This article was originally published in Bethesda Gazette (Vol. 7, No. 30) on Wednesday 2. 3. 1995 in Maryland - USA.
Austrian finds Holocaust Survivors
Christopher Flynne, Staff Writer
At a time when most teenagers are concerned with little more than driving and dating, 16-year-old Magdalena Müllner was consumed by synagogues.
Müllner - a Catholic in the northern Austrian town of Laa an der Thaya - said she was flipping through the channels on her television about three years ago when she came across a short program called "The Synagogues on Lower Austria." The program was startling to the teen, who never knew that a Jewish community once existed in her home-town.
"I asked my mother and grandmother and even they did not know about a synagogue or a Jewish community that had once been a part of Laa." said Müllner. "At least 50 percent of the population of Laa - a town of nearly 4,500 people - don't know that a Jewish community ever existed." The one-time existence of Jews in the town has been denied since Hitler annexed Austria to Germany during the Holocaust in 1938.
Now 19, Müllner has spent the past three years researching the histories of Jewish families, who lives in Laa prior to the Holocaust. She has traced their lives since they left Laa. Because nothing is written about the Jews who once lived in her hometown, Müllner has relied entirely on her own research, interviewing people in the town who remember and are willing to discuss the Jewish community that once existed. Through these interviews, Müllner has been able to learn the names of Jewish families that once lived in Laa.
By tracking down addresses and writing letters to these families, she has put 14 people - originally from Laa and now living all over the world - in contact with one another, and has shed light on the Jewish community that was overlooked in the history books and oral tradition of the town.
"I didn't want those people to die a second death by being forgotten," said Müllner of her efforts.
Felix Y. of Bethesda grew up in the Jewish community in Laa prior to the annexation of Austria or "Anschluss," and attended the same school that Müllner attended many years later.
He received a letter from Müllner in late 1993. "I was touched by her sincere attempt to document our history," said Yokel, who left Austria in 1938 and did not return until 1989. "It is remarkable how much she has accomplished at such a young age."
In addition to corresponding with members of the vanished Jewish community of Laa through letters, Müllner has met several survivors personally, either when they returned to visit Laa or her travels to Israel and California.
Now a first-year law student at the university of Vienna in Austria, Müllner continues to search for other survivors of the Jewish community of Laa and maintains the relationship she has already forged with letters and visits when she is able.
She recently came to Bethesda to visit Y. and his wife Susan. During her stay, she was invited to speak about her research and findings at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
"She was a very resolute young lady," said Yokel, adding that her visit provided the impetus for him to begin writing down his own history to pass along to his children and grandchildren. "We very much appreciate what she did," said Susan Y.
Despite the appreciation and praise she has received from people, Müllner maintains that she reaps the greatest reward from her work. "It has become a big part of my life, and although the research sometimes brings moments of sadness or anger about how people can be, it is my biggest joy."
