NEW YORK (VINnews) — After 20 years of intensive activities and three years of construction, the Vienna monument to the Holocaust was inaugurated last week, containing the names of all the 65,000 Jews from Austria who were murdered during the Holocaust.
The Wall of Names is the brainchild of Kurt Yakov Tutter, a Holocaust survivor of Austrian descent, who initiated the idea for the monument, which in 2018 received government funding and the go-ahead to be built at Ostarrichi Park in the capital.
“My sister and I now have a place, in our hometown, where we can cry for our parents” who were deported to Auschwitz, Tutter told Austrian media.
More than 20 years ago, Tutter heard about a suggestion by Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal to establish a Wall of Names with all of the Austrian victims’s names on it but there was no public response. Even after Tutter established an association to implement the idea there was no positive reaction from the Austrian government. It was only when former chancellor Sebastian Kurz was elected that Tutter succeeded in moving the initiative forward.
“I wrote to Kurz and his bureau chief,” Tutter related, “and within 24 hours I received an answer. I came to Vienna in March and was told that the chancellor wished to meet me. He asked me one interesting question” ‘What is the significance of this monument for you?’ I answered that ‘The Austrian Nazis have graves which their family members can visit. My sister and I lost our parents, who were turned into ashes and smoke. We want a place in our birthplace where we can light a candle and pray for their memory. This is our right. Many Jewish families were murdered without leaving any members, who will pray for them? When my sister and I will come to say kaddish for our beloved parents, we will light a candle for those who have nobody to pray for them.’ This touched his heart. He promised that he would pass a government decision on the matter and indeed did so.”
The Wall of Names was inaugurated on the 83rd anniversary of Kristallnacht. Kurz wrote in his Twitter account that “With the Wall of Names in Vienna we commemorate the 64.440 Austrian Jews who were victims of the Shoah. Kurt Yakov Tutter has advocated tirelessly for the installation of this important memorial and I am very grateful for his efforts!”
Source: VosIzNeias
