Because of what they consider to be an inadequate response by the Mauthausen Committee (ÖMK) to this “affront against all those murdered during the Shoah”, no official representatives of the Israelite Community (IKG) will be present at the “Festival of Joy” on Monday evening, the IKG said .
The event, organized by the Mauthausen Committee, has been taking place annually at Heldenplatz since 2013 to celebrate the end of the war on May 8th. Originally it was a counter-event to the right-wing “commemoration of the dead” of the fraternity members in front of the crypt there.
The main theme of the “Festival of Joy”, which is traditionally accompanied musically by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, is this time “Law and Justice in National Socialism”. The highlight is the speech by contemporary witness Rosa Schneeberger, who was deported to the Lackenbach camp as a Sintizza as a five-year-old with her siblings and mother.
Picture gallery: Liberation and commemoration ceremony in Mauthausen
(Photo: FOTOKERSCHI.AT/HANNES DRAXLER) Bild 1/20
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