Dear Guests of the Jewish Welcome Service!

Sehr geehrter Herr Präsident Deutsch! 

Sehr geehrte Frau Trauneck, sehr geehrte Frau Lessing, sehr geehrte Frau Pfeffer! 

Welcome to the Hofburg!

Leon Zelman founded the Jewish Welcome Service 46 years ago. In the beginning, those who participated in the programme had themselves been forced to flee Austria. Their expulsion by the Nazis had left a void in this country –  a loss that remains painful to this day. 

Today, the participants of the programme are mostly descendants of survivors, like you.

All of you have your roots in Austria.

Some of you mentioned excerpts from your family history in your letters to Ms. Trauneck. Almost all of you had ancestors who were murdered.

Please be assured:

The Austria you are visiting today is fundamentally different from the Austria your ancestors were driven out of.

In today’s Austria, you are most welcome.

Your visit comes at a difficult time. Many of us look with deep concern at the ongoing bloody wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine. Some of you had to postpone your visit, originally planned for March of this year, because of the tense situation and because flight connections between Israel and Vienna were suspended at the time. I am glad that you can now make up for it.

What later became Israel was a place of refuge for many of your ancestors. They arrived there during the Nazi dictatorship, during World War II, some after the war, or even after the founding of the state in 1948.

I am aware what Israel means to most Jews around the world:

It is more than one state among many. It is a safe haven. For many, it is a home, or one of several homes.

Almost a month ago, we commemorated those killed and those abducted on 7 October 2023. When Jews are once again hunted, persecuted and murdered, we will not remain silent.

NEVER AGAIN also applies when the war in the Middle East brings to the surface an antisemitism that still lurks beneath the surface, worldwide and in Austria as well.

NEVER AGAIN remains valid today!

Ladies and gentlemen,

the Republic of Austria and its society, took far too many years to acknowledge the horrors committed against your ancestors under National Socialist rule.

We all know that antisemitism was widespread in Austria even before the Nazis seized power.

After the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic, many people, and politicians, too, suppressed many uncomfortable truths. The attitude towards our own history changed here only in the 1980s.

Younger generations took a more open and critical look at Austria’s past. They asked their parents and grandparents uncomfortable questions.

In the early 1990s, the Republic of Austria finally acknowledged publicly and unequivocally the most inglorious chapters of this history, and drew lessons and consequences from them.

In 1980, Leon Zelman and the City of Vienna founded the Jewish Welcome Service. Jews who had been expelled, and many of their descendants, were invited to Austria.

In 1994, the ESRA Psychosocial Centre was founded by the Jewish Community and the City of Vienna. It cares for and treats Nazi survivors in Austria. And it supports victims of Nazi persecution living abroad in enforcing their claims against the Austrian state.

In 1995, the National Fund of the Republic of Austria was established. It supports Nazi survivors and funds remembrance and education projects  in the fight against antisemitism.

Finally, today’s citizenship law makes it easier for descendants of those persecuted by the Nazis to acquire Austrian citizenship.

I am pleased that quite some of you have already received Austrian citizenship and others are applying for it. 

It is important to us that the Republic of Austria and Austrian society not only recognise the fate and the suffering of your families, but also take responsibility and take action.

Some of you are visiting Austria for the first time, some have come several times before.

Let me tell you: You are a part of this Austria!

I hope you all enjoy your stay in Vienna! Thank you very much for your visit!