Austrian Press Agency/ Press Release, January 27, 2021
German original: https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20210127_OTS0169/historische-corona-schutzimpfung-fuer-shoah-ueberlebende
Thanks to the Federal Government and the City of Vienna, today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 400 Jewish and non-Jewish Survivors and members of the Jewish Community Vienna aged 85 and older will be vaccinated.
On January 27, 1945, soldiers of the Red Army liberated the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Until then, more than a million people had been murdered in that location alone. The occasion of today’s anniversary of the liberation marks the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. “It is a human duty to commemorate the victims and to thank the liberators, the survivors, and the resistance fighters,” said Oskar Deutsch, president of the Jewish Community (IKG). “Primo Levy summed up the significance of remembrance for the future: It did happen, and therefore it can happen again.” Commemoration primarily serves our children and later generations, according to Deutsch.
The fact that this commemoration today is a natural part of Austria and a lively and diverse Jewish community could flourish in Vienna out of all places, is in large part due to the generation of Survivors. Deutsch: “Today, in the Corona-pandemic, our parents and grandparents are among the most vulnerable people. To protect their health is a Jewish, a human, and a moral command. I specifically thank Federal Minister for Health Rudi Anschober representatively for the entire federal government, and City Councilor for Health Peter Hacker, representatively for the entire state government, for the opportunity to offer a vaccination for Survivors of the Shoa and their life partners, as well as for the oldest members of the IKG Vienna on this symbolic day.”
In close cooperation with health authorities, twelve honorary physicians and members of the IKG Vienna will administer Corona vaccinations at a vaccination site of the City of Vienna this afternoon. A total of some 400 Shoa Survivors and IKG members aged over 85 will be vaccinated. In the past weeks, IKG staff have contacted the affected parties and prepared today’s vaccinations. “Many thanks to all staff and volunteers involved,” said Deutsch.
Austria is therefore among the first EU member states enabling a potentially life-saving vaccination of the Shoa generation. Oskar Deutsch: “I am glad that this joint undertaking was successful!”