Shoah memorial in Vienna: “Snatch your names from oblivion”

160 plaques with the names of 64,440 murdered Jews – a memorial for the victims of the Shoah has been opened in Vienna. Chancellor Schallenberg recalled that Austria had long suppressed its role during the Nazi era.

The “Memorial for the Jewish children, women and men from Austria murdered in the Shoah” in Vienna’s city center consists of 160 memorial plaques with the names and dates of birth of the 64,440 murdered Austrian Jews.

Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said in his address that the victims of the Shoah will be given back their individuality. He remembered the oldest Austrian victim of the Shoah, Abraham Mühlendorf, who was murdered in Theresienstadt at the age of 101, and the youngest victim: “Samuel Georg Susman was born in August 1944 in Auschwitz concentration camp and was seen right after his birth his mother was brutally killed by the camp doctor, Dr. Mengele. With this wall of names, we tear their names and their stories from oblivion. “

Schallenberg particularly emphasized the commitment of the now 91-year-old Kurt Yakov Tutter, who founded the association “Memorial Walls of Names” 20 years ago and firmly stuck to the project. In spring 2018, the then Chancellor Sebastian Kurz promised the Shoah survivor that the memorial would be realized and financed.

Working through long suppressed history

His successor Schallenberg emphasized that Austria had suppressed the recognition of guilt and the coming to terms with its own Nazi history for a long time:

For too long Austria viewed itself exclusively as a victim of National Socialism. Too many stood on Heldenplatz in March 1938 and cheered. Too many watched, even participated, when their fellow human beings were robbed, expelled and murdered. And we looked the other way too long before we became aware of the role of the perpetrator and our historical responsibility.

“Don’t forget your Jewish compatriots”

Kurt Yakov Tutter, whose parents were murdered and who was later hidden by a Belgian family with his sister as a child, said before the ceremonial inauguration of the memorial across the street ARD studio Viennathat he would like Austrians to come here in the future and look at every name of the murdered and their dates of birth. What did the memorial mean to him?

That means that I can come here and mourn for all of my fellow Jewish people. But that means that Austrians do not forget their Jewish compatriots. I do not allow them to be forgotten with this memorial.