derstandard.at, January 27, 2021

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000123667803/die-republik-beging-den-holocaust-gedenktag-heuer-virtuell

The Austrian Parliament commemorated the victims of the Holocaust with a discussion, among other things. The Council of Ministers resolved the set of measures against anti-Semitism.

On January 27, 1945, the concentration- and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Red Army. In 2005, the United Nations declared the day as the International Day to Commemorate the Victims of the Holocaust.

Due to the pandemic, political actors, too, moved this year’s commemoration to the web. Already a week ago, members of parliament of all factions held signs with the hashtag #WeRemember and this way participated in the awareness campaign of UNESCO and the World Jewish Congress.

“Defending Fundamental Rights”

Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen took part in the initiative as well. He underlined that anti-Semitism and racism have to be countered decisively. “Never again” also means that we have to counter any attempt to destroy our constitutional state and liberal democracy and to decidedly defend basic liberties and rights.”

In addition, the Council of Ministers on Wednesday adopted the National Strategy Against Anti-Semitism, a comprehensive set of measures presented by Federal Minister for Europe and the Constitution Karoline Edtstadler a week earlier. Praise for the “historic package” came from Elie Rosen, head of the Jewish Community Graz and part of a discussion in parliament that was broadcast live on channel ORF 2. Besides Rosen and moderator Rebekka Sulzer, discussants included President of the National Council Wolfgang Sobotka (OVP), the historian Barbara Stelzl-Marx, as well as Jennifer Teege, the granddaughter of the concentration camp commander Amon Goeth, familiar to many as the “butcher of Plaszów” in the movie Schindler’s List. The daughter of a German and a Nigerian was adopted and learned only at the age of 38 who her grandfather was. She wrote a book about it, My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me.

Families of Perpetrators and Victims

Furthermore, the discussion revolved around personal approaches to the Holocaust. Sobotka said he had read dozens of letters of his grandfather, a staunch SA member, before the event. His history was a reason why the grandson decided to study history and resistance fighters.

Elie Rosen remembered that the enmities endured during his time in high school in Vienna at the time of the Waldheim affair prompted a change of schools. “I always hear about the emergence of anti-Semitism,” Rosen said, “anti-Semitism was never gone” and it is “not a question of left or right.”

Stelzl-Marx warned of the “inflation of comparisons between Corona-deniers and victims of the Holocaust.” Those were also criticized by the federal minister of the interior, Karl Nehammer (OVP): “Through trivialization of symbols and actions of the National Socialist terror regime, right-wingers are trying to move acceptance of a clean brake with engaging the atrocities of the NS regime towards the center of society,” Nehammer, who wants to resolutely counter such tendencies, explained.

Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (OVP) tweeted that Austria “carries a historic responsibility” to ensure that Jews in Austria and in all of Europe can live in safety.