Austria has emerged as a leader in the fight against antisemitism, and has become one of Israel’s biggest supporters in the European Union, the head of Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial said on Tuesday.
The unequivocal remarks come as the Austrian Parliament inaugurated a Holocaust exhibition amid a wave of antisemitism throughout Europe in the wake of Israel’s year-long war against Hamas in Gaza.
The event also coincides with an uncertain political period in Austria, where the far right emerged in recent elections as the dominant political bloc.
“Austria has undergone a gradual but clear journey in coming to terms with the past and now talks openly and wholeheartedly about its role as a perpetrator of the Shoah,” Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan told JNS in a telephone interview from Vienna. “It is important that this important journey continues and is not reversed by different political developments.”
The comments by the head of Israel’s Holocaust museum come nearly a century after persecution of Austrian Jews intensified ahead of the 1938 Anschluss, or annexation, of Austria to the German Reich.
About 125,000 of Austria’s nearly 200,000-strong pre-war Jewish community fled before the outbreak of the war in 1939, but nearly 65,000 of those who did not manage to escape were killed in the Nazi concentration camps.
In the three decades after formally admitting its role in the Holocaust, Austria has made a virtual about-face from earlier denials of collaboration with Nazi Germany.
“Austria was the most energetic in formulating a strategy against antisemitism and is committed to combating it even if it is lower in Austria than elsewhere in Europe,” said Dayan. “This is leadership that is committed to fighting antisemitism not just in words but in actions.”
Dayan also met on Monday with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who is heading a caretaker government following the recent Austrian elections, and the two signed a memorandum of understanding for continued partnership in Holocaust education.
“The work of Yad Vashem is most essential and invaluable for our collective consciousness with regard to our historic responsibility,” Nehammer tweeted on Tuesday.