Young people forget

Remembrance of those murdered in Auschwitz

Monday marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. A commemorative event will take place in Parliament and on Heldenplatz.

(Bild: REUTERS)

January 27 marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where over one million people were murdered. There is a lack of factual knowledge in Austria: One in seven young adults has never heard of the Holocaust. A majority in Austria even fear a repetition of the genocide of Jewish people.

The Red Army liberated the Auschwitz camp on January 27, 1945. Decades later, the anniversary became a public Holocaust Memorial Day, which will take place next Monday. 

Lack of factual knowledge about the Holocaust in Austria
Although the Holocaust is a central topic in school lessons, the term continues to cause confusion among many young adults. According to a study commissioned by the Jewish Claims Conference, 14 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds have never heard of it. The level of ignorance varies greatly: in France it is 46 percent, in Germany twelve percent.

According to a Kathpress survey published on Thursday in eight countries, many people even fear a repetition of the Holocaust. In the USA the figure is 76 percent, in Austria 62 percent and in Germany 61 percent. 

After all, awareness of the Holocaust is high in most countries, but there is a lack of detailed knowledge. Large sections of the population underestimate the number of victims: in Romania, 28 percent and in Austria 21 percent believe there were only two million or fewer. In all the countries surveyed, a large proportion of the population did not know that there were 6 million.

Commemorative event in parliament and Heldenplatz
In Austria, in addition to the commemoration ceremony at Heldenplatz, there will also be one in Parliament this year with National Council President Walter Rosenkranz (FPÖ). Together with the second President of the National Council, Peter Haubner (ÖVP), the third President of the National Council, Doris Bures (SPÖ), and the President of the Federal Council, Andrea Eder-Gitschthaler (ÖVP), Rosenkranz has invited guests to a discussion event in Parliament following the memorial ceremony. Neither he nor the numerous members of parliament attending the event will speak. Instead, schoolchildren will discuss with contemporary witness Erika Freeman.

The five most important facts about the Holocaust

• Systematic extermination - Between 1941 and 1945, the National Socialists murdered around six million Jews. The Holocaust was an unprecedented genocide that was systematically planned and carried out by the Nazi leadership.

• Other victim groups - In addition to Jewish people, Sinti and Roma, political opponents, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and other persecuted people were also murdered in concentration and extermination camps.

• Death camps and mass shootings - The Nazis set up extermination camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka and Sobibor, where people were murdered in gas chambers. Mass shootings by Einsatzgruppen also took place in Eastern Europe.

• Liberation and consequences - On January 27, 1945, the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Holocaust led to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and later to the founding of the State of Israel.

• Denial and remembrance - Despite overwhelming evidence, Holocaust deniers attempt to relativize or deny the crimes. Memorials, educational programs and laws against Holocaust denial are intended to preserve historical awareness.

Rosenkranz repeatedly criticized since taking office
In recent months, the Jewish Community has sharply criticized the fact that Walter Rosenkranz, a libertarian and fraternity member, heads the National Council. For example, the President of the National Council was prevented by the Jewish Student Union from laying a wreath at Judenplatz to commemorate the victims of the November pogroms, after he had explicitly not been invited to the event at the Shoah Wall of Names by the Jewish Community.

The IKG also did not want to take part in meetings of the National Fund for Victims of National Socialism, insofar as these are led by Rosenkranz as required by law. The fraternity member then said that he would "certainly consider" stepping aside for his deputies. He had already announced this shortly after his election.

As in previous years, the victims of National Socialism will also be commemorated at Heldenplatz. The event organized by the "JetztZeichenSetzen" platform will start at 6 p.m., at which descendants of Auschwitz survivors will speak. In addition to a Jewish choir, the victims will also be commemorated with a wreath-laying ceremony. In previous years, 300-500 people took part in the event, but due to the anniversary, the organizers are expecting several hundred more this year. The IKG will also be represented there by Vice President Claudia Prutscher.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the largest Nazi prison camp complex. Over one million people were murdered there.

(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

Van der Bellen at the memorial service in Auschwitz
IKG President Oskar Deutsch, Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen and numerous other heads of state will be present at the official commemoration ceremony at the camp in Auschwitz. Head of government Alexander Schallenberg will be in Brussels on Monday for the EU Council and will be represented in Auschwitz by Chancellery Minister Susanne Raab (both ÖVP).

All living Auschwitz survivors have also been invited to the memorial service. The freight wagon that has stood inside the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp since 2009, in the middle of the ramp where SS doctors carried out selections and sent most of the arriving Jews straight to their deaths in the gas chambers, will be placed directly in front of the main gate for the commemorative event.

"The German Nazis brought people here in freight cars like these. These wagons connected ghettos and hiding places with the place of death," said Piotr Cywiński, Director of the Auschwitz Museum, when the wagon was first displayed on the ramp.