Representative of the Austrian embassy

Speech given by: Otto Nagler 

Honored Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

My name is Otto Nagler and I am a survivor of the Holocaust. I was born in Vienna at the end of October 1920, into two deep rooted Jewish Austrian families. It was snowing the day I was born, that what my mother told me, very unusual for such an early time of the year. The effects of climate changes and global warming were not yet felt. During my childhood, Austria passed very difficult political and economical periods, as it still is in my memory as a child and later as a young boy at high school. I was lucky that I could finish high school in May 1938, shortly after the Anschluss, because many Jewish students like me were immediately thrown out of their classes.

The German army entered Vienna on 15. March 1939. For exactly one full year I had to stay in Austria, until I could finally leave on 15.March 1939, which was by the way the day Germany annexed the Sudeten, which arose big fears if I could still leave Austria. Hitler was received in Vienna with open arms and cheers by the Austrian population, huge flags with the Hakenkreuz were over night hanging from all private and public buildings and S.A. and S.S. formations neatly dressed in their brown and black uniforms were marching and singing through the streets of Vienna. Was it sporadic? By no means. It was well prepared and eagerly awaited by the population of Austria. I do not need to see pictures or movies of it. The reality as it happened is deeply rooted in my memory.

The one year under Nazi rule was the most fearful and dreadful time of my life. Facing to be taken away at any moment without any reason and without knowing your fate, or to be killed by somebody, who did not like you, just because you were a Jew, was the routine of the daily life. Some people, like my parents were still optimistic at the beginning. My father had fought and was wounded in the Austrian army during World War I. But all that vanished on 10. September 1938, after the Kristallnacht, when all Jewish men were taken into prison, some already killed on the way to the prison, many deported later to Concentration Camps for the final solution, and only few returned home to a dark and unknown future.

The world, or more correct the Western World, was looking on and stood by idle. Not sure what to do, and if to do anything at all. Nobody was ready to accept the real danger or to take the needed action, until forced to do it by Hitler himself. All this was worsened by the betrayal of the Soviet Union in the first years of the war, until the Soviet Union became itself victim to the Hitler’s madness. The outcome of this dark period is well known.

First Jewish presence in what is today Austrian territory could be evidenced already during the 3rd Century. Since then, the status of the Jewish community had its many ups and downs, heights and lows, expulsions and returns. Until finally, in 1782 the Edict of Tolerance cancelled all limitations and enabled the full integration of the Jewish community into the Austrian Society. Yet, whatever were the timely relationships between the Jewish community and the Austrian society as a whole, one fact cannot be denied, namely the great contribution, much above its numerical proportion to the rest of the population of Austria, to the development and welfare to the country, to its culture, to its science, to its economy, and all together to the high reputation which Austria had achieved in this respect in the international community. Jewish and Austrian history is too much tied up to each other by religion, culture, science and above all by family ties. I therefore hope, that our young generations will preserve these ties and intensify them for a better understanding of the common past, and for a better joint life in the future.

The Holocaust is becoming history and we have to deal with it accordingly. Less and less survivors are left, who can give direct testimony of this horrible genocide. The Holocaust was not the only indiscriminate mass killing in the world, neither before nor after it. But the Holocaust was the most horrible genocide in history, based on profound hate and German perfection. It seems however, that the human society has not much learnt of the past. It is time to do so, and the faster the better, if we care for our children, grandchildren and grand grandchildren, and for the survival of the human society as a whole. Because new dangers, possibly even more fateful, emerge from the horizon. I will mention only three of them.

The first is the financial crisis, which is far from being solved and a real menace to the human community to provide a decent and an adequate way of life for the majority of human beings. The second danger we face comes from ecological and environmental contamination. First results are already felt. More disastrous Hurricanes, greater and longer heat waves, tremendous inundations, and many more unexpected phenomena. With a little more human understanding and the readiness of each of us to contribute his own little share, on the one hand, and with our present and future technological capabilities, I am convinced that by a joint effort of all of us, we shall be able to rein and dominate these two dangers.

But there is a third danger, much more threatening, and much more difficult to control, namely Islamic religious fundamentalism and its fanatics and the Atom bomb in their hands. And another problem. When human society faces dangerous situations which need personal sacrifices, it is more convenient to find a scapegoat, than to make the needed sacrifices. Thus we again face the raise of Anti-Semitism. Jews are always an easy pray to compensate for the failure of others. Again somebody stood up and announced the destruction of Israel. But nobody from the international Gremiums stood up firmly to oppose such declaration with proper words and deeds. Out of our most recent remembrance such menaces and declaration have to be taken very seriously. Look at the thousands of young people are who easily recruited to sacrifice themselves as human bombs, in the name of God, to take away the life of innocent people and even children. And imagine an A-bomb in the hand of those fanatic people. Don’t let politician put us again on sleep, because soon it could be too late for any real action.

As a survivor of the Holocaust, I am extremely pleased and deeply moved by so many of you, who came here to demonstrate their conscience, not to forget the dark days of the past. This is the most promising contribution to help to turn the fate of humanity into a better future.

Within less than four years it will be hundred years, a full Century, to commemorate the beginning of World War I, that spread disaster and misery over an extended period to hundreds of millions of human creatures. And it is already 65 years since World War II and the Holocaust were over. “Lead Niscor”, “We will forever remember“ is important, but not any more enough. The voices which are heard in public to destroy Israel are too real to be neglected. We must raise our voices, together we and you and all conscious people of the free world, before it will be too late, and more disastrous than even before.

‘Lead Niscor’, “We will forever remember”, but we will now add, “We will not let it to be happen again”.

Thank you, Shalom and Lehitraot.