In 1996, the Vienna City Council decided to erect a central »Memorial to the Austrian Jewish Victims of the Shoah« on the Judenplatz in Vienna. The memorial to the over 65,000 murdered Austrian Jews was officially dedicated on October 25, 2000. The memorial also encompasses an information centre and an accessible area of the excavation site on which the foundation walls of Vienna's medieval synagogue can be viewed.
On March 12, 1938, the German Wehrmacht occupied Austria. Much of the Austrian population greeted this event with enthusiasm. The following day, the »Anschluss« (»annexation«) of Austria to the German Reich was announced. State-organized violence and attacks on opponents of the regime, against Jews and others soon set in.
Already from May 1938 on, German anti-Jewish laws gained validity in the annexed Austrian territories. By the end of 1939, over 126,000 Jews, mostly from Vienna, had been able to flee the country. In autumn 1939, first deportations of Austrian Jews to the occupied Polish territories began. Until 1945, the SS deported nearly 48,600 Jews from Austria and a further 16,600 who had sought refuge in other countries to the occupied east, where almost all of them were murdered. In all, around 65,000 Jews fell victim to the National Socialist extermination policy - one third of Austria's Jewish population up to 1938.
Already from May 1938 on, German anti-Jewish laws gained validity in the annexed Austrian territories. By the end of 1939, over 126,000 Jews, mostly from Vienna, had been able to flee the country. In autumn 1939, first deportations of Austrian Jews to the occupied Polish territories began. Until 1945, the SS deported nearly 48,600 Jews from Austria and a further 16,600 who had sought refuge in other countries to the occupied east, where almost all of them were murdered. In all, around 65,000 Jews fell victim to the National Socialist extermination policy - one third of Austria's Jewish population up to 1938.
The memorial is dedicated to the over 65,000 Austrian Jews who were murdered under the National Socialist regime.
Simon Wiesenthal, founder of the Jewish Documentation Centre in Vienna and renowned for his efforts in the prosecution and solution of National Socialist crimes, initiated the creation of a memorial to the Austrian victims of the Holocaust in 1994. Two years later, the Vienna City Council decided to erect the memorial - designed by British artist Rachel Whiteread - on Judenplatz in Vienna's old town. During preparations for the construction of the memorial, workers uncovered the foundation walls of the medieval Or-Sarua-Synagogue, which had been destroyed in 1421 in the course of persecution of Jews at the time. Representatives of the city of Vienna and of the Jewish community agreed in 1998 that the findings should be incorporated into the final design of the memorial.
On October 25, 2000, the memorial was ceremoniously dedicated and the museum opened. The memorial, a reinforced concrete cube, resembles a library of 7,000 books. Engraved on the pedestal are the names of all the places in which Austrian Jews were murdered by National Socialists.
A small museum with a memorial and information room, which also provides the opportunity to look up names and birth dates of murdered Austrian Jews, is located behind the memorial, in the so-called Misrachi-Haus on Judenplatz. An underground tunnel leads from there to an exhibit under the memorial, where one can view the foundation walls of the medieval synagogue discovered during the memorial's construction.
On October 25, 2000, the memorial was ceremoniously dedicated and the museum opened. The memorial, a reinforced concrete cube, resembles a library of 7,000 books. Engraved on the pedestal are the names of all the places in which Austrian Jews were murdered by National Socialists.
A small museum with a memorial and information room, which also provides the opportunity to look up names and birth dates of murdered Austrian Jews, is located behind the memorial, in the so-called Misrachi-Haus on Judenplatz. An underground tunnel leads from there to an exhibit under the memorial, where one can view the foundation walls of the medieval synagogue discovered during the memorial's construction.
- Name
- Mahnmal für die österreichischen jüdischen Opfer der Shoa
- Address
-
Judenplatz
1010 Wien - Phone
- +43 (1) 535 043 1
- Fax
- +43 (1) 535 042 4
- Web
- http://www.jmw.at
- info@jmw.at
- Open
- Museum Judenplatz (in the Misrachi-Haus): Sunday to Thursday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Possibilities
- Tours and pedagogical programmes, permanent exhibition on the persecution, expulsion and murder of Austrian Jews, access to a database containing names and information on the fate of Austrian victims of the Holocaust