Stones of remembrance
Stones of Remembrance for the Victims of the Shoah is an Austrian association based in Vienna , which relocates memorial stones in the third district of Vienna, Landstrasse . The association has existed since 2007.
background
The third district of Vienna - especially the Weißgerberviertel - was an important Jewish residential area. At the time of the seizure of power by the National Socialists lived there more than 13,200 Jewish citizens, which in the wake of the Nazi regime were persecuted. The proportion of Jews in the Weißgerberviertel was particularly high, as the Leopoldstadt Temple and the City Temple could be reached on foot from there . Scientific surveys have shown that at least 3200 of the Landstrasse residents of Jewish denomination or origin were murdered by the National Socialists.
After the expulsion and the Shoah , according to statistics from the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien, only 3,955 Jews lived in all of Austria. Around 65,000 Austrian Jews were murdered during the Nazi era, around 120,000 had to flee Austria or were expelled. The exclusion of Jews from society as strangers or others who had nothing in common with the rest of the population, propagated by the Nazi regime , continued after the end of the regime through anti-Semitism and ignorance of the crimes.
tasks and goals
The association places stones of remembrance in selected places in the 3rd district of Vienna where Jewish people lived before the Nazi regime or where their cultural and religious institutions were located. “The plaques placed in the sidewalks will form a memorial path that will make the robbery, expulsion and murder of the Jewish population after 1938 visible. The commemoration symbolically gives the displaced and murdered a place in their home district. ”In addition to its tasks in its home district, the association also has 17 memorial stones in the adjacent districts of the Inner City (Naglerg.2, Singerstr.14, Nibelungeng.7) , Leopoldstadt (Castellezgasse 12, Rembrandtstr. 9, Große Stadtgutgasse 12) and Wieden (Belvedergeasse 10, Mittersteig 2a), Alsergrund (Sechsschimmelgasse 10), Ottakring (Weyprechtsgasse 7) and in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus (Reindorfg. 17), Ottakring (Weyprechtg. 7), Donaustadt (Brünnerstrasse 43, Leopoldauerstrasse 12)
The memorial stones are handed over in festive ceremonies, for example members of the Jewish choir sing and the kaddish is spoken or there is a contemplative conclusion with a kosher buffet.
A database is available on the association's website in which all Jewish residents of the Third District (as of 1938/39) can be called up by name or former address with details of their fate.
The initiatives Viennese memorials to the victims of the Nazi regime , although based on the concept of the stumbling blocks of Gunter Demnig , but reject the notion unison stumbling blocks off. Five initiatives have been established in Vienna that equip different parts of the city with memorial stones and, in some cases, with memorial plaques. In addition to the Stones of Remembrance Association for the Victims of the Shoah , these are the following projects and associations:
- The Stones of Remembrance Initiative has been active in Leopoldstadt since 2005 , and it also relocates memorial stones in other districts.
- In Mariahilf the project Remembering for the future was realized.
- In the Josefstadt the project Stones of Remembrance Josefstadt was founded by the former member of the National Council Irmtraut Karlsson .
- In Liesing the club was Stones of Remembrance in Liesing launched.
criticism
The stumbling block or memorial stone project is generally viewed as controversial. For example, the former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany , Charlotte Knobloch , criticized that it was unbearable that the names of the victims were set in stones on the ground.
A controversy also arose when Gunter Demnig , the initiator of the Stolpersteine , felt the Vienna memorial stone projects as plagiarism of his initiative.
See also
- Stumbling blocks in Austria
- List of Stones of Remembrance in Vienna-Landstrasse
- List of memorial stones in Vienna-Wieden
- Stations of remembrance in Vienna's districts 14 to 19
Web links
- Stones of Remembrance , website of the association
Individual evidence
- ↑ Austrian Historikerkommission Vol. 14: "Aryanization" and restitution of apartments in Vienna. R. Oldenburg Vlg. Vienna 2004. ISBN 3-7029-0519-7 . Page 153 there detailed. References. / Wr. City Libraries Catalog No. 692768
- ↑ Stones of Remembrance for the victims of the Shoah
- ↑ Well-known in the city: Stones of Memory , December 28, 2010