Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service


Gedenkdienst is the concept of facing and taking responsibility for the darkest chapters of one's own country's history while being financially supported by one's own country's government to do so. Founded in Austria in 1992 by Dr. Andreas Maislinger the Gedenkdienst is an alternative to Austria's compulsory national military service as well as a volunteering platform for Austrians to work in Holocaust-related institutions around the world with governmental financial support. In Austria it is also referred to as Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service provided by the Austrian Service Abroad. The Austrian Gedenkdienst serves the remembrance of the crimes of Nazism and commemorates its victims.

Concept

Gedenkdienst is the concept of facing and taking responsibility for the darkest chapters of one's own country's history while being financially supported by one's own government to do so. Gedenkdienst has the acknowledgment of, the apology for and the assumption of responsibility for atrocities done by one's own country's society in history as its basis.
Gedenkdienst is not the attribution of past guilt to other people but other people taking responsibility for evil done by perpetrators of their own country.
Gedenkdienst is about honesty with one's country's past and the desire to rectify past wrongs.
Gedenkdienst is about laying a foundation for a transformation of the relationship of the conflicted parties towards improvement.
Gedenkdienst is about providing people of the perpetrator's side a platform for education and going to the victim's side to serve the remembrance of the evil done and the commemoration of its victims.
Gedenkdienst is about peace on the basis of honesty regarding the past.
In the case of Austria the Gedenkdienst remembers the Holocaust. In other countries a Gedenkdienst may remember different atrocities.

History

Origin

The historian, political scientist and scientific director of the Braunau Contemporary History Days Dr. Andreas Maislinger promoted the idea of an alternative service to the compulsory military service dedicated to the research, understanding and remembrance of the Holocaust as well as the commemoration of its victims since the late 1970s. On October 10 1980 he was invited by political scientist Prof. Anton Pelinka to present his "civilian service in Auschwitz" in Dolores Bauer's television-broadcast "Kreuzverhör". In a response the Austrian Federal President Rudolf Kirchschläger rejected his idea with the statement "An Austrian has nothing to atone in Auschwitz". Later Kirchschläger backtracked on his statement acknowledging the "positive achievement" of the "accomplished holocaust memorial service" of Andreas Maislinger.
1980/81 Maislinger volunteered together with Joachim Schlör in the Poland department of the German Action Reconciliation Service for Peace. In the Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau he guided German teenager groups. After his return he was more convinced than ever to realize a similar programme in Austria. In this endeavor he was supported by Simon Wiesenthal, Teddy Kollek, Ari Rath, Herbert Rosenkranz, Gerhard Röthler and Karl Pfeifer.
In 1991 Austrian chancellor Franz Vranitzky was the first chancellor of Austria to admit and acknowledge the Austrian people's share of responsibility for the crimes committed by National Socialism during WWII. The new approach rejected the then established myth of Austria merely being the first victim of Nazism. This signaled a new approach within the Austrian political establishment regarding its stance and treatment of Austria's and Austrians' roles during the time of National Socialism. The Gedenkdienst is an outflow of this recognition.

Realisation

In 1991 Andreas Maislinger received a letter from the Minister of Interior Franz Löschnak informing him that the Gedenkdienst was permitted by the Austrian government to be an alternative to the civilian service. The needed funds would be provided by the Federal Ministry of Interior.

Acknowledgments

"I follow the works of the Gedenkdienst with great interest and the organization has my full support."
"I often claimed there is no Austrian association which sends young people to Israel, like the German organization “Aktion Sühnezeichen”. It touched me to read there is now, thanks to the possibility to perform the Austrian civilian service within the framework of the Gedenkdienst."
"As a former Polish political prisoner of a fascist Concentration Camp and historian of World War II, I want to take the honoring opportunity to speak in front of the high house. I want to thank all the young Austrians, which work so hard for the remembrance of the past. Here I specially think of the people of the documentation archive of the Austrian resistance under the leadership of Prof. Wolfgang Neugebauer, the Austrian Camp Community Mauthausen, the Gedenkdienst, and also the local initiatives of the communities Gusen, Langenstein und St. Georgen in Oberösterreich, the working circle for homeland, memorial and history care."
"I thank you for the information about the positive result from your accomplished Gedenkdienst."
"The Gedenkdienst is a very impressive initiative."
"I feel very close to this organization and I have great respect for the servants, because what they achieve is the right way for Austria – to look the past directly into the eyes and to do something against it. Not to say, we were the first victims."
"I like to support and recommend the Gedenkdienst initiative. It is a real service which can be and should be provided by young people."
"Many people have no idea what those young Austrians achieve for themselves, that they straighten up their backbones, so they can walk straight again, also myself, who belongs to this generation."
"I consider the project Gedenkdienst as an important and valuable initiative in the service of peace and the peoples' communication."
"Gedenkdienst is remembrance work, which is also a bridge between “Yesterday's World” and the modern and democratic Austria. It also is a reminder that today's values like a sense of responsibility and moral courage did not lose their importance."
"Each Generation has to be aware of the horror of the past, to be able to build a new world of peace and respect for human rights. The project Gedenkdienst serves this important challenge of sensitizing for the meaning of the words “Never forget."

Supporting associations

Austrian Service Abroad since 1998 (Österreichsicher Auslandsdienst)

and Andreas Hörtnagl founded the organization "Austrian Service Abroad" in 1998.
The organization is the largest in Austria and sends Auslandsdiener to six continents of the world to accomplish Holocaust commemoration work, social services and peace services. The Austrian Service Abroad is characterized by offering three types of service: the Gedenkdienst, the Austrian Social Service and the Austrian Peace Service.

The Gedenkdienst since 1992

Walter Gruggenberger, Andreas Hörtnagl and Andreas Maislinger founded the association of the Gedenkdienst in 1992. The association wanted to enhance Holocaust awareness, including its causes and consequences. The association is responsible for the assortment and care of its volunteers before, during and after their service. The volunteers have the possibility to apply for one of the partner organizations. In addition to that understanding the role of the Austrians as offenders, victims and bystanders is very important. Also women have the possibility to provide a one-year-long Gedenkdienst as part of the European Voluntary Service. Female volunteers were sponsored for the first time in the year 2008 by the "Geschwister-Mezei-Fond", which was created with the goal to give women the possibility to accomplish the Gedenkdienst under the same conditions as civilian servants.

Association Never Forget since 1994 (defunct)

The association provided positions in 19 memorial sites in Germany and Poland. The association "Never Forget" took an active part in youth work against forgetting. The association stopped operations and became defunct in 2017.

Partner organizations

The main task of the volunteer is to give guided tours through the museum showing the 51-year period in the 20th century when Latvia was successively occupied by Nazi Germany and the USSR. Furthermore, the volunteer works in close cooperation with the Museum "Jews in Latvia". It was established to research, popularize and commemorate the history of Latvia's Jewish community. The museum's founder Margers Vestermanis was awarded the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award in 2015 in honor for his work reviving Jewish culture in Latvia. The other volunteer's tasks are versatile like the translation of documents, the digitization of artifacts or the planning of temporary exhibits.

Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award

Andreas Maislinger also initiated the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award, rewarding people who actively contribute to the remembrance of the Holocaust. On 17 October 2006 the Chinese historian Pan Guang was awarded the first AHMA prize. Further recipients were the Brazilian journalist Alberto Dines, French Robert Hébras, who was one of only six people, who survived the Massacre of Oradour and Lithuanian-American Holocaust survivor and co-founder of the Virginia Holocaust Museum Jay M. Ipson. In October 2010 Eva Marks was honored with the AHMA by Austrian Ambassador Hannes Porias in Melbourne.

Honoring

In 2005 the founder of the Gedenkdienst Andreas Maislinger received the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria in Silver from the president of Austria, Heinz Fischer, and the Medal of Merit of the state of Tirol from Herwig van Staa and Luis Durnwalder.
On 8 November 2009 Maislinger was awarded with a Lifetime Achievement Award for "his 10 year fight to obtain official recognition of alternative, philanthropic service" at the Annual Dinner of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust together with Holocaust survivor and producer of Schindler's List Branko Lustig.