Memorial and museum for the Austrian victims of the Shoah

The Memorial

The Memorial for the Austrian victims of the Shoah was unveiled in 2000. The new Museum on Judenplatz, which exhibits excavations of the medieval Or-Sarua synagogue, was opened on the same day. The Judenplatz in Vienna is now a "place of remembrance" open to the public. The Memorial designed by Rachel Whiteread, the Museum and the medieval excavations have made Judenplatz a special place in the centre of Vienna, bearing witness to the city's commitment of confronting its past and offers perspectives for the future. Now that Simon Wiesenthal's idea of erecting a memorial for the Austrian victims of the Shoah has been realised on Judenplatz, a place of remembrance has been created that is quite unique in Europe. It combines Rachel Whiteread's Memorial and the excavations of the medieval synagogue with the Museum on Medieval Jewish Life to form a commemorative whole.

Rachel Whiteread's Memorial is a reinforced concrete cube with a base of ten to seven metres and a height of 3.8 metres. The outer sides are in the form of library shelves which have been turned inside out. The names of all places where Austrian Jews were put to death during the Nazi regime are engraved around the bottom of the monument.

The Museum

The Memorial was linked to the Information Rooms on the Shoah on the ground floor of Misrachi house (Judenplatz 8), whose contents have been provided by the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance. A multimedia presentation in one of the rooms shows the names and personal data of 65,000 Jews, as well as the circumstances that led to their persecution and death. Another room on the ground floor is dedicated to the artist herself, illustrating the artistic development of the Memorial with sketches, models and preliminary studies. The task of preserving the excavations of the medieval synagogue was a fixed component of the project from the very start of its conception. Now that the archaeological finds have been integrated into the museum in the basement of the Misrachi house, visitors can obtain information on Jewish life in medieval Vienna in a permanent exhibition.

The main section of the Museum on Judenplatz in Vienna, which will be run as an annex by the Jewish Museum Vienna, is made up of three exhibition rooms on medieval Jewish life in Vienna and the excavations of the medieval synagogue. The exhibition shows the religious, cultural and social life of Viennese Jews of the Middle Ages until their expulsion and death in 1420/21 during the so-called "First Vienna Gesera".

The late medieval synagogue was built in the middle of the 13th century. In the following 150 years it was enlarged and remodelled on several occasions and ultimately had a surface of approx. 480 square metres, making it one of the largest synagogues of its time. After the pogrom in 1420/21, the synagogue was systematically demolished. Only the foundations and the floor remained. These were excavated by the City of Vienna Department of Urban Archaeology from 1995 to 1998. The archaeological exhibition room shows the remains of the synagogue, which consisted of three rooms, before the last major enlargement.