Antiziganism and Ambivalence in Europe (1850-1950)

The DFG research group “Antiziganism and Ambivalence in Europe (1850-1950)“ at Europa-Universität Flensburg explores the intertwined history of representations of other and self-articulations that contributed to the inclusion and emancipation as well as the exclusion and elimination of Sinti and Roma in Europe between 1850 and 1950. The VWI is supporting sub-project 6 (TP 6), “Transformations of the police antiziganist discourse: From the ‘racial’ paradigm to genocidal practice (1850-1950)”, which is based at the Antiziganism Research Center at Heidelberg University. Other partners include the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma, the Fritz Bauer Institute, the Central European University (Department of History, Department of Gender Studies), and the German Historical Institute Washington DC.

The Advisory Board of the research group includes Mirjam Karoly (VWI) and Maria Bogdan (European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture, Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies/VWI).

EHRI: VWI’s Marianne Windsperger elected as Vice-Chair

The European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI), now established as a permanent organisation, has adopted a new governance structure, distinct from its previous project-based framework. One important governance body is the National Coordinators Committee (NCC) that gathered for the first time in March 2025 in Zagreb. During theNCC Meeting,Rachel Pistol (UK,University of Southhampton) was elected as Chair; Marianne Windsperger (AT, Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies) was elected as Vice-Chair. She is a researcher at the VWI, member of the editorial board of the open access journal S:I.M.O.N., and a co-worker in the VWI Fellowship Programme.

Find out more about the NCC meeting here.

Ö1 Betrifft: Geschichte – „Österreich 1938“

This week from 10 to 14 March 2025, at 15:55, in ‘Betrifft: Geschichte’ on Ö1: Austria 1938 - Everyday life in the face of violence, looting and expulsion.

With: Regina Fritz, Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna, and Philipp Rohrbach, Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI).

Episodes (in German): -1- / -2- / -3- / -4- / -5-

European Holocaust Research Infrastructure becomes 30th EU-Recognised Research Consortium: A major milestone in Holocaust studies

On 26 January 2025 – on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau – EHRI was launched as an ERIC. This European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) will form a solid foundation for future Holocaust research and documentation in Europe and beyond. The inauguration ceremony took place in the POLIN Museum in Warsaw and was attended by representatives of the 10 founding members, long-term EHRI project members, members of the national nodes and the wider EHRI-community. In their speeches the official representatives highlighted the importance of Holocaust research and documentation in the fight against Holocaust distortion, in the education of empathic young adults, in combatting antisemitism and other forms of racism and in protecting the facts. With the rise of right-wing nationalism, populism and illiberal politics in many European countries, the protection of academic freedom will be at the core of what EHRI-ERIC stands for. Austria is one of the founding members – the VWI as coordinating institution of EHRI-AT is looking forward to work with its Austrian partners in order to secure transnational research and documentation.

Photo: Maciek Jazwiecki

Teaching about the Roma Genocide. Prospects and Challenges: Conference report now online

“It is key to bring the Roma Agency and Roma perspectives into education about the Genocide of the Roma. By centering Roma voices, this has the potential to empower Roma, support their organisations, and promote a diverse and constructive learning environment for both teachers and students”, say participants at the international workshop “Teaching about the Roma Genocide. Prospects and Challenges” hosted by the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) in cooperation with the OeAD/ERINNERN:AT on 26-27 September 2024. The workshop was realised at the suggestion and with the financial support of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research.
Read the conference report here.

Museum Simon Wiesenthal awarded with the Austrian Museum Seal of Quality

The Future of Memory - Museum Simon Wiesenthal was honoured with the Austrian Museum Seal of Quality on Wednesday, 9 October 2024. The award emphasises particularly high-quality and excellent museum work and highlights the highest quality standards in the Austrian museum community to date. It is also a commitment to the responsibility of preserving cultural heritage, recognising the ICOM Ethical Guidelines for Museums and offering visitors an outstanding museum experience. We are delighted to have been recognised and are devoting ourselves to all the next steps to expand the experience of ‘The Future of Memory - Museum Simon Wiesenthal’ and make it even more accessible.

Angelika Brechelmacher, Deputy Director of the VWI, and Sandro Fasching, responsible for the Museum Simon Wiesenthal, accepted the seal of approval at the ceremony at Wien Museum organised by ICOM Austria and the Museumsbund Österreich. Eleven new museums throughout Austria were recognised and the seal of approval was renewed for 109 institutions.

Photo (c) Kollektiv Fischka

Connected Histories. Memories and Narratives of the Holocaust in Digital Space

Edited by: Eva Pfanzelter, Dirk Rupnow, Kovács Éva and Marianne Windsperger
De Gruyter Brill Oldenbourg

New Open Access Publication by EHRI-AT Partners:
The edited volume Connected Histories. Memories and Narratives in Digital Space has been published in the De Gruyter Series "Studies in Digital History and Hermeneutics". Contributions are based on the first EHRI-AT Conference.

The World Wide Web (WWW) and digitisation have become important sites and tools for the history of the Holocaust and its commemoration. Today, some memory institutions use the Internet at a high professional level as a venue for self-presentation and as a forum for the discussion of Holocaust-related topics for potentially international, transcultural and interdisciplinary user groups. At the same time, it is not always the established institutions that utilise the technical possibilities and potential of the Internet to the maximum. Creative and sometimes controversial new forms of storytelling of the Holocaust or more traditional ways of remembering the genocide presented in a new way with digital media often come from people or groups who are not in the realm of influence of the large memorial sites, museums and archives. Such "private" stagings have experienced a particular upswing since the boom of social media. This democratisation of Holocaust memory and history is crucial though it is as yet undecided how much it will ultimately reinforce old structures and cultural, regional or other inequalities or reinvent them.

The “Digital space” as an arbitrary and limitless archive for the mediation of the Holocaust spanning from Russia to Brazil is at the centre of the essays collected in this volume. This space is also considered as a forum for negotiation, a meeting place and a battleground for generations and stories and as such offers the opportunity to reconsider the transgenerational transmission of trauma, family histories and communication. Here it becomes evident: there are new societal intentions and decision-making structures that exceed the capabilities of traditional mass media and thrive on the participation of a broad public.

Authors:
Eva Pfanzelter, Éva Kovács, Dirk Rupnow, Marianne Windsperger, Mykola Makhortykh, Aleksandra Urman, Roberto Ulloa, Marya Sydorova, Juhi Kulshrestha, Mia Berg, Stefania Manca, Silvia Guetta, Anna Carolina Viana, Bárbara Deoti, Maria Visconti, Anja Ballis, Josefine Honke, Edith Blaschitz, Heidemarie Uhl, Georg Vogt, Rosa Andraschek, Martin Krenn, Wolfgang Gasser, Iris Groschek, Nicole Steng, Beth S. Dotan, Archie Wolfman & Anna Menyhért

Funded by: University of Innsbruck , Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies und University of Luxembourg

Deported. Comparative Perspectives on Paths to Annihilation for Jewish Populations under Nazi German Control

Michaela Raggam-Blesch / Peter Black / Marianne Windsperger (eds.)

Transit facilities and railway stations used for deportation have been rediscovered as central sites of the Shoah in recent years. Public memorials and monuments recall the deportation of the Jewish population to ghettos, annihilation camps, and sites of mass murder. What has long remained a desideratum is a comprehensive, comparative, and analytical overview of deportations from territories under control or influence of Nazi Germany. This volume aims to determine differences and commonalities in the organisation and implementation of deportations in Nazi-dominated Europe. It analyses the relationship between central switching points of the ‘Final Solution’ and local civilian, military and SS-Police authorities and investigates how Jewish organisations were forced to collaborate in the process of their own destruction. The present research examines the limited agency of Jewish Councils, the deportation of provisionally protected groups such as members of ‘mixed families’, the importance of citizenship, and the despotism of individual perpetrators.

Contributions are based on the 2019 workshop “Deportiert. Vergleichende Perspektiven auf die Organisation des Wegs in die Vernichtung”, co-organised by the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

With contributions from:
Cornelia Shati-Geissler, Akim Jah, Dieter Hecht, Laurien Vastenhout, Hendrik Althoff, Niklas Perzi, Lovro Kralj, John R. Barruzza, Valeria Galimi, Andreas K. Bouroutis, Michaela Raggam-Blesch, Maria von der Heydt, Naida-Michal Brandl, Borbála Klacsmann

Published in: Beiträge zur Holocaustforschung des Wiener Wiesenthal Instituts für Holocaust-Studien (VWI) – soon as open access.

The book is dedicated to the memory of Heidemarie Uhl, who made a significant contribution to the concept of the workshop.

EHRI Workshop and Microarchives in Austria

The full-day workshop "EHRI and Microarchives in Austria" took place at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) on 4 March 2024. The Institute presented EHRI's plans to improve support for microarchives and invited Austrian microarchive owners and experts to discuss the opportunities and challenges of collaboration. The microarchive owners shared their wishes and requirements with the VWI-EHRI team, which may lead to further cooperation.