Leon Zelman

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Leon Zelman in the information office of the JWS on Stephansplatz in Vienna , designed by Hans Hollein (June 2006)

Leon Zelman (born June 12, 1928 in Szczekociny , Poland ; died July 11, 2007 in Vienna ) was a Polish-Austrian publicist and founder and head of the Jewish Welcome Service Vienna .

Survival, Life and Work

In 1940 he was deported as a child with his family to the Łódź ghetto , where he lost his parents. In 1944 he and his brother were transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp , where he also lost his brother. He himself was transferred to the Ebensee concentration camp , a satellite camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp , where he was liberated by US troops on May 6, 1945 . Because he was emaciated in the concentration camps, he spent a long time in various hospitals.

1946 moved Zelman to Vienna, where he after visiting a Maturaschule the 1949 Matura took off and the study of journalism (Journalism) at the University of Vienna on April 7, 1954, Dr. phil. finished (dissertation 1952: The film as a means of influencing public opinion ). During his student days he was a leading functionary of the Jewish Students' Union. In 1951 he was a co-founder of the journal Das Jüdische Echo, originally founded as a newsletter for the Jewish Students' Union .

Memorial plaque for Leon Zelman at the Palais Epstein in Vienna, dated one year after his death

Professionally, Zelman then worked for the then state-run Austrian Transport Office , the largest travel agency in Austria. He had been an expert there since 1963 on trips from Austria to Israel , but noticed an increasing interest in their former hometown among Israelis who had lived in Vienna until the Nazi era. Many of them could not finance a trip to Vienna themselves.

Leon Zelman therefore had the idea that Vienna could help its former citizens to reconcile with the city of their expulsion. Together with leading Viennese city politicians Leopold Gratz and Heinz Nittel , he created the Jewish Welcome Service Vienna (JWS) in 1980/1981. Zelman's employer, the tourist office, was involved in the association from the start: It provided the JWS with part of Zelman's working time, an office and an information desk free of charge.

In addition to looking after groups of former Viennese several times a year, Zelman has become an important person to provide information on Jewish Vienna today. Often overseas he had to answer the question of why he could live in the city of murderers. In 1984 a series of events took place under the title Sunken World , which dealt with the history of Jewish Vienna. Zelmans JWS was the publisher of the catalog. In 1988 and then toured the exhibition Jewish Vienna - Heritage and Mission by the United States after Zelman had opened in a New York synagogue. Zelman was particularly in demand as an interview partner around the Waldheim affair in 1986 and in the commemorative years of 1988 and 1998.

Leon Zelman told his life story to the “ Falter ” editor-in-chief Armin Thurnher . The book published in 1995 (see section Literature) was also published in English. Zelman's public wish that the Palais Epstein , built for a Jewish Viennese on Vienna's Ringstrasse, be dedicated as a house of history or as a meeting place with Jewish history and culture after the Vienna City School Council moved out in 2000 , did not come true. The then President of the National Council, Heinz Fischer , successfully claimed the building for offices in the neighboring parliament , which was suffering from lack of space . A memorial plaque for Zelman was later attached to the palace.

In 2006, the 25th anniversary of the Jewish Welcome Service was celebrated in the Vienna City Hall with Leon Zelman at the center.

Zelman died on the night of July 11, 2007 in the Vienna Hospital of the Brothers of Mercy in the 2nd district. He was buried in the new Israelite Department of the Vienna Central Cemetery (4th [previously: 5th] Gate, Group 7, Row 11, No. 1).

Since 2013, the Leon Zelman Prize has been awarded to people, projects and organizations who, in the spirit of Leon Zelman, have actively campaigned for the memory of the Shoah and the dialogue between today's Austria and the victims of Nazi persecution and their descendants.

Awards

literature

  • Leon Zelman, Armin Thurnher : A life after survival. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-218-00600-7 . Reprint: Kremayr & Scheriau / Orac, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-218-00750-X .
  • Leon Zelman, Armin Thurnher: After Survival. One Man's Mission in the Cause of Memory. From the German by Meredith Schneeweiss. Holmes & Meier, New York 1998, ISBN 0-8419-1382-X .

Year of birth

Zelman's year of birth is mentioned in both editions of his book, which he wrote with Armin Thurnher, and in the English translation as 1928. There is no source for the different information on the tombstone and on the information board in Leon-Zelman-Park, 1926.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the magazine
  2. ↑ Häupl presents the Golden Town Hall Man to Leon Zelman , town hall correspondence of April 6, 2005 (accessed June 10, 2010)
  3. ↑ Online newspaper of the University of Vienna, July 5, 2006
  4. ^ Photo of the plaque on the website of the Jewish Welcome Service Vienna
  5. ^ City hall correspondence of July 11, 2008: memorial plaque at Palais Epstein for Leon Zelman unveiled
  6. ^ Announcement of the park opening on the website of the Vienna City Administration, accessed October 10, 2011
  7. ↑ Photo on the website of the tourist guide Hedwig Abraham
  8. ↑ Park naming panel Leon Zelman in Vienna History Wiki of the city of Vienna
personal data
SURNAME Zelman, Leon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian managing director of the Jewish Welcome Service
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczekociny , Poland
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 2007
Place of death Vienna