The Hamas terror attack was also omnipresent at the candlelight march, which was attended by ministers Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) and Leonore Gewessler (Greens) as well as NEOS leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger and the managing SPÖ parliamentary group chairman Philip Kucher.

On the night of November 9-10, 1938, synagogues were systematically set on fire, Jewish stores were looted and Jews were abused throughout the "German Reich". In Austria alone, at least 30 Jews were killed, 7800 were arrested and around 4000 were immediately deported from Vienna to the Dachau concentration camp.

The attacks of November 9, 1938 ended in the gas chambers of Mauthausen, Auschwitz and Treblinka, recalled IKG President Oskar Deutsch in his speech on Judenplatz. However, anti-Semitism began "with the word, with the insult, with the lie, with the rumor about the Jew". The pogroms may have been ordered from above, but everyone was watching and many took part.

IGK criticism of Rosenkranz's election
He described it as "scandalous" that 86 years later, the liberal Walter Rosenkranz was elected President of the National Council, someone whose German nationalist fraternity Libertas had already excluded Jews in the 19th century by means of the Aryan law.

"We don't forget what happened", emphasized Deutsch. The German nationalist fraternity members in the National Council are not Nazis, even if some may pay homage to their ideology in the cellars of their fraternities, said Deutsch. "They are the successors of the Nazis' predecessors."

Earlier, hundreds of people had marched from Heldenplatz with LED candles and signs bearing the names of synagogues destroyed during the November pogroms through the city center to Judenplatz. There were signs with words such as "No place for hate", but also "Bring them home now" as an appeal to free the last 100 Hamas hostages.

A sign of hope and a warning
The event should be a sign of hope and a warning, emphasized representatives of Jewish youth organizations at the event. Anti-Semitism is particularly evident today in social media. There, anti-Jewish comments and conspiracy theories are spread anonymously, often disguised as freedom of expression or criticism of Israel.

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