Austrian Press Agency (APA) (06/23/2009)   

Vienna – A full truckload of files transporting historical records left Moscow for Vienna in mid-June. Russia returned to Austria valuable historical records which Russian troops had looted during WW II. Today Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov handed over two files to his Austrian counterpart Michael Spindelegger as a symbolic gesture representing several tons of freight. The approximately 11,000 “fascicles“ (technical term for “bundles of files“) are by no means all of them. Others are still being kept in Moscow, awaiting restitution.

Austrian Press Agency (APA) (07/24/2009) 

Distributing paintings from the Albert Pollak and Carl Wollner Collections among heirs proves complicated  

Graz – Resitution representative for Styria’s Regional Museum Joanneum, Karin Leitner-Ruhe, has announced that the museum is currently working on two additional restitution cases involving six works belonging to the collections of Albert Pollak and Carl Wollner. Until now, the pieces of art have not been returned because of incomplete legal documents.  

Austrian Press Agency (APA) (06/04/2009) 

Jewish Community (IKG) expresses gratitude 

Linz/Vienna – The City of Linz will return the painting, “Portrait of Ria Munk III,“ currently part of the holdings of Linz’s Lentos Museum. After a preliminary decision had been taken by Mayor Franz Dobusch and Deputy-Mayor Erich Watzl in April, the Town Council gave their unanimous approval.  

Austrian Federal Chancellery (07/20/2009) 

Vienna – In July, 2009, some 8,000 books from the library of Arthur Schnitzler will be taken over by the Austrian National Library in July. Following the death of Lilly Schnitzler, wife of Arthur Schnitzler‘s son Heinrich, who bequeathed his collection to the Austrian National Library, “the valuable library will be recompiled. Its fate reflects Austria‘s contemporary history,“ as stated in a press release. 

Austrian Press Agency (APA) (06/12/2009) 

Painting was returned today to Haifa 

Vienna  - Upon recommendation of Vienna’s Commission on Restitution, the art work entitled, “The Love Letter,“ which was illegally taken from its owners during the NS era, was returned to its heirs. The case involves a painting by Johann Nepomuk Schödberger that belongs to property owned by Ignaz and Clothilde Schachter. The transfer took place in Haifa where the legal heirs are currently living. 

Austrian Federal Chancellery (09/07/2009) 

Paul Grosz, President of the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG) from 1987 – 1998 and Honorary President thereafter, died in the early morning hours of August 30, 2009 at the age of 84. 

Austrian Press Agency (06/02/2009) 

Vienna – Eric Kandel has been designated an “honorary citizen of Vienna“ by Mayor Michael Häupl at a ceremony honoring the seventy-nine year-old Nobel Prize winner in medicine as “a world renowned scientist“ and “warmly welcomed him to his native country.“ Born in Vienna, Kandel was expelled from the country by the Nazis due to his Jewish origins. Together with his family, he emigrated to the USA.  

Austrian Press Agency (APA) (06/04/2009) 

Vienna – Neil Shicoff was awarded with the Grand Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria in the Austrian Embassy in Tel Aviv. At a ceremonial reception in the New Israeli Opera following the well-attended performance of Georges Bizet’s “Carmen,“ in which Shicoff sang Don Jose, “numerous high ranking public personalities were present, according to  the Embassy‘s press release.  

Austrian Press Agency (07/31/2009) 

The Hague – The woman who helped and saved Anne Frank‘s diaries, Miep Gies, received the Grand Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria, according to a press release from the Austrian Embassy in The Hague. The one hundred year-old woman not only helped eight other people who had gone into hiding between 1942 and 1944, she saved the famous diariy for later generations. The “Diary of Anne Frank“ has been included into UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, World Heritage Collection.  

http://gedenkbuch.univie.ac.at/index.php?id=435&L=2 
 

Memorial Book for the Victims of National Socialism

at the University of Vienna in 1938 

As of June 30, 2009, the University of Vienna introduced an online database, “Memorial Book for the Victims of Naional Socialism,“ that includes roughly 2,200 names and short biographies of victims – including professors, lecturers and students - who following the advent of the National Socialist regime in 1938 were persecuted, expelled and/or murdered as Jews out of political reasons. Some 1,770 of the approximately 2,230 expelled students of the university have been identified by name thus far, in addition to the names of 234 graduates whose academic credentials were rendered invalid, and of approximately 200 professors and lecturers who were dismissed. 

by

Hannah Naiditch 

A most recent publication of “Memoirs of a Hitler Refugee. Activism and Issues Define my Life“ (Xlibris Publ.) by Hannah Naiditch records an important page in cultural history. The book is a riveting account of Hannah Naiditch’s unforgettable odyssey—from her tranquil childhood in Vienna, to her miraculous escape from the Nazis, to her politically active life in America.  She relates how she endured early separation from her family; harrowing nights spent in London’s underground subway tunnels, as Germany ruthlessly tried to bomb England into submission; and the challenges of starting a new life in America.