TRAVEL
Vienna, a Diverse Jewish Mosaic Looking to the future while acknowledging the past By Liam Hoare
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t is morning, and the sun rising in the east throws its light upon the Kashmir Gold granite of the Shoah Wall of Names, Vienna’s recently unveiled Holocaust memorial. The monument—composed of around 160 stone walls, each a little under 7 feet in height—stands in parkland before Austria’s National Bank. The slabs run for around 220 yards in an oval shape, encircling a central green space planted with saplings. On the day of my fall visit, the bases of the walls were dotted with pebbles and extinguished candles, while leaves littered the ground. Upon the walls are etched the names of the 64,400 Austrian Jewish men, women and children who died in the Holocaust. The memorial was officially opened by then-chancellor Alexander Schallenberg in early November 2021 and is one of the newest additions to
the Austrian capital’s collection of monuments and memorials. The city already has two Holocaust memorials invested with Jewish memory: Rachel Whitehead’s depiction of a library whose rows of books have been turned inside out so that their spines are not visible, which sits prominently on Judenplatz; and a pair of railway tracks that mark the site of the former Aspang station from which 47,035 Holocaust victims were deported. The Wall of Names, however, is fundamentally different since it renders the Shoah not in the abstract but according to its human dimensions: as a tragedy affecting the individuals and families whose names are now set in stone for all eternity. Once the capital of a vast central European land empire, contemporary Vienna is a multinational city of 1.9 million residents and a focal point for A Reimagined Library
SHUTTERSTOCK
Rachel Whitehead’s Holocaust memorial sits prominently on Judenplatz.
MARCH/APRIL 2022
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German-speaking culture and international diplomacy. Located at the Eastern end of the Alps and bisected by the Danube River—Europe’s second longest—the city is composed of 23 districts. The hills and forests ringing the city constitute its green lungs and serve as the perfect spot for late summer walks in the woods or a glass of wine in the vineyards. In the fall, winter and spring, the evenings are for the opera or the cozy confines of the coffeehouse. Vienna is home to the vast majority of Austria’s Jews, a population that currently numbers an estimated
WHAT TO SEE St. Stephen’s Cathedral on Stephansplatz marks the center of Vienna, and it is from here that the city’s main axes branch out: Rotenturmstrasse heading north toward the Danube Canal; Kärntnerstrasse, which will take you south toward the State Opera House; and Graben running roughly eastwest. Take Rotenturmstrasse to get to the Stadttempel (Seitenstettengasse 4). On the other side of the canal is the site of the former Leopoldstädter Tempel (Tempelgasse 6), where an outdoor exhibit details the history of the synagogue that once stood there. The Jewish Museum Vienna (Dorotheergasse 11; jmw.at), one of Europe’s finest Jewish museums and the ideal starting point for understanding the city’s contemporary Jewish history, is located on a side street off Graben. Highlights include a bicycle that once belonged to Theodor Herzl, which now hangs in the museum’s atrium, and a private collection of Judaica located on the museum’s top floor. The institution’s sister branch, at Judenplatz 8, showcases the Judaism of medieval times in a newly renovated exhibit that includes the foundations of a synagogue destroyed in the 14th century. The city center is encircled by the Ringstrasse, and a walk around the famed
