Source: Israelitsche Kultusgemeinde Wien

http://www.ikg-wien.at/?p=16501&lang=en

Humor is an essential component of Jewish life. It refl ects relations within the community and reactions to an often hostile environment. Jewish humor is commonly warm and all too human but since the Shoah also cynical and black as pitch. It encompasses a wide spectrum from its roots in Eastern Europe to Ephraim Kishon in Israel, and Billy Wilder, Mel Brooks, or Woody Allen in Hollywood. In between is the heyday of entertainment culture in Vienna and Berlin: cabaret, revue, and fi lm, Karl Farkas, Fritz Grünbaum, Hermann Leopoldi, Friedrich Hollaender, Kurt Tucholsky, and Ernst Lubitsch, the Simpl and Kabarett der Komiker.

"It was very important to us to prepare the Jewish history of Baden for all ages using modern media and the latest techniques of shaping the user experience."

A new web site, jewishhistorybaden.com,  documents the Jewish history of Baden, which used to be the third-largest Jewish community in Austria before 1938.

The site offers information both in German and English:

www.jewishhistorybaden.com

Source: APA

http://www.ikg-wien.at/?p=16466

Mauthausen (APA) – Austrian President Heinz Fischer inaugurated two new exhibitions at the memorial of the former concentration camp Mauthausen, as well as a „Room of Names“ of 81,000 people who fell victim to the cruel extermination undertaken by the Nazi regime, on Sunday, the anniversary of the liberation of May 5, 1945. They have become places of great dignity with the clear message “never again”, the head of state pointed out. The opening ceremony was marked by major international participation and observation by the media.