AUSTRIA: Austrians hold candlelight vigil on Nazi anniversary

Record ID: 654716

  • Title: AUSTRIA: Austrians hold candlelight vigil on Nazi anniversary
  • Date: 13th March 2008
  • Summary: (BN15) VIENNA, AUSTRIA (MARCH 12, 2008) (REUTERS) PEOPLE LIGHTING THOUSANDS OF CANDLES AT 'HELDEN PLATZ' (HEROES SQUARE) FACE OF YOUNG WOMAN LIT BY CANDLELIGHT DAVID'S STAR AND CHRISTIAN CROSS FORMED BY CANDLES WOMAN WATCHING CANDLES WHITE DOVE FORMED BY CANDLES WOMAN PUTTING CANDLES ON GROUND 12.03.1938, DATE OF ANNEXATION FORMED BY CANDLES (SOUNDBITE) (German) ANDREA SC
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Austria
  • Country: Austria
  • Topics: History
  • Reuters ID: LVA4RL77TJD326OKWT5UJBUJR9GA
  • Story Text: Austrians light 80,000 candles to remember the victims of Hitler's takeover of the country 70 years ago.
    Austrians lit 80,000 candles in a sombre tribute to victims of Nazism on Wednesday (March 12).
    The vigil in the huge, neo-classical Heldenplatz (Heroes' Square), the same place where celebrations greeted Hitler's takeover 70 years ago, climaxed a week of commemorations of the "Anschluss", or annexation, of Austria by Nazi Germany -- an early step towards World War Two and the Holocaust.
    The Anschluss anniversary revived debate about the extent to which Austrians were victims of Nazism or willing accomplices. Most Austrians now agree they were also deeply complicit in the Nazi machinery of war and genocide after decades of denial.

    "It's a really important issue, especially for us young people who think of it as if it happened in a remote past although it's been only 70 years since then. The way we live now shouldn't be taken for granted, we have to remember what happened and those who died," said Andrea Schwinder Each candle symbolised one of the estimated 80,000 Austrians, including 65,000 Jews, killed by Nazis. Organisers planned to display the name of every known victim on a screen in the square that flanks the old Hofburg imperial palace.
    Austrian Nazis grabbed power on March 12, 1938 as German columns began to cross the border and immediately began purging political foes and persecuting a long vibrant Jewish community.
    The Nazi dictator appeared on a Hofburg balcony three days later to formally proclaim the absorption of his homeland in his "Third Reich" before a rapturous crowd of hundreds of thousands.
    A poll this week showed 60 percent of Austrians were weary of talk about the Nazi past and wanted an end to it after six decades of democracy, now anchored in the European Union.
    The government announced the establishment of a Vienna branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which hunts Nazi war crime suspects and researches the Holocaust.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register