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Holocaust education in Austria: A (hi)story of complexity and ambivalence

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Abstract

In Austria, activities for teaching about and remembering the Holocaust have concentrated mainly on National Socialism and its atrocities. Austria’s history of political anti-Semitism goes back to the 19th century, however, and has been widely and publicly acknowledged. It has always been linked to nationalistic tendencies that are still present today and rarely reflected upon, including the anti-Slavic and anti-Turkish attitudes that right-wing parties use to gain supporters. Vienna’s special place of remembrance, the Heldenplatz, with its monuments and history, is a useful place to begin examining Austrian identities and the course of collective Austrian ways of thinking. Based on that examination, we then consider Austria’s daily politics and treatment of the past. We next turn to Holocaust education after the war, which has had an impressive impact after a late start, and mention some of its drawbacks and problems. We next discuss the lack of serious research about memorials in Austria, as compared with Germany, and present initial results from a project that started in spring 2009 to examine knowledge gains and attitude changes among students after they visit the Mauthausen concentration camp.

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Notes

  1. Jörg Haider’s former party; in 2005 it split into the FPÖ and the BZÖ, which together garnered about 28.2% of the votes in the 2008 election.

  2. October 26 is set aside to remember Austria’s neutrality. On October 26, 1955, the Parliament passed the law establishing the holiday after the four allies left Austria. For many Austrians the date commemorates their liberation not by the allies but from the occupying forces.

  3. At present it is not possible to be a German Nationalist in Austria but it was a major issue in Austrian politics before World War II, in connection to anti-Semitism, anti-Slavism, and feelings that Austria was a part of Germany. Since 1945, a new kind of Austrian-German nationalism has developed, based on the German language, on xenophobic attitudes, and especially, since 2001, on positions against Turks, Muslims, and people from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The historical connections stem from Karl Lueger, who was the lord mayor of Vienna around 1900, and from Engelbert Dollfuss, the chancellor who abolished democracy in 1933. By unreflected, we mean that people do not know the roots of their attitudes, as they have been transferred over generations; populist politicians such as Jörg Haider and now H. C. Strache, the new leader of the right wing, are using them very successfully.

  4. The enthusiastic support was organized by the Nazis, who had not won more than 5% of the vote in any election before 1938 (3% in 1930). Many Austrians were German-Austrian nationalists, and German nationalism was a major political issue. For example, Karl Renner, the famous Austrian social democrat and chancellor in 1920, voted for Hitler because in 1918, like many Austrians, he had wanted Austria to be a part of Germany. The greater evil was to be a small country outside Germany after being part of such a large and important monarchy. Still, many people closed their eyes to politics and support for the Nazis was less enthusiastic than some hoped. This is a typical Austrian “unpolitical” attitude. Many people were German nationalists and had much in common with the Nazis, but did not support the Nazi Party.

  5. Historians like Brigitte Hamann (1996) say that Hitler learned his politics in Austria. Moving to Germany, he combined political ideas from Austria with Prussian militarism, for example supporting Vienna’s Lord Mayor, Karl Lueger.

  6. “We have always felt and still feel that the connotation of ‘collective guilt’ does not apply to Austria. But we do acknowledge collective responsibility, the responsibility of each and every one of us to remember and seek justice. We share moral responsibility, because many Austrians welcomed the ‘Anschluss’, supported the Nazi regime and helped it to function…” (cited in Botz and Sprengnagel 1994, p. 579).

  7. The Holocaust is only one part of democratic education, and not a major or specific topic. In history courses, it is included in the curricula under World War II and often under the heading of totalitarianism, combined with communism, etc. Teachers are responsible for addressing the subject in their lessons, but no common consensus exists on how to do it.

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  1. Christian Churches’ University of Education in Vienna/Krems, Mayerweckstr. 1, 1210, Vienna, Austria

    Heribert Bastel, Christian Matzka & Helene Miklas

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Correspondence to Christian Matzka.

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Bastel, H., Matzka, C. & Miklas, H. Holocaust education in Austria: A (hi)story of complexity and ambivalence. Prospects 40, 57–73 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-010-9147-5

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