Jewish people remember their Vienna in the 20th century

Austrian Federal Chancellery (11/17/2008)

Jewish people remember their Vienna in the 20th century

About 200 Jewish citizens were invited to the presentation of the book “Wie wir gelebt haben. Wiener Juden erinnern sich an ihr 20. Jahrhundert“ (“How we lived. Viennese Jews remember their 20th century”), edited by Tanja Eckstein and Julia Kaldori and published by Mandelbaum-Verlag, in Vienna’s City Hall on 11 November 2008. About 70 guests contributed as witnesses of the time numerous photos and the pertinent memories to the wonderful book enshrining unique short stories, “from the little comedies of daily life in the 1920s and the horror of the late 1930s and 1940s, which they escaped only narrowly, to their settling down in post-war Vienna and founding their own families”, as Edward Serotta, Head of Centropa (Central Europe Center for Research and Documentation) stated in his preface. Centropa was founded in 1999. One of its goals is to preserve the memories of older Jewish people – to whom we owe today’s flourishing Jewish life in Vienna – for future generations. Other texts in the book were authored by superb writers such as Joachim Riedl, Barbara Tóth or Doron Rabinovici.

Minister of Education Claudia Schmid and Vienna’s Executive Councillor for Culture Andreas Mailath-Pokorny contributed to the success of the memorable evening moderated by actress Konstanze Breitebner and excellently organised by Milli Segal’s PR agency by delivering speeches in which they highlighted the great achievements of Vienna’s Jewish community benefiting the city and Austria as a whole. Last but not least, they clearly rejected all forms of xenophobia.
www.centropa.org