Learn about Austria’s efforts to advance education, remembrance, and research on the Holocaust and genocide of the Roma.
Learn about Austria’s efforts to advance education, remembrance, and research on the Holocaust and genocide of the Roma.
Joined the IHRA
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
National Day against Violence and Racism in Memory of the Victims of National Socialism
Hannah Lessing (National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism/General Settlement Fund) – Co-Head of Delegation
Helmut Boeck (Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs) – Special Envoy, Co-Head of Delegation
Michael Haider (Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs) – Deputy Head of Delegation
Andreas Kranebitter (Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance) – Academic Working Group
Barbara Glueck (Mauthausen Memorial) – Museums and Memorials Working Group
Mirjam Karoly (Consultant on Roma and Sinti issues) – Academic Working Group
Antonio Martino (Federal Chancellery) – Academic Working Group
Moritz Wein (Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research) – Education Working Group
Patrick Siegele (erinnern.at) – Education Working Group
Ljiljana Radonić (Austrian Academy of Sciences) –Museums and Memorials Working Group
Since its IHRA Chairmanship in 2008, Austria has considerably increased its activities within the IHRA in various ways. Austria emphasizes the relevance of Holocaust education for understanding the origins and threat of genocide and related phenomena such as mass atrocities, antisemitism, religious intolerance, xenophobia and hate crimes: In this context the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism was adopted. Secondly, Austria makes efforts to ensure that IHRA expectations are maintained within the organization by establishing and updating IHRA’s Working Rules and through the introduction of a regular periodic reporting mechanism for member countries focusing on activities related to the Stockholm Declaration, and thirdly by directing IHRA’s first comprehensive evaluation process. Moreover, members of the Austrian delegation have been engaged in chairing Working Groups and Committees within the IHRA as well as in organizing and monitoring IHRA conferences.
All IHRA Member Countries are asked to complete a basic questionnaire with key facts about the state of Holocaust education, remembrance, and research in their country. The answers to the questionnaire, and to the Country Report, if available, are provided by the national delegations, who are also responsible for keeping the information up to date.
Without making a qualification, which policy statements during the last seven years were the most important, a few statements by Austrian leading personalities reflecting some of the principle elements of the Austrian Holocaust commemoration policy shall be mentioned:
A lot of research is published in Austria each year – research conducted at the abovementioned university institutions, research done in the course of PhD thesis, research by local/regional researchers and NGOS. Most of it is published either in print or as e-publication or download. Therefore, to answer this question would require an indepth bibliographical search and would result in quite a comprehensive list of publications. The following few examples might give some impression of the wide range of research being done in Austria:
There are publications concerning deportation and murder of Austrian Jews:
Further research was done on the persecution of representatives of academic professions like lawyers:
Research is done concerning looting of Jewish property by firms or enterprises like the wine producing association in Krems, Lower Austria, „Sandgrube 13“:
One important survey (see here) was conducted in 2014. The survey was about the knowledge and the attitudes concerning Austrian National Socialist past and Austria’s dealing with this past.
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