contested terrain

Assault on Holocaust Survivors in Austria

From the Jewish Times

Five Austrian teenagers were arrested in connection with a neo-Nazi attack on Holocaust survivors. The survivors and others were attacked while commemorating the 64th anniversary of the liberation of a concentration camp near Salzburg on May 9. Two people were wounded in the attack, in which teens allegedly fired plastic bullets from air guns and harassed visitors verbally, according to reports.

According to an Austrian news service, one of the arrested youth is a member of the Socialist Party of Austria’s youth group, the Red Hawks.

Austria’s foreign minister called the attack a provocation against Austria.

At hagalil.de, he is quoted as saying:

This is an unacceptable provocation, which will hurt Austria’s international image and the tourism of the country. One should not allow such acts to effect the openness and the hospitality of our country.

Following last week’s incident of a Vienna Jewish family being refused a room under an Austrian hotel’s “no-Jews” policy,  the country’s openness and hospitality is already in question, especially when Jewish Austrians themselves encounter such hostility. According to the Hotel owner, “Jews make problems.” And the Mayor explained that “every Hotel owner has the right to decide, who to rent a room to and who not.”

Responding to the attack on the Holocaust Survivors in Ebensse the Chairman of the youth group is calling to immediately establish an antifascist project.

Antifascism as marketing strategy to save the national reputation?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 9:08 am and is filed under Austria, Fascism/anti-Fascism, antisemitism, left-right overlap, neo-fascism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.