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Memorial for the Victims of Nazi deportations from Aspang railway station, Vienna 2017

In September of 2017 a Memorial for the Victims of Nazi deportations was erected in Vienna, Austria. It is located on the grounds of the former railway station Aspangbahnhof in Landstraße, the third district of Vienna. In the years 1939 to 1942 from this station a total number of 47.035 persons, mostly of Jewish origin, but also many Romani people, were deported to concentration and extermination camps in Nazi occupied Eastern Europe. Only 1.073 of them could survive.

The monument was designed by artists PRINZpod.

Aspangbahnhof

Aspangbahnhof, around 1905

Noch im gleichen Jahr wurde das Hafenbecken zugeschüttet und an dessen Stelle 1880 / 1881 der Bahnhof der neuen Eisenbahn Wien–Aspang (E. W. A.) errichtet. Das Aufnahmsgebäude befand sich nördlich der Gleisanlage; es wurde von Franz von Gruber, Professor an der k.u.k. Technischen Militärakademie, im historisierenden Renaissancestil errichtet. Das Bahnhofsgebäude war 97 Meter lang und verfügte über ein sehr modernes Postamt mit Telegrafenamt und Rohrpost; der Perron hatte eine Länge von 160 Meter. Daneben gab es eine Gastwirtschaft mit großem Restaurantsaal und kleinerer Gaststube.

Der Bahnhof hatte eine Fläche von etwa acht Hektar; darauf waren 7,7 km Gleise und 45 Weichen verlegt. 1881 wurde, vom nordwestlichen Ende des Bahnhofs ausgehend, ein Verbindungsgleis zur Wiener Verbindungsbahn Richtung Nordbahnhof eröffnet. Die nördlich des Bahnhofs entlang führende Straße erhielt 1894 den Namen Aspangstraße; zuvor hieß sie, wie heute noch im 11. Bezirk entlang der Bahntrasse, Am Kanal.

1937 übernahmen die Bundesbahnen Österreich den Bahnbetrieb,

Deportation of Jews and Romani people

Deportation trains from Aspangbahnhof

Main articles: History of the Jews in Austria § The Holocaust in Austria, and Porajmos

Roughly one third of Austria's Jewish population of 1938 was murdered by the Nazi regime during the Shoah. This group lost about 65.500 people. Roughly two thirds of Austria's population of Romani and Sinti descent were murdered in the course of the Porajmos. This group lost about 8.000 men, women and children.

Nach dem „Anschluss“ Österreichs an das Deutsche Reich im Jahr 1938 war der Bahnhof bis 1942 Ausgangspunkt für die Deportation der jüdischen Bürger Wiens: Von Oktober 1939 bis Oktober 1942 wurden insgesamt etwa 50.000 jüdische Wiener zusammengetrieben und vom Aspangbahnhof aus in 47 Transporten zunächst in Ghettos genannte Sammellager, später direkt in Konzentrations- und Vernichtungslager des NS-Regimes abtransportiert. Ab 1943 erfolgte die Abfertigung der Deportationszüge vom Nordbahnhof aus.

The destinations of the deportations trains were:

• Nisko, two trains in October of 1939 with 1,584 persons
• Opole, two trains in February of 1941 with 2,045 persons
• Kielce, one train in February of 1941 with 1,010 persons
• Modliborzyce, one train in March of 1941 with 981 persons
• Łagów/Opatow, one train in March of 1941 with 995 persons
• Litzmannstadt (polish: Łódź), five trains in October and November of 1941 with 4,995 persons
• Kaunas, one train in November of 1941 with 995 persons
• Minsk, one train in November of 1941 with 999 persons

Starting in 1943, the deportations took place from another railway station, the Nordbahnhof in Leopoldstadt, the second district of Vienna.

Remembrance

The history of the Memorial goes back nearly 35 years. Several survivors, their families and friends started to organize vigils on the grounds of the former railway station. The vigils were held on each 9^th November, the recurrence of the November pogroms of 1938 in Germany and annexed Austria. It took a long time for Viennese authorities to understand the traumatic experience of the Jewish citizens of Vienna being deported and for ever separated from their hometown.

It was Leo Luster, himself deported from Aspangbahnhof, then survivor of the Holocaust, emigrant to Israel in 1949, who insisted on a monument to remember these cruel deportations. In 1983 it was a private initiative who financed and placed a memorial stone with this inscription:

IN DEN JAHREN 1939-1942 WURDEN VOM EHEMALIGEN ASPANGBAHHOF ZEHNTAUSENDE ÖSTERREICHISCHE JUDEN IN VERNICHTUNGSLAGER DEPORTIERT UND KEHRTEN NICHT MEHR ZURÜCK NIEMALS VERGESSEN

IN THE YEARS 1939 TO 1942 FROM FORMER ASPANG RAILWAY STATION THOUSANDS OF AUSTRIAN JEWS WERE DEPORTED TO EXTERMINATION CAMPS AND THEY NEVER CAME BACK NEVER FORGET

Square of the Victims of Deportation Rubin Pittmann Promenade

Leon-Zelman-Park Leon Zelman

Der Gedenkstein wurde innerhalb des „Platzes der Opfer der Deportation“ neu positioniert (Stand: Oktober 2015). Seine Inschrift lautet:

• 
  Memorial stone,
  1983
• 
  Square of the Victims of Deportation, 1995
• 
  Leon-Zelmann-Park, 2008
• 
  Rubin-Bittmann-Promenade, 2010

In the vicinity several streets have been named after prominent emigrants and survivors of the Nazi regime:

• Anna Hand (1911–1987), a communist and resistance fighter, 1943 to 1945 at Ravensbrück concentration camp
• Teddy Kollek (1911-2007), emigrated to Palestine in 1935, mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993
• Leo Perutz (1882-1957), novelist and mathematician, emigrated to Palestine in 1938
• Otto Preminger (1905-1986), theatre and film director, emigrated to the United States in 1935
• Joseph Schmidt (1904–1942), tenor and actor, emigrated to Switzerland shortly before his death
• Fred Zinnemann (1907-1997), film director, emigrated to the United States in 1929

Decision and first project

Die Gedenkstätte soll ein Ort für die Rückbesinnung sein. Für die Gestaltung der Gedenkstätte war ein internationaler Gestaltungswettbewerb durchgeführt worden, im Vorfeld ein Schülerwettbewerb. Eine Jury unter Vorsitz des Direktors des Wiener Museums für Moderne Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Edelbert Köb, zeichnete fünf Projekte aus und empfahl jenes aus Stuttgart.

[1]

In 2010, KÖR took over the project from the City of Vienna. After ground tests in Aspang, it was decided not to implement the planned project, because this would not have been technically possible and would have blown up the cost frame, said it on Tuesday against wien.ORF.at.

Project No. 2

The monuments consists of symbolic concrete struts that run at the ground, which are tapered and end in a dark concrete block with a height of about 1.2 meters high and a length of seven meters. This concrete block can also be seen as a symbolic grave. The jury described the message of the monument as a "very direct journey into uncertainty or death".

Prinzgau/Podgorschek

[2]

Quote

In the design of the memorial, we decided to make the installation as simple and reserved as possible. Such a horror, as the Aspanggründe, does not require a pompous representation. The deeper we were engaged in our research into the subject, the more we saw ourselves confronted with our own speechlessness. Where words are no longer sufficient, symbols have to be found that are readable by everyone outside language barriers. The converging tracks end in a catastrophe, the concrete block recalls a gravestone. The installation fits well into the modern cityscape in terms of form and material, yet it is irritating enough to allow residents and passers-by to pause and allow moments of reflection. "PRINZpod

Inauguration

The inauguration ceremony took place on 7 September 2017. A crowd of about 250 people gathered, speeches were held, TV stations and other media reported. Historian Heidemarie Uhl explained the historic context. Her speech was followed by the statements of two politicians from the Social Democratic Party of Austria (both members of the City Council), of David Ellensohn from the Green Party and by the Ambassador of Israel in Austria. Vienna's Jewish community was represented by Chief Rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg who spoke the Kaddish and by Oskar Deutsch, president of the Vienna Israelite Community. Instead of deceased Leo Luster his friend and fellow survivor Herbert Schrott remembered the dramatic events of the deportations. Music by Samuel Barber was played by students of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, a poem by Hirsh Glick was presented by Roman Grinberg.

Artists PRINZpod were present.

Literature

• Florian Freund / Hans Safrian: Vertreibung und Ermordung. Zum Schicksal der österreichischen Juden 1938-1945. Das Projekt "Namentliche Erfassung der österreichischen Holocaustopfer". Wien: Dokumentationsarchiv d. Österr. Widerstandes 1993
• Jonny Moser: Österreich. In: Wolfgang Benz (ed.): Dimension des Völkermords. Die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. München: Oldenbourg 1991, p. 67-93

Leo Luster

Leo Luster (3 May 1927 — 14 January 2017) was an Austrian survivor of the Holocaust. Together with his mother he emigrated to Israel in 1949, where he worked as driver of the Austrian embassy. He became an important witness of the Shoah, helped many emigrates from Austria and instigated the Memorial for the Victims of Nazi deportations, located on the grounds of the former railway station Aspangbahnhof in Vienna.

Life

Leo Luster was born in Vienna to

and grew up to his Deportation in Schregasse 12, in the second Viennese Community district. In 1942 he became a member of the Sammellager Sperlgasse: "We are on the 24th. September 1942 from the Sammellager in the Sperlgasse 2a, a former Jewish school, on open Truck cars, among which we are accused by the People were taken to the Aspang station "(Luster, Int.Tanja Eckstein) Leo Luster survived Auschwitz and was in 1949 with his mother to emigrate to Israel. In the years after his retirement, he was long years the chauffeur of the Austrian ambassador in Tel Aviv, he worked voluntarily in the Central Committee of the Jews from Austria in Israel. Leo Luster has many expelled Austrian Jews helped their pension of Austria to apply for and also get. Tel Aviv. Nava Keidar und Moshe Luster

Memorial Aspangbahnhof

He has recently set up a memorial the grounds of the former Aspang station.

Remembrance

On 13 March 2017 a memorial ceremony for Leo Luster was held in Vienna's Nestroyhof, home of the Ha'makom theatre. Several prominent personalities of Austria's civil society were present as well as representatives from the district, the City of Vienna and the Republic of Austria such as Doris Bures, president of the Austrian Parliament, and Hannah Lessing, secretary general of the Austrian National Fund.

On 7 September 2017 the Memorial for the Victims of Nazi deportations at the grounds of the former Aspangbahnhof was inaugurated. Leo Luster had instigated the creation of this monument and was mentioned in several speeches during the opening ceremony.

Audiovisual documents

• Leo Luster: Interview with Ben Segenreich, ORF 2011
• „Leo“, Ausschnitte aus dem Kinofilm „Call me a Jew“. (20 Min.) Regisseur Michael Pfeifenberger über „Leo“.