Tagged Austria

Austria breaks ground for Holocaust memorial in Vienna
June 23, 2020 / Marcy Oster JTA

(JTA) — A new Holocaust memorial will be built in Vienna engraved with the names of 64,000 Austrian Jews killed by the Nazis. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Monday for the The Memorial to the Jewish Children, Women and Men of Austria who were Murdered in the Shoah, will… Read more »

Austria, where far right is part of government, takes a leading role in Europe’s fight against anti-Semitism

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz speaks to an Israeli Holocaust survivor from Austria in Jerusalem, June 10, 2018. (Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images)
November 20, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — Less than one year after the election of Sebastian Kurz as Austria’s leader, he has taken his government to the forefront of the fight against Europe’s spiraling anti-Semitism problem. Frequently criticized for failing to own up to Nazi persecution, Austria with Kurz as chancellor has become an international… Read more »

Former resident continues Holocaust education in Austria
May 3, 2018 /
[L-R): Holocaust survivor Walter Fantl, former President of Austria Heinz Fischer, Holocaust survivor and former Tucsonan Alfred Schreier at the imperial palace in Vienna, Austria, in 2017.

As a former member of the Southern Arizona Holocaust Survivors Group, I was touched by the article about Fort Huachuca (“Army dedicates plaque to survivors at Fort Huachuca Holocaust ceremony,” AJP 4/20/18). I had the privilege of attending the ceremonies on two different occasions while I lived in Sahuarita,… Read more »

Austria just hosted Europe’s largest conference on anti-Semitism. It was challenging with a far-right party in the government

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, right, of the Austrian People's Party and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache of the Freedom Party give a news conference in Vienna after their first Cabinet meeting, Dec. 19, 2017. (Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images)
February 28, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

VIENNA (JTA) — Until December, Milli Segal’s main challenge as a producer of Jewish-themed events in Austria was balancing her duties at work with her hands-on approach to being a Jewish grandmother of four. As an organizer of prestigious Holocaust commemoration projects, Segal, 63, is on a first-name basis… Read more »

Rise of far-right party suggests Austria hasn’t learned from its Holocaust past

Protesters against a coalition of the People's Party and the far-right Freedom Party in Austria demonstrate outside the parliament in Vienna, Dec. 14, 2017. (Herbert Neubauer/AFP/Getty Images)
December 21, 2017 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

VIENNA (JTA) — Like Germany’s governments, those of neighboring Austria have acknowledged their country’s role as a chief perpetrator of the Holocaust. Since the 1990s, Austrian officials have faced up to and condemned how their countrymen and authorities supported Adolf Hitler, an Austria native, and his war of annihilation… Read more »

Austria accepted its Holocaust guilt. So why is its far right on the rise?

Heinz-Christian Strache, the leader of Austria's right-wing Freedom Party, at the party's election event following Austrian parliamentary elections in Vienna, Oct. 15, 2017. (Alex Domanski/Getty Images)
November 20, 2017 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

VIENNA (JTA) — When it comes to the Holocaust, Austria has made a lot of progress assuming responsibility. In recent years, Austrian officials have consistently acknowledged their country’s support of Adolf Hitler, an Austria native, and his war of annihilation against Jews. In the early 2000s, the government dropped… Read more »

In Austria, an annual cleanup of a Jewish cemetery on a Catholic holiday

Niki Kunrath, a non-Jew from Vienna, clears out cut branches from the city's Waehringer Jewish Cemetery, Nov. 1, 2016. (Tina Walzer)
November 3, 2016 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — As she prepared to take inventory of one of Vienna’s oldest and least-known Jewish cemeteries, historian Tina Walzer anticipated many genealogical twists and archaeological challenges. But upon entering the Waehringer Cemetery in 2008, Walzer quickly saw that before she could even begin her research, she would first need to… Read more »

Austria beckons as recession, xenophobia prompt Jews to ditch Hungary
February 26, 2013 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA
Demonstrators protesting racism in Hungary in Budapest, December 2012. (Bela B. Molnar)

BUDAPEST (JTA) — Three years ago, Fanni moved to Vienna from her native Hungary with her husband. Now she is pregnant. Though the couple would prefer to raise their child near their Jewish families in Budapest, rising nationalism and an economic recession are leading them to stay in Austria.… Read more »