Wiener Hofburg, 8 November 2010

Rede von Bundesministerin Dr. Claudia Schmied bei der Eröffnung des OSZE/ODIHR Workshops “Education to Combat Antisemitism”

Speech by the Federal Minister Dr. Claudia Schmied at the Opening of the OSZE/ODIHR Workshop “Education to Combat Antisemitism”

(Es gilt das gesprochene Wort!)

Dear Rabbi Andrew BAKER!
Dear Ms HOHENBERG!
Dear members and representatives of Ministries of Education!
Ladies and Gentlemen!

Welcome everybody in Austria. I’m pleased and honoured to open your conference!

Tomorrow Austria commemorates the November Pogroms of November 9th and 10th 1938.

These Pogroms as well as the Holocaust were the result of Antisemitism, a prejudice, which – in changing disguises – has haunted Europe in the past and unfortunately still is very much alive.

In Vienna, during the night of November 9th and on November 10th, 1938, 42 synagogues and places of Jewish worship were burnt down or destroyed. During this one day Jewish Austrians were robbed, their property was “aryanized” and their apartments were looted. Members of Nazi party organizations like the SA as well as private individuals destroyed and robbed Jewish shops and enterprises, 6.547 Jewish men and women were arrested, 3.700 were deported to Dachau concentration camp, 27 Jews were murdered.

The brutality of the November Pogroms was a final push for Austrian Jews to leave the country. Despite enormous difficulties more than two thirds of Austria’s Jewish population managed to flee and find a save haven, but more than 65.000 Jewish Austrians were killed in the Holocaust.

Austria’s Jewish community never recovered from this blow. In 1938 more than 200.000 members were counted. Today the community only has 8.000 members. Nevertheless, Anti-Semitic prejudices have survived.

There is a traditional denial of Austrians having participated in Nazi crimes. It took the Waldheim Debate of 1986 and the memorial year of 1988 to finally shatter the myth of Austria being “Hitler’s first victim”. Finally, in 1991 Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky stated in a historical speech in the Austrian Parliament, that many Austrians had perpetrated Nazi crimes and that Austria therefore also has to bear the responsibility for those crimes. Since then the discourse in Austria has changed.

In 1980 the Austrian Ministry of Education broke the silence about the Holocaust and Nazi persecution and initiated a program that supports lectures and discussions with survivors in schools.

In 2000 my ministry founded _erinnern.at_, an institute to train teachers how to teach about the Holocaust and to develop teaching and learning material.

To our concern in recent years - and this is a phenomenon that we observe in many European countries - the acceptance of responsibility for the Nazi crimes as well as these crimes themselves have been put into question by far right wing parties.

In 2009, during the elections for the European Parliament, Austria’s Freedom Party connected Antisemitism and Islamophobia in its campaign. On one of its posters it rejected the EU membership of Turkey and also that of Israel. This is by no means the only occasion when the Freedom Party transformed Anti-Semitic prejudices into Islamophobia. Adressing the wide spread worries about immigration and the impact of globalization in combination with traditional Antisemitism seems to be a formula in Europe. This is a challenge for educators and also for us politicians.

This challenge is great because of the constantly changing disguise and appearance of old prejudices. Often these prejudices are used without being directed against Jews, but different groups.

Currently for instance we are very concerned about the oppression that the Roma minority is facing in Europe.

A further challenge for educators is Antisemitism within the migrant communities in our societies. This kind of Antisemitism is closely connected to the Middle East conflict. In order to cope with these forms of Antisemitism we need solid information and sound national and international educational strategies.

The international exchange of ideas and experiences takes place within important organizations as yours, the International Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research and the European Union with its programme “Active European Remembrance” within the frame of Europe for Citizens.  Austria is actively engaged in this field. And I am convinced that a fruitful discussion will take place during this conference.

On the national level my Ministry supports a large variety of initiatives. For instance the institute _erinnern.at_ organizes two annual teacher seminars in Israel each summer.

Teachers learn about Israeli society and history, about the Middle East conflict and about Jewish-Arab dialogue initiatives.  Once a year _erinnern.at_ organizes a teacher’s conference on aspects of Holocaust education in Austria. _erinnern.at_ has branches in each Austrian province where seminars, lectures, exhibits and of course different school projects are organized on a local level. The Website of _erinnern.at_ presents rich information on literature, films and didactic material concerning Holocaust education.

I am very glad that _erinnern.at_ in cooperation with the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and with the Anne Frank House develops teaching material on Antisemitism and Xenophobia for Austrian schools. Some general ideas on this cooperation will be presented to you in the course of this conference.

If we want to win the fight against Antisemitism we have to cooperate on an international level. Therefore I wish you fruitful discussions that will hopefully enable us to improve our methods in the fight against Antisemitism nationally and internationally.

Geändert am 25.01.2011