The Jewish tour definitely shed a different light on the "perfect," proper character of Vienna. It was focused on the two eras of Jewish life in Vienna: that of the Middle Ages, and that of 19th-early 20th-centuries. In the Middle Ages category, we saw the former Jewish area in the middle of the city, as well as ruins from the synagogue that used to stand in the center of what's now called the Judenplatz. Today, the site of the Middle Ages synagogue is home to a Holocaust memorial: a cube of outward-facing books made of cement standing on a base listing the names of the camps where Vienna Jews were murdered. This memorial, although it's the most public memorial to Holocaust victims in Vienna (besides the more general Monument Against War and Facism), it's really not so public at all, and there were people sitting on its base, eating lunch, like it was another park bench. Similarly, it seemed that all over the city, the memorials to the former Viennese Jewish society and the current centers of Jewish life were kept hidden away. Unlike in cities in Poland, where it seemed that everyone knew what each monument was and the sites were well respected, it didn't seem that people here were as interested. But maybe that's because the sites of pre-war Jewish life that are still used by the Jewish community today are so closed off from the rest of society. The former huge Moorish Temple site on Tempelgasse now is home to a (police-guarded) Jewish school, a senior center, and a center to help poor people, as well as a synagogue--but the synagogue, as well as (from what we saw) the other synagogues in Vienna, are not visible from the street. Instead, they're prayer rooms inside other, larger buildings. We tried to enter the only existing pre-war synagogue, the Stadttempel, but it was closed except for two specific tours a day, and in order to even enter the synagogue complex (again, with a facade that looks like any other residential building), we had to go through a metal detector. Our tour guide kept mentioning that the police and security were only there basically "for show," that there was really no threat. I wasn't so sure that there would be an elaborate system of metal detectors and automatic doors without an existing threat.
Vienna also has no Holocaust museum, apparently because the Viennese government thinks that the topic of the Holocaust comprises so many different subjects and aspects, that there's no way to put it all together into one museum. Again, I wasn't so sure. When they did put together a small exhibit in the archives and documentation center, the exhibit focused heavily--not on pre-war Jewish life, or what happened to the Jews--but on the few Austrian people who went against the Nazis--the ones who didn't "just follow orders." It's amazing that this typical excuse was quickly handed over to the rest of the people--"that's how the Austrians are," we heard, "they will follow what the leader tells them." That just didn't cut it for me. Yes, it's true that in Poland there was also a focus on those who helped Jews, but in Poland the documented number of those who helped was much higher than in Austria (6,266 Polish vs. 88 Austrians), and there was always mention of and blame for those who didn't help--never excuses. Learning the Viennese (and perhaps greater Austrian) attitude towards all of this made me frustrated and uncomfortable. It didn't help that even from the Jewish community side of it, we weren't allowed to enter the Stadttempel, and that both the security and community members were unfriendly. It's hard to believe that in a place like Ukraine, it was easier to visit a synagogue than in a civilized, modern, "proper" place like Vienna--I guess it's too proper here.
Anyway, tomorrow our travels continue in the path of my grandparents as we head towards Salzburg! Mama Manya and Papa Joe met there, and were married there as well. I hear the hills are alive...
The old joke is that Austria has convinced the world that Beethoven was Austrian, and that Hitler was German.
ReplyDeleteMy joke is that not all Austrians were Nazis; at least half were monarchists.
But think about the 'hills are alive;' Austria was recreated as a state in 1956 by agreement of the four occupying powers (US, Britain, France, and Russia.) I've always felt that The Sound of Music was PR trying to portray Austria as an innocent victim of Hitler; the whitewash was needed so Austria would be acceptable.
In any case, you have to differentiate the pre-World War I Hapsburg Empire, with Vienna as its capital, from the later stand-alone Austria. Vienna is like a huge head on a shrunken body; it was an Imperial capital. Jews would try to defect from Russia to Austria because the Hapsburg regime gave Jews so many liberties.
Also important in family history is that I was born in Salzburg.