01/27/2020 20:49
(Act. 27.01.2020 20:49)
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Memorial event of the National Council and the Federal Council
© APA
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The Austrian Parliament held its own event on Monday in the long series of commemorations to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The Vienna Stock Exchange halls commemorated the victims of the Holocaust and called for the fight against anti-Semitism not only one day a year, but always.
“What happened remains incomprehensible,” said National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka in his speech. Representatives of all churches and religious communities as well as many ministers and representatives of all parties and many organizations came. Sobotka asked those present not to go back to their normal routine after the commemoration day. “Remembrance only makes sense if it also turns into everyday action,” he said, pointing out that anti-Semitism was still “in our midst”.
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“Apparently, the idea of anti-Semitism cannot be eradicated,” said Sobotka. But it is important to prevent its spread – namely through education, integration and not least through the law, according to the politician. Remembering must be a “broad public concern,” he said. Because anti-Semitism is not a normal form of racism, but “the antithesis for the good,” said Sobotka. He reminded vividly that many Austrians were perpetrators in Auschwitz. “The rails end in Auschwitz,” he said. “But they start in our cities, they start all over Europe,” he said, calculating that an average of one person was murdered every minute in Auschwitz – 1.5 million in three years.
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Federal Council President Robert Seeber said that in memory of the Holocaust victims, he also sees the task of passing on the understanding to future generations “who were victims and perpetrators and how this disaster came about without being prevented”. Among other things, he appealed to “generations to whom social media have given instruments that enable them to reach a large number of people quickly and anonymously, thereby spreading hatred and resentment”. Anti-Semitism and agitation have no place in our society – neither virtual nor real, says Seeber.
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Benjamin Nägele, General Secretary of the Jewish Community in Vienna, reported on his family history. His grandmother had been in Auschwitz, he said, and told of a statement that he particularly remembered: “She once said that in Auschwitz she lost her faith and that she had forgotten how to cry”. Nägele condemned the Holocaust as “the most inhuman but human-committed crime” and reminded that the struggle against intolerance and hatred of the Jews had not yet ended.
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Jewish institutions still need to be guarded, he criticized. He also cited the “individual cases of the FPÖ”, as well as “the Höbelts at universities”, which would continue to make a fight against anti-Semitism necessary – “not only today, but also every other 364 days a year,” said Nägele. For him it is particularly important to preserve the individual stories of contemporary witnesses in order to make history understandable. “You have to know what can happen if you let hate go,” he said in his moving speech.
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Martha Keil, director of the Institute for Jewish History in Austria, painted a cruel picture of the mass murder in Auschwitz in her speech. The Red Army liberated 7,600 people, but they were only “liberated from Auschwitz and not Auschwitz,” she said, referring to the lifelong suffering of most of those affected. Even 75 years after the liberation, it was still necessary to emphasize the incredible dimension of Auschwitz, said Keil. “Auschwitz has happened, so it can happen again,” she quoted one contemporary witness.
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She also referred to the recent refugee movement, in which refugees were often portrayed as a threat or as criminals. “Mental climate change has also started a long time ago,” she said, calling on everyone to learn lessons from history. “What needs to be learned from Auschwitz is not to be against, but to be with,” said the historian.
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The commemoration took place not only in the form of haunting words, but also musically. At the event, compositions by musicians who were murdered in Auschwitz were brought on stage. “What they have in common is their Jewish origin, which was their doom,” said Gerold Gruber, head of the exil.arte research center, about the composers Viktor Ullmann, Hans Krasa, Gideon Klein and Pavel Haas.
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He reported that there were orchestras in Auschwitz. However, “terrible conditions” prevailed for these musicians, as Gruber emphasized. They had to accompany the work columns musically, there was also music in the brothel of the Nazi henchmen. “The columns of people were sent to the gas chambers and the girls’ orchestra played during that time,” he said. For many concentration camp inmates, music was a way to survive the horror, according to Gruber. And with a view to the cultural heritage of those murdered in Auschwitz, he said: “That is why it is our job to make this music sound again.”
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