The Library & Learning Center on the University campus

Source: Der Standard

http://derstandard.at/1381369121534/WU-bekommt-NS-Mahnmal

For students and researches, who were expelled during the Nazi era

Vienna – By spring 2014, the Vienna University of Economics and Business will have completed a memorial for students and employees, who were expelled from the former University of International Trade (HWL) during the Nazi era, a press release from the University stated on Friday, October 18, 2013. During that time Jewish students were barred from studying and taking exams, professors and employees were laid off and academic titles were revoked.

A globe made up of the names of the victims shall serve as a reminder right across the centerpiece of the university campus- the Library and Learning Center of Zaha Hadid. The memorial was designed by Alexander Felch, who won a competition organized by the Vienna University of Economics and Business together with the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.

Globe

According to the artist, the globe signifies the world around which the Jewish exiles were forced to scatter. The memorial shall symbolize the re-inclusion of the victims into the university circle. The opening on the side of the globe stands for the wound the Nazi era caused for the university and society. While it will be possible to add further names to the globe, the memorial itself will remain unfinished, thereby showing that the process of accounting for the past can never be complete.

Back in 2012, the University of Economics and Business started a research project about its own past and the past of its predecessor university, the University of International Trade. The research findings will be incorporated in the memorial; the biographies of the victims can be found in a virtual memorial book, which can be accessed online at http://gedenkbuch.wu.ac.at.