Vienna Unveils Monument to Nazi Victims
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VIENNA — The city of Vienna unveiled a monument to the victims of Nazism on Thursday, and Austria’s chief rabbi said it may remind people not to ignore injustice.
The focal point of the monument is a bronze sculpture depicting a Viennese Jew forced to kneel and scrub the streets after Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938.
“If one stands shocked before this monument, then it can serve as atonement for those who complacently walked by the living, street-washing Jew. . . . It should teach that one should not ignore injustice,” Chief Rabbi Chaim Eisenberg said.
The work has met with opposition because of its central location and because its sculptor, Alfred Hrdlicka, was a leading critic of President Kurt Waldheim in the controversy over Waldheim’s wartime past.
Waldheim is alleged to have been involved in war crimes by Hitler’s army in the Balkans. He has denied the allegations.
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