Two memorials in Vienna

The top attraction in Vienna center is the Hofburg Palace. The main entrance is from the huge open space Heldenplatz,
The secondary entrance which is the visitors entrance is from Michaelerplatz.
 Michaelerplatz is named after the church Saint Michael located in the same roundabout.
This location will be the starting point from which we shall reach each one of the two memorials.
This is the huge open space of Heldenplatz.
 A view from Heldenplatz toward the façade of the Hofburg palace.
Notice the balcony above the main entrance of the palace and the distinctive colonnade.
 After the declaration by Hitler of the annexation of Austria (Anschluss) to Nazi Germany, Hitler entered Vienna on March 14, 1938.
He was greeted by an enthusiastic Austrian reception as a Hero and Savior. The crowd cheers and waves with swastika flags,
greeting Adolf Hitler, who was born in Austria, and now he has returned home. Here in the picture Hitler is delivering his speech from the
balcony above the main entrance gate of the Hofburg Palace. Notice the distinctive colonnade behind Hitler.
The Austrian Nazi Party, which had grown up underground for several years, prepared the Austrian public opinion for Hitler's arrival in
Austria and distributed the swastika flags to the masses. Here in the photo you can see the enthusiastic crowd at the Heldenplatz
as Hitler is delivering his speech from the balcony above the main entrance gate of the Hofburg Palace.
In the background of the picture the impressive building with a tall tower in its center is the new town hall of Vienna (Neues Rathaus)
The Austrian Nazi party was already well organized. They arrested people with typical Jewish appearance and forced them to scrub the
streets of Vienna in order to remove slogans against the unification with Germany.
All around, the amused Viennese crowd applauded and enjoyed themselves with hysterical pleasure.
Women and teenagers from the Nazi Party supervised the work of scrubbing the streets
The buckets contained a mixture of water and acid that burned the hands.
The teenage boy at the center of the photograph is a member of the Nazi party; he is distributing brushes to the Jews.
The story that the Jews were forced to use a toothbrush for scrubbing seems to be inaccurate.
The Austrians were so pleased with the humiliation and degradation of the Jews, that they decided to sell the brush as a tourist souvenir.
The inscription on the brush reads: “Souvenir Wien 1938”
The brush will be used as a part of the Memorial against the war and Fascism in Albertinaplatz.
On April 10, 1938, about a month after his arrival in Vienna, Hitler held a referendum in Austria “for or against the union with Germany”.
The Austrian people voted 99.7% for the union with Germany. Only about 12,000 voters dared to vote against.
Jews and Gypsies were prevented from participating in the referendum because their Austrian citizenship was revoked.
The Nazis robbed the Jewish population of their property and deprived them of civil rights. The Jews were forced to wear the yellow star.
In the Kristallnacht pogrom, between November 9 and 10, 1938, 42 synagogues and prayer houses were burned to the ground, and
Jewish shops were looted and vandalized. The synagogue in the picture is the Stadttempel at 4 Seitenstettengasse,
The synagogue was robbed and vandalized but was not burned because to its external appearance of a standard residential building.
 Adolph Eichmann (1906 – 1962)
Adolf Eichmann was asked by his superiors to read Theodor Herzl's book "The Jewish State" (published in 1896). In 1937 he was sent to
visit Palestine with a colleague under the guise of journalists. The goal was to examine the possibility of getting rid of the Jews by settling
them in Palestine. During the Anschluss in March 1938, SS officer Adolf Eichmann became a rising star in Vienna for the first time. He
personally raided the offices of the Jewish community in Vienna. He set up the central office of Jewish emigration in Vienna, where he
organized the expulsion of the Austrian Jews on a mass assembly line basis while robbing their property. The work of the 32-year-old
Eichmann and his success in overcoming bureaucratic delays came to the attention of the high-ranking Third Reich leaders. Thus, began
his career as a master murderer. Of all Nazi war criminals, he was the only one who specialized exclusively in Jewish affairs. Between
August 1938 and June 1939, about 110,000 of a total 200,000 Austrian Jews were expelled. About 90% of them lived in Vienna. Eichmann
central office for Jewish emigration was so successful in its forced emigration efforts that it created a pattern often called the "Vienna
model". The refusal of Western countries, including the United States to accept the Jewish refugees, while Britain with its White Paper
policy prevented the entry of Jews into Palestine, the Jews were forced to migrate to Eastern Europe, Czechs and Hungarians refused to
accept them and pushed them further East. According to the Austrians, some 65,000 Austrian Jews were murdered in the death camps,
although the real number is much higher because from 1941 after that the Germans conquered Eastern Europe they also murdered
Austrian Jews who were in 1938 expelled from Austria to Eastern Europe.
 The castle Hartheim served until 1938 as a sanatorium and recovery center for the handicapped and the mentally retarded. With the
annexation of Austria to Germany, the Nazis decided to carry out euthanasia for all patients staying in the castle. At first the Nazis injected
poison to kill the patients, and in March 1940 they set up gas chambers and crematoria in the castle. Then came the incurably ills, the
dissidents, the homosexuals and some patients from the concentration camps. The castle served as a school for murderers, which
prepared teams capable of carrying out cold-blooded killings. After the training period,
the crews were transferred to the various death camps to carry out the final solution or the total extermination of the Jews.
Hartheim castle is located about 17 km west of the city of Linz in northern Austria
The death camp of Mauthausen is located about 25 km east of the city of Linz
The Allied occupation of Austria lasted from 1945 to 1955. Austria had been regarded by Nazi Germany as a constituent part of the
German Reich, but in 1943, during World War II the Allied powers agreed in the declaration of Moscow that Austria would be
regarded as the first victim of Nazi aggression and treated as a liberated and independent country after the war. In the immediate
aftermath of the war, Austria, like Germany, was divided into four occupation zones and jointly occupied by the United States, Soviet
Union, United Kingdom and France. Vienna, like Berlin, was similarly subdivided but the central district (marked in black) was administered
jointly by the Allied control council. Whereas Germany was divided into East and West Germany in 1949, Austria remained under joint
occupation of the Western Allies and of the Soviet Union until 1955; its status became a controversial subject in the Cold War until the
warming of relations known as the Khrushchev melt. After Austrian promises of perpetual neutrality, Austria was accorded full
independence on 15 May 1955 and the last occupation troops left on 25 October that year.
An orientation map showing the location of the two memorials one in Albertinaplatz and the second in Judenplatz
And in the upper right corner of the map the location of the Synagogue Stadttempel.
The memorial against war and fascism in Albertinaplatz

A map showing how to get from the starting point Michaelerplatz to the Albertinaplatz
The distance is 550 meters and the walking time is about 7 minutes.
An aerial photograph of the walking path from Michaelerplatz to Albertinaplatz.
An aerial photograph of the monument in Albertinaplatz. It is located on a triangular area.
It is called “Memorial against War and fascism”.
 The Austrians see themselves as victims of the war and of Nazi Germany and therefore refused to pay compensation to the Jews.
They chose this site at Albertinaplatz, because on the same triangular spot stood the PHILIPP HOF building
and was destroyed by an air strike on 12 March 1945. The name of the building can be seen on the upper front of the building.
Several hundred Viennese who had taken shelter in the cellars of the building were buried alive under the rubbles without any possibility of
rescue. To the right of the PHILIPP HOF building, the pointed spire belongs to Vienna's main cathedral, the Stephansdom.
 A contemporary photo of the same location as the previous picture.
The sculptures in the center of the picture constitute the memorial against war and fascism
The memorial and the small park stand on the triangular area where the PHILIPP HOF building stood until 1945.
The Europeans like to integrate figures from
the Greek mythology into monuments in their
public places.
Here is a love story from Greek mythology:
Orpheus & Eurydice.
Orpheus is the central figure in the memorial
against the war and Fascism in Albertinaplatz.
The hero Orpheus married the nymph
Eurydice. She died of a snake bite. Orpheus,
mourning and weeping, pleaded so much with
Hades the god of the underworld that he
accepted his request and allowed him to
retrieve her from the underworld, provided he
did not look at her face until he returned back
to earth. But in his eagerness to see the
beloved face, Orpheus removes the veil that
covered her face - the artist sculptor seized
this moment here. By grasping Eurydice's arm,
the god Hermes warns Orpheus that he is
going to take her back to the underworld,
Euridice accepts her fate and places her hand
gently on Orpheus's shoulder. This beautiful
relief is a masterpiece expressing a restrained
feeling.
 The memorial against war and fascism consists of four parts, from left to right:
The gate of violence, the figure of a bearded Jew crouching, Orpheus descending to meet Hades god of the underworld
and an 8.5-meter granite rock mass the Stone of the Republic.
On the right side of the picture on the floor lies a rectangular slab at the entrance to the gate of violence.
 The rectangular slab on the floor at the entrance to the gate of violence.
Note that nowhere the words "Jews" or "Holocaust” are mentioned

MAHNMAL GEGEN KRIEG UND FASCHISMUS VON ALFRED HRDLICKA, ERRICHTET VON DER STADT WIEN IM BEDENKJAHR 1988
AN DIESER STELLE STAND DER PHILIPPHOF, DER AM 12 MÄRZ 1945 BEI EINEM BOMBEN ANGRIFF ZERSTORT WURDE HUNDERTE MENSCHEN,
DIE IN DEN KELLERN DES GEBAUDES ZUFLUCHT GESUCHT HATTEN KAMEN DABEI UMS LEBEN.
ALLEN OPFERN VON KRIEG UND FASCHISMUS IST DIESES MAHNMAL GEWIDMET.

Memorial against war and Fascism by Alfred Hrdelika, erected by the city of Vienna in the year of observation 1988
On this site stood the Philiphoff building that was bombed on 12 March 1945,
during the bombing hundreds of people who had taken shelter in the cellars of the building had lost their lives.
To all victims of war and fascism, this monument is dedicated.
In the picture on the left, the gate of violence consisting of two
blocks of granite that form the basis for two sculptures. The
statue on the right, which is higher, symbolizes the victims of
the war, and the lower statue on the left symbolizes mass
murder. Behind the gate of violence, a bronze statue of a
crouching bearded Jew wearing a skullcap and holding a brush
in his right hand. A reminder of the Jews who had to scrub the
streets of Vienna. A statue of a man without a head stands on
a block of granite represents Orpheus entering into the
underworld. In the background is a granite block 8.5 meters tall
with engraved excerpts from the Constitution of the Austrian
Republic, proclaimed in 1945. All the granite blocks were
brought from a quarry near the death camp at Mauthausen.
Prisoners from the camp worked in forced labor in the quarry.
The tall sculpture on the right side of the entrance to the gate of violence is dedicated to the victims of the war. In the picture on the left, we
can see the figures struggling in vain to rescue themselves, a symbol of the hundreds of people who were buried alive under the under
rubbles of PHILIPP HOF building. The figure of a woman without a head who gives birth to a baby symbolizes a new life from death is a
symbol of Austria, born again after World War II. Below, the head of a soldier wearing a Wehrmacht helmet is seen as a symbol of the
many Austrian soldiers who were killed when they participated in Hitler's army. In the picture on the right we can see the back side of the
same statue, above a gas mask from World War I and below an armor from the Middle Ages, a symbol of soldiers who fell in previous
wars. During WWII, the number of Austrians who were killed are 24,000 Austrian civilians, 171,000 Austrian soldiers in battles and
750,000 Austrian soldiers who were prisoners of war and died in captivity, most of them on the Russian front.
The lower statue on the left side of the entrance to the gate of violence is dedicated to mass murder. In the picture on the left, we see thin,
distorted figures with tied hands behind the back, a symbol of concentration and extermination camps. In the picture on the right we see
the same statue from another angle, a syringe is seen as a symbol of euthanasia performed at the Hartheim castle, as well as the cruel
medical experiments carried out on the prisoners in the death camps. During WWII, the number of mass murdered victims are 65,000
Austrian Jews, 6000 Austrian Gypsies, 2,700 Austrian dissidents, and by euthanasia 20,000 mentally or physically disabled Austrians.
 The figure of a bearded Jew wearing a skullcap crouching and holding a brush in his right hand.
A reminder to the Jews who were forced to scrub the streets of Vienna in 1938. This statue is made of bronze.
The metal thorns were placed later on the statue to prevent the tourists from sitting on it like a bench.
This sculpture reminds the Jews of Vienna of the anti-Semitic caricature of the Jewish Stereotype
that appeared in the Nazi propaganda newspaper Der Stuermer
 In 1990 neo-Nazis or Holocaust deniers vandalized the statue of the Jew by pouring red paint on it.
Nowadays still some of the inhabitants of Vienna bring their dogs to urinate on and defecate around the statue of the Jew.
In the picture on the left, we see the figure of Orpheus descending into the Hades’ underworld. In the background stands a high block of
granite, this is the “Stone of the Republic” which is 8.5 meters high. In the picture on the right we see details of the Stone of the Republic
which is engraved with excerpts from the constitution written in the Declaration of Independence of the Provisional Government of Austria
on 27/4/1945. The base on which stands the statue of Orpheus and the Stone of the Republic are made of granite taken from the quarry
near the Mauthausen extermination camp.
The statue of Orpheus is depicted by the lower body of a man (picture on the left) carrying his severed head in his right arm (picture on the
right) descending into Hades’ underworld together with the headless woman who gives birth to a baby, symbolize that Austria has passed
through hell before it could be reborn. According to the Greek mythology Orpheus went down to the underworld to bring back his beloved
Eurydice and failed to save her, the Austrians like Orpheus were unable to save those who were buried alive under the rubles of the
PHILIPP HOF building. The Austrians made this memorial to emphasize according to their conviction that
the Austrian people were in fact the main victims of the war, and they are not to be blamed for the Holocaust.
 Alfred Hrdlicka (1928-2009) Helmut Zilk (1907-2008)
In 1983, the Vienna City Council decided to build the memorial against war and fascism. On November 24, 1988, the memorial was
inaugurated marking the 50th anniversary of the annexation of Austria to Germany (Anschluss). The work continued and the monument
was officially completed on January 21, 1991. Alfred Hrdlicka is the sculptor an Austrian artist who designed and executed the construction
of the memorial against war and fascism. Helmut Zilk was the mayor of Vienna between 1984 and 1994, he supported and accompanied
the construction of the memorial. In 2009, after his death, the area of the small park adjacent to the memorial was named after him “Park
Helmut Zilk-Platz”. Both the small park and the memorial stand on the triangular area where the PHILIPP HOF building stood until 1945.
The memorial commemorating the Austrian Jews murdered in the Holocaust

A map showing how to get from the starting point Michaelerplatz to Judenplatz.
The distance is 600 meters and the walking time is about 7 minutes.
An aerial photograph of the walking path from Michaelerplatz to Judenplatz.
An aerial photo of the memorial commemorating the Austrian Jews murdered in the Holocaust at Judenplatz
Note the shape of the white hexagon painted next to the rectangular monument at the center of the picture.
Explanation about the hexagon will be given in one of the following pages.
The JudenPlatz or the Square of the Jews is located in the old central district of Vienna,
known as district 1 (I Stadt) or the inner district (Innere Stadt)
In the center of the picture is the memorial commemorating the Austrian Jews murdered in the Holocaust. On the right side of the picture,
in the background is the Jewish Museum of Judenplatz. On the left side of the picture is the statue of LESSING (who was a Jewish writer
who wrote plays). At the time, the Nazis melted the statue, but it was reconstructed after the war.
 The Jews of Vienna were not satisfied with the memorial against war and Fascism at Albertinaplatz.
At the initiative of Simon Wiesenthal, the memorial in the picture above was erected in the year 2000 in Judenplatz.
This memorial is dedicated to the memory of 65000 Austrian Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.
Zum Gedenken an die mehr als 65 000 österreichischen In commemoration of more than 65,000 Austrian Jews
Juden, die in der Zeit von 1938 bis 1945 von den who were killed by the Nazis between
Nationalsozialisten ermordet wurden. 1938 and 1945.
 the memorial commemorating the Austrian Jews murdered in the Holocaust is made up of 65,000 reversed books
So that the spine of the book is turned inward, which makes it impossible to read the names of the books or the victims.
A full list of the names of the Austrian Jews murdered in the Holocaust can be found in the Stadttempel Synagogue
The books symbolize the Jews known as the people of the book
On the surface of the base of the monument are listed around the monument in alphabetical order
the names of the 45 main extermination camps
Another view at the base of the monument
 Rachel Whiteread (1963- ) Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005)
After the war Simon Wiesenthal, known as the hunter of Nazis, himself a holocaust survivor, established an office in Vienna where he lived
and collected information about Nazi war criminals. To his credit many war criminals were caught and brought to trial, were convicted and
imprisoned. He gave information to Israel that led to the capture of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. He initiated the establishment of the
memorial to the Austrian Jews murdered in the Holocaust. The sculptor is the British artist Rachel Whiteread, who designed the memorial
to the Austrian Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
In the Jewish Museum at Judenplatz, there is a small model of the synagogue that stood in the Middle Ages in Judenplatz, it was one of
the largest synagogues in Europe. In the pogroms of 1421 the synagogue was burned down with the Jewish worshipers inside it, because
the worshipers refused to renounce their faith of Judaism (Kidush Hashem). The remains of the synagogue are deep in the ground just
below the Holocaust memorial and they can be reached through an underground passage from within the Jewish Museum.
 The middle building behind the statue of LESSING is the house of Georg Jordan.
The famous composer Mozart lived in the corner building on the right side of the picture
The sign reads: "In this place stood the house No. 244 where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived in 1783"
 The house of Georg Jordan

In the picture on the left we see the house of Georg Jordan and in the picture on the right we see the details of the relief
on the middle of the façade of the house. The relief shows the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River.
The baptism is performed by John the Baptist, while an angel is watching the ceremony.
Up inside a niche we see the statue of Saint George (Georg) killing the dragon with a spear in his hand.
The sign, with an anti-Semitic inscription in Latin, underneath the relief on the façade of the house of Georg Jordan

By immersion in the Jordan River, the body purifies of diseases and evil,
So that all the hidden sins flee away.
Then the flame rose furiously and spread throughout the city in 1421
And atone for the terrible crimes of the Jewish dogs.
As in the past the world was cleansed by the flood,
This time the world is made pure by the burning fire.
The Jewish museum in Judenplatz. At the time of the establishment of the memorial to the Austrian Jews killed in the Holocaust, under the
construction site, the remains of the synagogue, which was burned down in 1421, were discovered. As a result, it was decided to build the
Jewish museum in Judenplatz in order to allow visitors to reach the remains of the synagogue from inside the museum.
 The sign on the Jewish museum reads:
With thanks and appreciation to the Righteous Among the Nations who during the Holocaust were willing to sacrifice their lives
in order to save Jews from their Nazi persecutors. The Jewish Communities in Austria. Vienna month of April 2001
 Exhibits inside the Jewish museum at Judenplatz.
In the background we can see the model of the synagogue that was burned in a pogrom in 1421
The remains of the synagogue that was burned in 1421 can be seen via an underground passage from inside the Jewish museum.
In the center of the picture we can see the Bimah or the hexagonal stage of the synagogue,
on which the cantor or the worshipers’ representative stood.
On the pavement of the square beside the memorial of the Jews of Austria murdered in the Holocaust, we see a hexagon painted in white
pointing that exactly underneath this location was the stage (Bimah) of the synagogue that was burned in 1421
The aerial photograph of the Judenplatz in one of the previous pages of this document also clearly shows the hexagon.
Candles and flowers were placed on the surface of the memorial base on which the names of the death camps are registered.
 The Stadttempel synagogue

A map showing how to get from Judenplatz to the Stadttempel synagogue.

The distance is 550 meters and the walking time is about 7 minutes
An aerial photograph of the walking path from Judenplatz to the Stadttempel synagogue
 Only from an aerial photograph we can see the dome of Stadttempel synagogue
from the street level we can only see the façade of a standard residential building.
The Stadttempel synagogue is the official synagogue of the Jewish community in Vienna, located at Seitenstettengasse 4, It is also the
largest and oldest synagogue in Vienna today. The building was inaugurated in 1826 on a side street in the Inner district, following a ban
by Emperor Joseph II to build non-Catholic houses of worship in central public places. The fact that its external appearance is a standard
residential building enabled the synagogue to survive the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938.
The entrance gate to the Stadttempel Synagogue.
The Ark of the Torah Scrolls of the Stadttempel Synagogue
The robbery and destruction of the Stadttempel synagogue after the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938.
The synagogue was not burned due to its external appearance of a standard residential building.
 Jewish Waffen-SS Rottenführer Karl Heiny Löwy (1920-2001)

Karl-Heinz Löwy was born from Jewish parents in Munich, Germany. His parents circumcised him and he received a Jewish education.
His parents divorced. In 1939 he fled with his mother to France. When the German military police searched for Jews in 1943, he destroyed
his identity card and asked to volunteer for the German army after he claimed that his documents had been stolen from him while traveling
on the train. He presented himself as an ethnic German living in France named Werner Grenacher, a true identity of a man of German
origin living in Switzerland. He was recruited no less and no more to the Waffen SS, which is the military branch of the SS units. In the
army he managed to hide his Jewish identity and he was sent to fight in Finland together with the Finnish army against the Russians. The
Germans did not intervene in Finland against the Jews of Finland so that he found himself fighting the Russians shoulder to shoulder
alongside local Jews recruited to the Finnish army. When the Allies invaded France in June 1944 Löwy was still fighting in Finland. In the
fall of 1944 the Finns made a peace treaty with the Russians and then he found himself fighting against the Finns and the Russians. Later
he was transferred to fight against the Allies in France, he deserted the German army and discarded his SS uniform jacket. Since he
spoke fluent French, he managed to convince anyone he met that he has escaped from a camp. At the end of the war he learned that his
mother survived the Holocaust and managed to escape from France to Switzerland. His father, who remarried, with his new family, did not
survive the Holocaust. He loved Israel and totally identify himself with the State of Israel.
This information is from the book: Lives of Hitler's Jewish Soldiers by the American Jewish author Bryan Mark Rigg
Published by University Press of Kansas 2009.
 Close Combat badge

Waffen-SS Rottenführer Military Uniform Iron Cross first class (EKI) Iron Cross second class (EKII)

Löwy reached the rank of Rottenführer equivalent to Sergeant. On the collar of the Jacket we can see the SS insignia.
As a Jew he wanted to prove to himself that he was no less than the soldiers belonging to the Aryan race, and that was why he had
distinguished himself in battle and was decorated. First, he received the Iron Cross First Class (EKI) badge on his left pocket, and then he
received the second grade Iron Cross (EKII), which was worn with a ribbon like a medal on the jacket button, but it was folded inside the
jacket so that only the colored ribbon was visible. Above the left pocket we can see the close combat badge.
He was sad to abandon his medals when in France he deserted the German army and discarded his SS uniform jacket.
EKI = Eiserne Kreuz Erster Klasse
EKII = Eiserne Kreuz Zweiter klasse
 The author of the book Bryan Mark Rigg interviewed Karl-Heinz Löwy,
below is an excerpt from page 67 of the book
It is interesting to read what Karl-Heinz Löwy thinks about the Austrians

This document was prepared and written by Jacob Cohen, a citizen of the State of Israel, March 2018
 Bibliography

1.- The Murderers among us, the Wiesenthal Memoirs published by McGraw-Hill 1967

2.- Pillar of Fire by Yigal Lossin published by Shikmona 1983

Based on the Israeli TV series “Pillar of Fire”

3.- Nazi Hunter by Alan Levy published by Barnes and Noble 2002

4.-Lives of Hitler’s Jewish soldiers by Brian Mark Rigg published by University Press of Kansas 2009

5.- Simon Wiesenthal the life and legends by Tom Segev published by Double Day 2010

6.- Vienna Matrix of Memory a dissertation for M.A. in History by Timothy Corbett University of Lancaster 2011

7.- Wikipedia on the internet

8.- Google images on the internet

9.- Google Maps on the internet

10.- The website of the city of Vienna on the internet.

11.- YouTube: Only in Vienna (5/6) - A Guide to Hidden Corners: Synagogue Remains on Judenplatz

12.- YouTube: VIENNA, Judenplatz (JEWISH SQUARE) on a rainy Sunday afternoon (AUSTRIA)

13.- Encyclopedia Judaica, Jerusalem 1971.