Mayor Herwig van Staa accepted the project group's proposal (Herwig Ostermann, Walter Fuchs, Daniel Knabl, Mirjam Dauber and Sibylle Hammer) in the following month and Regional Councilor Elisabeth Zanon then wrote the project … so as not to forget . Schoolchildren from the higher schools in Tyrol were invited to take part and in the summer of 1996 a jury of experts assessed the 48 competition entries. The jury decided on a design by the student Mario Jörg from the Technical College for Mechanical Engineering in Fulpmes, where the memorial was also made.
Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz (formerly Landhausplatz) was chosen as the location, where the New Landhaus , the Liberation Monument erected in 1948 and the new Association Fountain are located.
The design by Mario Jörg consists of a solid copper base on which the names of the victims can be read and a seven meter high menorah . According to Mario Jörg, the use of broken glass for the signature should "symbolize the broken hearts of the murdered Jews and their relatives".
Accompanying texts
The following words are engraved on the metal ring around the monument:
“... not to hide the fact that on the night of November 9th to 10th, 1938, Reichskristallnacht-November pogrom, Jewish citizens were murdered in Innsbruck and many children, women and men had to follow them to their death
... so as not to forget that Prejudice, hatred and rash can lead to a cruel spiral of violence
... this memorial was erected in 1997. "
revelation
The pogrom memorial has been public since June 8, 1997. Chief Rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg said prayers in Hebrew and German. Diocesan Bishop Reinhold Stecher compared the memorial “with a sundial that casts its shadows on people's consciences”. The Israeli ambassador, Yoel Sher , spoke about "the sacred duty of remembrance to the victims of the Holocaust". Oscar Klein , a jazz musician from a Jewish family from Innsbruck, provided the music for the ceremony. The state of Tyrol invited Jewish displaced persons, Holocaust survivors and their relatives. Also present were Paul Grosz and Esther Fritsch , the presidents of the Jewish Community of Austria and Tyrol-Vorarlberg.
As part of the redesign of the Landhausplatz, the memorial was relocated and re-erected in January 2011. Since March 2012 there has been a website for Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz, on which both monuments on this square are described in detail.
resonance
In Innsbruck there was no major controversy about the erection of the monument.
The daily newspaper Der Standard attributed this to the fact that the initiative had come from young people. The simple symbolism of the monument was also well received by the public.
The Kronen Zeitung feared an “inflation of memorials” on Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz and asked “where is the occasion, where the need, what are the real reasons” for the memorial. The object of criticism was also the construction costs for the "6-ton monster".
The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde was only included in the planning afterwards. The restriction to the four victims of the November pogrom was criticized by contemporary historians from the University of Innsbruck , since at that time over 160 Jewish Nazi victims from Tyrol were identified during the entire period of Nazi rule. It was also criticized that Tyrolean politicians had refused to finance an accompanying scientific brochure for schoolchildren.
literature
- Thomas Albrich; Michael Guggenberger: One of these November criminals is rarely on trial. The criminal prosecution of the perpetrators of the so-called “Reichskristallnacht” in Austria , in: Thomas Albrich; Winfried R. Garscha ; Martin F. Polaschek (ed.): Holocaust and war crimes in court: the case of Austria . Haymon, Innsbruck 2006, ISBN 3-7065-4258-7 . On Innsbruck pp. 34–44.
- Thomas Albrich (ed.): The perpetrators of the Jewish pogrom in Innsbruck in 1938 . Haymon, Innsbruck 2016, ISBN 978-3-7099-7242-7 .
Web links
- The pogrom memorial at eduard-wallnoefer-platz.at
- Places of the 1938 November pogrom in Innsbruck
- Pogrom Remember. Audio guide and city tour (web app)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Horst Schreiber : The November Pogrom in Innsbruck, a brief overview , accessed on August 10, 2017
- ↑ "Memorial dedicated to the victims of the Reichskristallnacht" Dolomites , June 9, 1997, page 16., quoted here after reactions to the pogrom memorial , accessed on August 10, 2017
- ↑ a b c d Tanja Gschnell / Horst Schreiber : Das Pogromdenkmal , accessed on August 10, 2017
- ↑ LHP Landhausplatz | Concept for the redesign of Eduard Wallnöfer Platz , accessed on August 16, 2017
- ↑ a b "Schoolchildren's Initiative for Pogrom Remembrance in Innsbruck", Der Standard , 7./8. June 1997, page 2
- ↑ Kronen Zeitung , Tyrol edition, May 4, 1997, quoted here after reactions to the pogrom memorial , accessed on August 10, 2017
Coordinates: 47 ° 15 ′ 48.7 " N , 11 ° 23 ′ 45.3" E