Speaking in Austria - places other than Laa an der Thaya
by Mag. Magdalena Müllner
On Monday, the 5th of October 1997, I gave a speech organized by the "Aktion gegen den Antisemitismus". This is a group that meets regularly in the Café Rathaus, in Vienna. They listen to lectures of survivors and people who are invoved with this topic. This was the first time my parents heard me giving a lecture. Although there weren't more than 25 people in the audience, it was an important evening for me because they were very interested.
My next opportunity to speak came on Tuesday, the 20th of January 1998. I had been invited by the Catholic institute for further-education of religion teachers. The Catholic institute had organized a seminar about Judaism together with the Protestant institute. On that day, I spoke directy after the Viennese head-rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg, which I considered a special honour. There were about 100 people in the audience. Most of the teachers were a lot older than I. So they looked curious and probably sceptical when I appeared. Dr. Essman, who had organized the seminar, introduced me and told the audience that they might wonder now why "such a young girl would talk to them, but they would realize my compitence soon". It was a delight to see on the faces of the audience that not my apperance but my words impressed them. So it became also a very special event for me. Afterwards many teachers came to ask something or even wanted to express their feelings regarding my work.
Only 2 weeks after that speech I got an invitation from one of the teachers to speak at her school in Vienna (Bilrothstraße). Because the school had no assembly room, the students came to hear me in the libary. First I had a group of 17 year old pupils (about 30), than a group of 14 and 15 year old pupils (about 50) and finally 18 year old ones (about 20). All of them were much more interested than I could have hoped for. It was really worthwhile to give 3 lectures in 3 hours, but it was also quite exhausting. I was particularly impressed by the youngest group. It was a very large group -- probably too big for that room. Their teacher had told me that some in the front row were trouble-makers, but while talking, I realized that particularly these pupils were listening very carefully. One needs different words to talk to pupils so that they accept you, but somehow I was able to make my way in the hearts of these kids. This was a great experience. If only one of them has been influenced by what I said, it was more than worthwhile to speak to them.
In March of 1999 I had the opportunity to give a speech at the Jewish Evening School in Vienna. Here you can see the programme of their lecture-series:
