Features
Austrian features
Stolpersteine by Ulrike Wright
Some of you may recall the article I wrote in the first edition of Felix about my parents’ hometown of Mödling in Niederösterreich and the invitation from the town in the Autumn of 2003 for survivors and relatives of victims of the Holocaust.
Most of the party consisted of survivors of that period and a few of us who were second generation slightly removed from the actual events, but who's lives had been profoundly affected by the happenings in Austria from 1933 - 1945.
The memories of those hectic three or four days blur into one another, the splendour and golden pomp of the President's residency, the bustle of the Heurigen, the silence and peace at the cemetery, the incredible monologue of information from the guide through Vienna, the moving unveiling of the statue of remembrance and above all the people.
The surprise and joy of exchanging names, streets, families and stories went on long into the night. In spite of a number of hiccoughs and some uncertainty, I was left with two clear messages. Most of the Austrian Jews that I have met still have an overriding love for Austria and especially Vienna, which supersedes all disgust, despair, anger and inability to forget or forgive the outrages, committed by their fellow Austrians.
All the townspeople, politicians and officials we met were enthusiastic, genuine and determined to face up to the past and make amends. They offered us all real friendship and were genuinely interested in the stories of our families and the journeys they undertook.
The students that we spoke to at the local school were equally inquisitive and friendly. On our last evening, whilst in discussions with our hosts, I really felt that at long last having spent my life searching I had come home - I had arrived in Mödling.
I have returned to Mödling several times since and have been fortunate to meet several of the new friends we had made that autumn. The original group of organisers were determined to find a way of permanently recording the existence of those expelled and murdered. GR Mag.
Gerhard Wannenmacher of the Green Party discovered that a German artist, Gunter Demnig, had initiated a programme of placing ‘Stolpersteine’ in the pavement outside the last residence of the victims and invited him to Mödling.
In the past few years,
Mr. Demnig, a sculptor from Cologne, has installed more than 8,500 plaques in cities in Germany. He calls the memorials Stolpersteine — ''stumbling blocks'' — and his intention is to recall the individual fates of the anonymous victims of the Holocaust. ‘It goes beyond our comprehension to understand the killing of six million Jews,’ Mr. Demnig said. ‘But if you read the name of one person, calculate his age, look at his old home and wonder behind which window he used to live, then the horror has a face to it.’
The artist pointed out that his memorial also honoured other victims of the Nazis, like Gypsies, homosexuals and resistance fighters. Mr. Demnig has been expressing his political and ethical beliefs through his art for more than three decades. The idea for the Stolpersteine emerged when he was commemorating the deportation of 1,000 Gypsies from Cologne by painting a white line through the city, showing where decades earlier they had been chased through the streets to the train station.
‘An old lady stopped by and scolded my work, insisting there had never been any Gypsies in Cologne,’ Mr. Demnig said. Shocked by her denial, he investigated the city's history, finding plenty of proof that in the 1930s, thousands of Gypsies and Jews had lived next door to Germans there. Mr. Demnig then designed the first 200 plaques, but only in 2000, after lengthy legal quarrels with the city council, was he given permission to fit them into the sidewalks of Cologne.
So after several months of preparation, I received an invitation to attend the ceremony of commemorating 14 citizens of Mödling, which took place on August 14th, 2006. Mödling became one of the first towns in Austria to make this positive gesture.
Following a press conference with local dignitaries, Gunter Demnig set to his task. Having arrived in his old van wearing his signature wide brimmed hat and ear stud, he replaced the normal cobblestones with ones that commemorate a person who used to live in the house next to the stone and had been persecuted by the National-Socialists.
"Humans are only forgotten if their name is forgotten" says Gunter Demnig on his website. Through his work the names are not forgotten and the memory remains on the streets of Germany. The "stones" are made of brass and the script on them says: “Hier Wohnte (Here Lived) ... A name, GJ. (Birth Year), Deportiert (Deported)..., Ermordet (was murdered)...” I spent the entire day with the team and was really privileged to be there especially outside Number 44, Enzersdorferstrasse, which had been the last home of my grandparents and uncle in Mödling.
They had been forced to leave after Kristallnacht and then were deported and murdered. It was very moving and I gradually found the words to express my feelings for this action after I had given several interviews to press and television.
At last I felt that my grandparents and uncle had come home. They could now finally be at rest. I shall continue to visit Mödling knowing that at last the town has acknowledged the existence of Familie Kohn, and has belatedly recognised and appreciated them.
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