Austrian Service Abroad


The Austrian Service Abroad is a non-profit organization founded by Dr. Andreas Maislinger in 1998 sending young Austrians to work in partner institutions worldwide serving Holocaust commemoration in form of the Gedenkdienst, supporting vulnerable social groups in form of the Austrian Social Service and realizing projects of peace within the framework of the Austrian Peace Service. The Austrian Service Abroad is the issuer of the annually conferred Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award. The program is funded by the Austrian government.

Origin

The Austrian Service Abroad has its origin in the acknowledgement of the Austrian government, in particular by chancellor Franz Vranitzky in 1991, regarding the Austrian people's share of responsibility for the crimes committed by National Socialism during WWII. Andreas Maislinger had been a vocal advocate of such an acknowledgement since his student years. The Austrian Service Abroad is an outflow of this recognition. The initiative initially started in form of the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service in 1992. In 1998 the organization Austrian Service Abroad was founded, adding the Austrian Social Service and the Austrian Peace Service.

General information

The organisation provides young male Austrians a government funded alternative to the compulsory military service by sending them to institutions of Holocaust commemoration, social service or peace promotion for a time period of at least 10 months. In addition, it also provides volunteers a platform to work in its partner institutions for 6 to 12 months, while being financially supported by the Austrian government for their work abroad.
Before being sent out as Austrian Servants Abroad the candidates undergo a preparation period during which they are educated on the subject-matter relevant to their place of assignment. In addition, they are also being trained with professional skills via contributing to the work-flow of the organization.
Once a year the president of Austria and the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs invite all Austrian Servants Abroad of the year before departure for a reception at the Hofburg and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs respectively. The Austrian Servants Abroad are commonly referred to as "little ambassadors of Austria".
The Austrian Service Abroad is headquartered in Innsbruck and has an office in Vienna. In addition, upcoming Austrian Servants Abroad physically meet monthly in the capital of each of the 9 federal states of Austria.
in front of the Auschwitz Jewish Center, Poland 2009
The Austrian Service Abroad is non-confessional and non-partisan.
The Austrian Service Abroad provides services in 9 so-called "Areas" around the world:
  1. Area South America
  2. Area Central America
  3. Area North America
  4. Area Western Europe
  5. Area Eastern Europe
  6. Area Mediterrean
  7. Area East Asia - Oceania
  8. Area South Asia
  9. Area Africa
The Austrian Service Abroad cooperates with the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The servants abroad are obliged to cooperate with the Austrian embassy in their respective host country.
Examples of partner institutions / organizations are the Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oswiecim, Poland, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, United States, the Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai in Shanghai, China, the Russian Research and Educational Holocaust Center in Moscow, Russia, the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne, Australia, the in Budapest, Hungary, the in Pune, India and in Zigoti, Uganda.
The Austrian Service Abroad is also a partner of the partnering on the initiative in conjunction with the Austrian Ministry of Social Affairs.
Originally named 'Association for Services Abroad' it was renamed to Austrian Service Abroad in 2006. Since 2001 Michael Prochazka is part of its managing committee.

Vision Statement

A peaceful and socially humane world rooted in responsibility derived from the lessons of history.

Mission Statement

Educating young people on the subjects of memoria, misericordia and pax, derived from and aimed at responsibility, and sending them to serve at worldwide partner institutions remembering the crimes of Nazism and commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, supporting vulnerable social groups and realizing projects of peace, while being financially supported to do so by their government.

Legal Framework

The Austrian Service Abroad is funded and supervised by the Austrian Ministry of Social Affairs and subject to the Austrian Federal Act on the Promotion of Voluntary Services

Types of service

Austrian Service Abroad offers three different types:
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. 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 about honesty with one's country's past and the desire to rectify past wrongs. 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.
The program was founded in 1992 and has been a part of the association Austrian Service Abroad since 1998. It remembers the crimes of Nazism and commemorates its victims. Gedenkdiener work for Holocaust remembrance memorials and institutions as well as research facilities. Examples are the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, the Jewish Museum Berlin, the Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oswiecim or Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
In addition, Austrian Holocaust Memorial servants are also sent to serve in former refuge countries of the victim groups persecuted by the Nazis, for example to the Casa Stefan Zweig in Petrópolis or the Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai.
The program annually confers the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award to actors "who have shown special endeavors for the memory of the Shoah".
Austrian social servants serve vulnerable social groups, support the economic and social development of the host country and contribute to environmental protection. They are active in projects relating to street-children, homeless people, educational projects and children villages, elderly and handicapped care, medical care, etc.
An example type of project is the improvement of drinking water supplies in countries of the Third World. Andreas Daniel Matt, the first Austrian social servant was sent in 2004 to a SOS children's village in Lahore.
Since October 1998 hundreds of Austrian social servants have been assigned mainly to countries in Central and South America, Africa and Asia.
Since 2018 the Austrian Service Abroad also partakes in the program , sending young Austrians to do social service at child-care places and handicapped-care facilities in the state of Israel in cooperation with the .
Peace servants are stationed in organizations serving the achievement and protection of peace in connection with armed conflicts. They work, for example, at the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation in Japan or the John Rabe House in Nanjing, China.

Awards

On September 3 2019 the Austrian Service Abroad received the John Rabe Peace Award, issued by the John Rabe Communication Centre, for the contributions of the Austrian Service Abroad for peace between different cultures.

International Council

The International Council is the advisory arm for the executive committee of the Austrian Service Abroad regarding all matters of the respective country.
Ernst Florian Winter, former Chairman
, former Chairman of the International Council
The national council is the domestic advisory arm for the executive committee of the Austrian Service Abroad.
The US is currently the country with the largest number of places offered for Holocaust Memorial Service. Holocaust Museums and Memorial Institutions like the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation in Los Angeles received several Holocaust Memorial Servants since the 1990s.
in Nanjing
in Israel
in Richmond
At present, Austrian Service Abroad sends young Austrians to the following partner institutions:

Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award

In 2006 Andreas Maislinger, chairman of the Austrian Service Abroad, initiated the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award. Winners:
2006: Prof. Pan Guang, Shanghai, PR China.
2007: Alberto Dines, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2008: Robert Hébras, Oradour-sur-Glane, France
2009: Jay M. Ipson, Richmond, Virginia, United States
2010: Eva Marks, Melbourne, Australia
2011: Auschwitz Jewish Center, Oswiecim, Poland
2012: Ladislaus Löb, United Kingdom
2013: Hugo Höllenreiner, Munich, Germany
2014: Marģers Vestermanis, Riga, Latvia
2015: Erika Rosenberg, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2016: Giorgio Frassineti, Predappio, Italy
2017: Ruben Fuks, Belgrade, Serbia
2018: Alla Gerber and Ilya Altman, Moscow, Russia
2019: Tomislav Dulic, Uppsala, Sweden

Austrian Servant Abroad of the Year

2004 Stefan Stoev, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC, United States
2005 , SOS Children's Villages Lahore, Pakistan
2006 , Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai, China
2007 , Yad Vashem Jerusalem, Israel
2008 , Centre de la mémoire d'Oradour, France & Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai, China
2009 , Auschwitz Jewish Center, Poland & Virginia Holocaust Museum, United States
2010 , GU SRZ Vera, Russia
2011 , , Czech Republic,

, Russian Research and Educational Holocaust Center, Russia & , Italy & Dokumentation Obersalzberg, Germany,

, & Finca Salvador, Costa Rica

Ethical Foundation

The core concept underlying the initiative of the Austrian Service Abroad is the concept of responsibility. Hereby the initiative is guided by the ethics conceptualized by the Jewish philosopher Hans Jonas who defined the following supreme moral imperative: "Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life". By integrating the chronological dimensions of past, present and future, in addition to the totality of humanity and the full dimension of space, the Austrian Service Abroad is about supporting life in an ethical, sustainable, global, responsible and permanent manner.