A Letter To The Stars

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The project A Letter To The Stars (English for A Letter to the Stars ) was a contemporary history project in schools in the Republic of Austria sponsored by the Learning from Contemporary History Association . More than 50,000 schoolchildren dealt with the fate of the victims of National Socialist rule in Austria as part of the project . Many students researched the life stories of Austrian fatalities and survivors.

Origin and name

In 2002 the journalists Josef Neumayr and Andreas Kuba developed the idea of “giving back name, face and dignity” to the Austrian Holocaust victims as part of a large-scale project. From the late autumn of 2002, Alfred Worm provided essential assistance. The school project began six months later.

While preparing the project, Neumayr and Kuba repeatedly met Karl Stojka (1931–2003), who had been deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp at the age of twelve with his mother and five siblings . In the concentration camp, Stojka had imagined the children who were gassed and cremated there as stars rising to heaven. In every star in the night sky he saw a murdered child. Neumayr and Kuba now wanted "that students send letters to these star children". So they chose the name A Letter to the Stars for their project.

Projects and activities

Memorial events

In commemorative events, the students began a new confrontation with the past. In May 2003, more than 15,000 schoolchildren from all over Austria let 80,000 "letters in the sky" rise on white balloons in memory of the victims on Heldenplatz in Vienna. At Heldenplatz in March 1938, Adolf Hitler announced the " Anschluss of Austria " to the German Reich in front of more than 100,000 cheering people .

In May 2004, 20,000 people from all over the world took part in the liberation ceremony in the former Mauthausen concentration camp , which students helped to create . In May 2005, during the night of silence in front of the Mauthausen concentration camp, candles were lit for the 100,000 murdered people. Under the motto Flowers of Remembrance , around 15,000 schoolchildren from Stephansplatz in Vienna carried 80,000 white roses with the names of Austrian Nazi victims to all the addresses where people had lived before they were expelled and murdered.

The project results were published on the website and in books as well as in the ORF documentary Die Sterne veröschen not .

Ambassadors of memory

For the Ambassadors of Remembrance project , the initiators, in collaboration with the Jewish Welcome Service and international survivor organizations such as the Kindertransport Association, have compiled a list of the last witnesses . This database includes 2500 contemporary witnesses from Austria who survived the Nazi regime and who would like to pass on their life stories to the young people of the country from which they were expelled as children and young people. In April 2007, the first encounter trip took place in New York , where 33 schoolchildren spoke with more than 100 Austrian Holocaust survivors to document their life stories. In October 2007, 20 students traveled to London with the same assignment . In March 2008 a third group of 15 students traveled to Israel .

38-08

In the project 38-08 schools from all over Austria invited 200 survivors to Austria for the week from May 1st to May 8th 2008. The invitations were arranged by the organization A Letter To The Stars and made possible by Austrian sponsors. The survivors could each take an accompanying person with them. The hosts designed the stay in Austria together with the guests. The highlight was a joint memorial event on May 5, 2008, the national Austrian day of remembrance against violence and racism in memory of the victims of National Socialism . The commemorative event took place on Heldenplatz in Vienna.

projektXchange

As a follow-up project, the association initiated projektXchange in February 2009 with a focus on integration and intercultural understanding.

Avenue of the Righteous

In Vienna, from April 27, 2011 (anniversary of the proclamation of the Second Republic ) to May 5, 2011 (day of commemoration against violence and racism), the Allee der Gerechten was realized, an exhibition on Vienna's Ringstrasse from the opera to the Burgtheater. The life stories of hidden Jews and their rescuers were posted with banners in the trees. On the fence of the Volksgarten and the Burggarten, names of Righteous Among the Nations were shown in large letters. The exhibition was developed based on an idea by Angelica Bäumer , herself a survivor.

In May 2012, the flags of the Allee der Gerechten were installed on Neuer Platz in Klagenfurt , in August 2012 in the Kurpark in Salzburg , in October 2012 in Mariahilfer Straße in Graz and in November 2013 in the courtyard of the Ursulinenhof in Linz .

Voices on the project

Explanation and encouragement

Speech by Leon Zelman on May 5, 2006 at Stephansplatz:

“Dear friends, my dear friends, my dear youth. I could never have dreamed that I would celebrate my birthday on May 5th with so many people who have come to me and want to hear me here. (Applause)
When I was freed on May 5th in Mauthausen / Ebensee, I weighed 37 kilos. Without a language and without knowledge of this country I came to build a new home for myself. I found people who stood by my side - but I had a dream: a dream to build a new era with young people so that what I have experienced, what I have seen can never be repeated again.
Today, ladies and gentlemen, my dream has come true. (Applause)
Ladies and gentlemen. Auschwitz was not at the beginning. Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Ebensee was the end. Thousands of people have been killed every day. Children, women and old people who could simply no longer be forced to work were murdered there. But we are here today to think about the beginning. When here in Austria, in Vienna, people disappeared because they were Jews. Children were kicked out of schools because they were Jews, because they were Jewish children. The neighbors turned away and thought, where can I find something, rob it and get something that I know Jews have hidden.
That's why we met today, that's why we want to remember. With the youth who are aware that they have a moral obligation to live with history in such a way that none of this can repeat itself.
I am proud to be at the head of an association that makes it easy for people who have been displaced to see their homeland again.
At the same time, I am proud to simply confirm with this organization that a new generation of students, a new generation of teachers, are aware that they have taken on a task for their own future and for the future of this country: that they work with us that all of this should go down in history but not be forgotten and processed.
Thank you very much to my friends. You are the real ambassadors of this country. Many thanks."

Federal President Heinz Fischer :

“The A Letter To The Stars project is the largest contemporary school history project in the republic today thanks to the special commitment of directors and teachers throughout Austria.
Schoolchildren - often with your personal support - have now researched thousands of life stories of Austrian murdered people and survivors of the Nazi regime and have thus made history themselves. They investigate repressed and buried fates and they meet the last witnesses.
This intensive preoccupation with the past is immensely important in order to be able to learn from it in the present for the future.
In this way we can help to immunize the young generation against intolerance and racism by actively working on contemporary history and show that we all want to learn from history. I would like to thank you for your work and wish the project every success! "

Simon Wiesenthal :

“This encounter will not only convey new knowledge, it will also have a lasting effect on the young people on an emotional level. On behalf of the project sponsors, but also in the interests of the young people, I ask you to enable your students to participate in the project and to be at their side. "

Barbara Prammer , President of the National Council:

“When we remember the many victims and their immense suffering in the face of the crimes of National Socialism, we do so above all for and together with the young people of today. Only with them can a strong and loud 'Never again' in the future be carried from Austria into the world and the memory of the many tragic fates of the victims and resistance fighters kept alive. "

Claudia Schmied , Federal Minister for Education, Science and Culture:

“ A Letter To The Stars is one of the most important projects in contemporary history at schools in our country. 40,000 schoolchildren have already been able to experience history through the multitude of activities.
The direct communication of history through contemporary witnesses and those affected gives the victims of National Socialism a voice and face and, in addition to technical understanding, enables a personal relationship to the incomparable crimes of this time.
This project is part of the political education at the schools in our country and is ideally combined with the activities of our house in connection with coming to terms with National Socialism. And with its innovative approach, it also promotes interaction between teachers, students and parents. "

Betsy Anthony, formerly Deputy Director of Survivor Affairs, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington:

“These young people and the project organizers achieved something that was not there before on such a broad basis. And for the survivors, this work of remembrance creates an inner calm and peace ... "

Hans Winkler , State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry:

“We can be proud of young people who do not avoid traces of the past, but see them as a way to learn for themselves and for Austria from those who were once expelled from this country. Intensive preoccupation with the past, especially through personal conversations with people who had to experience the time and atrocities of National Socialism, is the best way for each of us to learn the right lessons from the past, never again and nowhere in the world people have to suffer the terrible fate of the victims of National Socialism. "

William L. Shulman, President of the Association of Holocaust Organizations:

" A Letter To The Stars is an extremely worthwile educational project that can be emulated by others an make an meaningful contribution to Holocaust education."

Camp community Ravensbrück & friends:

“ A Letter To The Stars' approach consequently isolates the deportation and murder from the specific history and preliminary stages of the extermination of Jews: anti-Semitism, its definition and labeling, violent attacks and pogroms, appropriations and expropriations Their property and their homes, the school and professional bans, the evictions, the destruction of their self-government and their religious institutions, the ghettoization, etc. Intentionally or unintentionally, the project initiators also blur two phases of the Nazi extermination policy. [...] The organizers consistently avoid references to perpetrators, profiteers, supporters and approving viewers and therefore consistently ignore the 'other' side of history, which Jews first made victims. If we take the project by itself, the impression could almost be that the deportations fell from the sky. "

criticism

The A Letter To The Stars project was not without controversy. Members of the Jewish community , the Socialist Youth and several Austrian magazines criticized what they saw as a “shallow commercialization ” of the memory of the Shoah .

Publications

  • Alfred Worm et al. a. (Ed.): A Letter To The Stars. Students write history. Volume 1: Letters to Heaven. Verlag Verein Lern ​​aus der Zeitgeschichte, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-9501836-9-8 .
  • Andreas Kuba u. a. (Editor): A Letter To The Stars. Students write history. Volume 2: Holocaust - The Survivors. Verlag Jugend und Volk, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-9501836-0-4 .

Web links

Commons : A Letter To The Stars  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ In memoriam Alfred Worm obituary by Andreas Kuba and Josef Neumayr, lettertothestars.at
  2. ↑ About Prof. Karl Stojka karlstojka.com
  3. ↑ A Letter To The Stars presents The Last Witnesses: The Justice Excerpts from an event in Linz in autumn 2013 (video on YouTube, 5:25 min.), Here 0:25 to 1:27.
  4. ↑ a b See Letters in the Sky lettertothestars.at
  5. ^ Project New York lettertothestars.at
  6. ^ Project London lettertothestars.at
  7. ↑ What happened so far lettertothestars.at, see second section: Project Israel - Ambassadors of Remembrance .
  8. ↑ "Project Xchange" for respect, openness orf.at, 3rd May, 2009.
  9. ↑ projektXchange
  10. ^ Allee der Gerechte press release of the City of Klagenfurt, May 16, 2012.
  11. ^ The avenue of the righteous in Linz lettertothestars.at
  12. ^ Criticism of 'Letter to the Stars' no-racism.net, May 10, 2004.