Statement by the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) On the Current Rise in Antisemitism Worldwide

The VWI condemns the drastic rise in anti-Semitic incidents of verbal and physical violence and the global threat to Jews following the terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israeli residential areas on 7 October 2023. On the night of 1 November 2023, the ceremonial hall in the Jewish section of Vienna’s Central Cemetery was set on fire.

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New EHRI Podcast: A Sunflower for Simon Wiesenthal

The first episode of the second season of the EHRI Podcast "For the Living and the Dead. Traces of the Holocaust“ has just launched. This episode is called "A Sunflower for Simon". Katharina Freise talks to VWI's Marianne Windsperger and Kinga Frojimovics about Simon Wiesenthal’s sunflowers, real ones, or artificial and made from paper or any other material. In 1969, Holocaust survivor and author Simon Wiesenthal wrote The Sunflower. On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness. In this book, he recounted his experience with a mortally wounded Nazi soldier during World War II, and then asked prominent figures from politics, science and theology the question about what they would do under the circumstance.

The “Sunflower” in the title referred to Wiesenthal's observation of a German military cemetery, where he saw a sunflower on each grave, while he was imprisoned in the Janowska concentration camp near Lviv and feared for his own body to end up in an unmarked mass grave.

The book touched many people, some of whom then expressed their emotions by sending sunflowers, real or crafted, to Wiesenthal’s office.

Listen to the episode on Buzzsprout, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or on the webpage: https://www.ehri-project.eu/podcast-episode-sunflower-simon.

Was geschah in der Ankerbrotfabrik während der NS-Zeit? Ein Inselmilieu-Podcast

Inselmileu Reportage hat einen zweiteiligen Podcast über die Ankerbrotfabrik während der NS-Zeit produziert. Teil eins der Doppelfolge befasst sich mit der Arisierung und dem späteren Umgang des Unternehmens mit der NS-Geschichte bzw. deren Ausblendung. Die zweite Folge – für die der wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter des VWI Philipp Rohrbach sowie Direktor Jochen Böhler interviewt wurden – widmet sich den Verstrickungen der Vorfahren vieler Österreicher:innen in die Verbrechen der NS-Zeit sowie ungarisch-jüdischer Zwangsarbeit in der Ankerbrotfabrik, die bis heute wenig thematisiert wurde. Die Inhalte des Gesprächs basieren unter anderem auf den Recherchen folgender VWI-Projekte zu ungarisch-jüdischer Zwangsarbeit 1944/45:

Ungarisch-jüdische Zwangsarbeit in Wien 1944/45
Projektbeschreibung
Kinga Frojimovics and Éva Kovács: Jews in a ‘Judenrein’ City: Hungarian Jewish Slave Laborers in Vienna (1944–1945)

Anzuhören auf: Spotify, Apple Podcasts oder auf der offiziellen Website.

Heidemarie Uhl (1956–2023)

Mit großem Bedauern vernahmen wir die Nachricht des Ablebens der renommierten Historikerin Heidemarie Uhl (1956–2023). Die langjährige Mitarbeiterin der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften bzw. des Instituts für Kulturwissenschaften und Theatergeschichte (IKT) war eine der wichtigsten und prägendsten Stimmen der österreichischen Gedächtniskultur in den Bereichen Nationalsozialismus, Antisemitismus und Holocaust. Das Wiener Wiesenthal Institut für Holocaust-Studien (VWI) verdankt ihr zahlreiche konstruktive und bereichernde Beiträge. Ihre Arbeit und ihr Engagement bleiben uns genauso in Erinnerung wie ihre grundehrliche, unterstützende und stets kollegiale Art. Ein unermesslicher Verlust für die Forschungslandschaft.

It was with great sadness that we heard the news of the passing of the renowned historian Heidemarie Uhl (1956-2023). A long-time staff member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Institute for Culture Studies and Theatre History (IKT), she was one of the most important and influential voices in the Austrian culture of memory in the areas of National Socialism, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) owes her numerous constructive and enriching contributions. We will always remember her work and commitment as well as her honest, supportive and always collegial manner. An immeasurable loss for the research landscape.

Now online: Wiesenthal in Linz - A Virtual Exhibition

We are happy to announce the publication of our newest project: Wiesenthal in Linz - A Virtual Exhibition. The online exhibition presents the so-called “Linz documents” - a set of documents that form the basis of the Jewish Documentation Centre's (JDC) archival collection. Like many other Holocaust-related Jewish collections after WWII, the documents are highly dispersed: While the majority of the DP camp files are held by the Yad Vashem Archives in Jerusalem, the six folders Simon Wiesenthal brought to Vienna himself are located in the archives of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI). Other relevant documents can be found in the archives of the Jewish communities in Linz and Vienna, in the DP camp collection of the YIVO Institute in New York, and in the archives of “The Joint”.

Wiesenthal in Linz - A Virtual Exhibition is the result of a three-year project of the VWI funded by the Claims Conference. The goal was to start reconnecting, at least virtually, this closely related collection of documents from Simon Wiesenthal’s time in Linz and to provide a single place to find information on the history and characteristics of the material for researchers.

Gender Equality and Diversity Statement 2023-2025 published

Starting in 2023, the VWI committed to establish a roadmap to promote and implement measures to strengthen gender equality and diversity in its organisational structure, academic and programmatic work as well as in its representation and external communication. This process will build on International, European and national legislation. The full text of the Gender and Equality Statement 2023-2025 can be found here.