Justice for the victims of Nazi military justice
The Personnel Committee Justice for Victims of Nazi Military Justice was founded by Richard Wadani in 2002 and institutionalized as an association in 2008 . It fought and is fighting for the legal rehabilitation and social acceptance of Austrian deserters of the German Wehrmacht , the self-mutilators , the so-called " Wehrkraftzersetzer " and the conscientious objectors . Not least because of the committee's committed lobbying work, the National Council decided in 2009 to legally rehabilitate this group and in 2014 the memorial for those persecuted by the Nazi military justice system was erected on Ballhausplatz in Vienna .
The association's chairman is currently (as of April 2020) Thomas Geldmacher, Richard Wadani was or is honorary chairman.
aims
The aims of the personal committee were and are the comprehensive social and legal (including social law ) rehabilitation of the victims of Nazi military justice , and consequently those who were persecuted and convicted by the armed forces' judiciary . While the political and legal rehabilitation took place in 2009, a further main goal remained afterwards, the social recognition of the contribution that Wehrmacht deserters and other victims of the Nazi military justice made to overcoming the Nazi regime . Furthermore, the association aims to provide ideal and administrative support for those affected, to anchor the topic in public, as well as public commemoration for all victims of Nazi military justice and the scientific processing of the topic.
successes
The Personnel Committee has already achieved a number of its goals, such as the parliamentary resolution of July 1999, with which the scientific processing of the judgments of the Nazi military jurisdiction against Austrians and their repeal ex officio was resolved, and the approval of a research project under the direction of Walter Manoschek by the Federal Ministry of Science and Research and its presentation in parliament in 2003. The committee of persons also reached:
The revocation of Walter Nowotny's grave of honor
The grave of Major Walter Nowotny with the inscription “The fame of the dead is eternal” was until 2003 an honorary grave dedicated by the City of Vienna at the Vienna Central Cemetery . After a long campaign by the committee, the committee succeeded in rethinking. "A grave of honor for a Nazi major, whose entire so-called achievement consists in shooting down Allied aircraft, is simply a shame," said David Ellensohn , then a councilor for the Vienna Green Party . The municipal council finally transformed the honorary grave into a simple soldier's grave.
Exhibition What Was Right Back then ...
A "milestone on the way to rehabilitation" and at the same time the first attempt to make scientific knowledge accessible to a broad public, was the German touring exhibition What Was Right Back then ... - Soldiers and Civilians Before Wehrmacht Courts , which was held in Vienna in September 2009 , 2010 in Klagenfurt and 2011 in Dornbirn. The exhibition was significantly adapted for Austria, and the committee of persons played a key role in this project.
"I stand by the side of the dead and the few who are still alive, but have been labeled cowards, slackers, fellow pigs and worse for most of their lives."
Two prominent ÖVP politicians, Andreas Khol and Fritz Neugebauer , also took on the patronage of this exhibition.
The rehabilitation law
“On October 21, 2009, the National Council passed the Repeal and Rehabilitation Act with the votes of the SPÖ , ÖVP and the Greens . The FPÖ and the BZÖ voted against this . Richard Wadani , who was not even invited to the resistance meeting in parliament in 2005 and only got into the House with the support of the Greens, now followed the decision-making process from the gallery and was voted for by the first President of the National Council and the second President of the National Council Neugebauer relentless commitment recognized. "
The memorial for those persecuted by the Nazi military justice system
Immediately after the law was passed, the Personnel Committee began lobbying for a memorial for those persecuted by Nazi military justice at a central location in Vienna. The committee approached numerous personalities from politics , art and culture , as well as Austrian civil society , in order to win them over to the idea of such a monument. 39 of these responded positively to the erection of a desert monument, namely:
Furthermore, the association listed 36 memorials for the victims of Nazi military justice in Germany on its website , thereby putting additional pressure on decision-makers in Austrian politics.
In 2010 the Greens were able to claim the erection of a desert monument in the coalition pact of the Red-Green coalition in the federal state of Vienna , but neither the location nor the design was fixed. When the Austrian historian Heidemarie Uhl ventured the idea of a “joint memorial” for soldiers and deserters in the crypt at the Outer Burgtor of Heldenplatz in 2012 , the personal committee reacted violently: “The SPÖ wants us in rank and file with the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS put! ”was the Wadani press release. In October 2012, the decision for the Ballhausplatz location followed , and in spring 2013 the competition was announced.
Awards
- 2016: Democracy Prize from the Margaretha Lupac Foundation of the Austrian Parliament
Web links
- "Justice for Victims of Nazi Military Justice" committee , website of the committee
swell
- ↑ Richard Wadani died orf.at, April 19, 2020, accessed April 19, 2020.
- ^ Hannes Metzler : Consequences of an exhibition , accessed on October 28, 2014
- ↑ Monuments to the Victims of Nazi Military Justice in Germany , accessed on October 28, 2014
- ↑ APA-OTS report: Wadani: "The SPÖ wants to put us in line with the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS!" , July 4, 2012
- ↑ Margaretha Lupac Foundation: Democracy Prize 2016 . Retrieved November 3, 2017.
- ↑ Democracy Prize 2016 from the Margaretha Lupac Foundation goes to three outstanding civil society initiatives . Parliamentary Correspondence No. 1199 of November 11, 2016.