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Comments (0)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.
Calling the incident one of the worst in postwar Austria, authorities said the incident also illustrated the growing right-wing extremism among Austrian youth. The teens involved apparently had no previous record.
Austria’s main Jewish body, the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde in Vienna, had not yet issued a comment on the incident, a spokesperson told JTA.
Two people were wounded in the attack, in which teens allegedly fired plastic bullets from air guns and harassed visitors verbally, according to reports. One of the guns was found later near the scene, according to police.
The masked youths also allegedly shouted “Heil Hitler” and gave the Nazi salute, shocking a group of visitors from France and Italy, according to news reports. Some of the visitors, including survivors of the Ebensee slave labor camp, were standing near a stone pit at the site when the incident occurred.
The arrested teens, who had fled the scene, range in age from 14 to 17 and come from the Salzburg area. They have been charged and released on their own recognizance. They reportedly admitted under interrogation that they had planned to disrupt the commemorative ceremony marking the liberation of the camp.
Austrian Interior Minister Maria Fekter described the case as a “very serious” example of rising right-wing tendencies. Alois Lissl, chief of the Upper Austrian security directorate, said the teenagers professed to be unaware that if convicted as youths, they could spend up to five years in prison for breaching the law that bans the Nazi party and any activities aimed at reviving it.
Willy Mernyi, head of the Mauthausen Committee Austria, said the visiting survivors reported the incident shortly before leaving Austria on Monday.
Group Demands Halt to Construction at Cemetery
A Warsaw-based organization has written to authorities in a Polish town demanding a halt to road work on the site of a Jewish cemetery.
The letter sent this week by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland demands that work be stopped at the Jewish cemetery in Ostroleka.
The cemetery was destroyed during World War II, but during recent construction work on the site human remains—probably of Jews buried there before World War II—were uncovered.
Along with the foundation, Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, sent a letter last week protesting the construction.
Jewish Actress Loses Gig over Play
A Jewish organization in Melbourne canceled a performance by an award-winning Jewish actress because of her participation in a controversial play about Israel.
Miriam Margolyes, a British-born stage and screen star, offered to entertain elderly residents Tuesday at JewishCare, a major facility in Melbourne. But she was told Monday that her appearance may offend some of the residents who are Holocaust survivors because she is scheduled to be the headline act next week in “Seven Jewish Children,” a play that has been branded by some critics as anti-Semitic.
“I think they’re quite wrong, I would never get involved with anything which was either anti-Semitic or critical of Holocaust survivors,” Margolyes, who splits her time between Australia and Britain, said in a statement issued by Australians for Palestine. “I feel they’re making a terrible mistake and I am very sad because I was truly looking forward to appearing there. I support JewishCare in the U.K. both in appearances and with donations. And I will continue to do so.”
The 10-minute play, subtitled “A Play For Gaza,” is scheduled to be staged May 18 during a fund-raiser for Australians for Palestine at the State Library of Victoria. It traces the history of Israel, beginning with the Holocaust and ending with Israel’s recent offensive in Gaza.
Margolyes, 67, visited Gaza with the United Nations 12 years ago and signed a controversial petition by Independent Jewish Voices in 2008, but said she was a proud Jew and wanted Israel to survive.
She won a British Academy of Film and Televison Arts award in 1994 for her role as Mrs. Mingott in Martin Scorsese’s “Age of Innocence,” and was awarded the Order of the British Empire by the queen in 2001 for services to drama.