Signs of life

“The dead are those whom no one remembers,” says a Jewish proverb. The association Steine der Erinnerung (Stones of Remembrance) has taken this to heart and for the last two and half years has been working to keep alive the memory of the Jews of Leopoldstadt (the second district of Vienna), who were expelled and murdered during the Nazi regime.

A number of other districts have followed the example and put up memorial stones to the victims and their tragic history. According to Manfred Kerry from the association Steine der Erinnerung an die Opfer des NS-Regimes Josefstadt (Stones of Remembrance to Victims of the Nazi Regime in Josefstadt), this is just the beginning of a comprehensive Viennese confrontation with the past.
 

Expelled – but not forgotten

The initiative puts engraved brass commemorative plaques in the pavement next to the homes and workplaces of Jewish citizens. It was founded by Elisabeth Ben David-Hindler who started in Leopoldstadt, 50 per cent of whose population was once Jewish. During the Nazi regime they were driven out of the homes, robbed of their possessions and murdered in the Nazi extermination camps. Many of the former Nazis came away relatively unscathed and were able to continue their professions, enjoying general esteem within the population, while the names of many Jewish citizens – and hence their tragic fate – run the risk of being completely forgotten by future generations.

This is something that the German artist Gunter Demnig has been counteracting with his Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) since the 1990s when he began to place brass plaques with engraved names in the pavement of German towns and cities. It was this initiative the prompted Ben Hindler to emulate the German artist. There are now over 80 plaques recalling the fate of former inhabitants of Leopoldstadt. The project has also spread out into other Viennese districts.



 

“… lived in Josefstadt”

Since November 2008 visitors to the 8th district can also find small square plaques in the pavement. Manfred Kerry and his colleagues from the association Steine der Erinnerung an die Opfer des NS-Regimes Josefstadt have now laid over 20 plaques. They have also published a book … lebte in der Josefstadt (… lived in Josefstadt) containing further information about the fate of the victims. It skilfully combines the individual stories of the former Jewish citizens with the political events of the time. Readers are told of the systematic approach of the Nazis — from the expropriation and humiliation of Viennese Jews to their extermination. The publishers have paid particular attention to “ordinary citizens” rather than prominent personalities. A separate section is devoted to the institutions in Josefstadt – from the famous Theater in der Josefstadt and the former synagogue, now the site of public housing, to the district court where “traitors” were executed.
 

Understanding the unimaginable

One section also deals with the journalist and writer Hugo Bettauer, who had an office in Lange Gasse and was murdered in 1925. The chapter on Bettauer’s life reflects the unrest in the time before the Nazi terror regime and may be regarded as an attempt to make the unimaginable in some way understandable. Bettauer’s murderers – who had joined the NSDAP shortly before the attack – received light sentences and were released after serving just two years in prison.




Regretfully, intolerance and anti-Semitism are still rife 83 years after Bettauer’s murder. According to Kerry the memorial plaques in Leopoldstadt have already been vandalised through scratching and in once case with acid. To date the plaques in Josefstadt have remained unscathed. Naturally, the ignorant and incorrigible are likely to continue in future to trample on the small brass plaques as they ignore all standards of human decency, and for this reason it is all the more important that the project is extended to all Vienna’s districts. However much resistance the idea might meet, it is important that these events do not sink into oblivion: it is only by remembering these atrocities that there will be hope for peace in Europe.