The exhibit opened in the Jewish Museum in Austria's capital on July 3, and includes letters, photos, Nazi-era documents and more. Some exhibited items date to the 19th century. Founded in 1816, the archive collection contains 17th century material.
The archive was found by chance in 2000 when Jewish community members found 800 boxes and many wooden cabinets in an old building as they were preparing to hand it over to new members. About 500,000 documents on the lives of Jews during the Nazi era were discovered, along with other materials.
Since 2002, the Jewish Community Vienna and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington have been working together to preserve the material found in 2000 on microfilm for a wider collection that will include about 1.5 million Holocaust-era documents stored in Jerusalem.
Examples of what visitors can see as they stroll through the exhibit include an identification card for a Jewish woman dating back to 1939, a form listing the confiscation of objects of value dated 1938 - and even a newspaper clipping with an anti-Semitic sticker dating back to 1889.
The exhibit will run through October 21.
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I recently went to the exhibit in Vienna and found it somewhat unsatisfactory. True, it only purports to be an exhibit but when I asked when there would be access to the records themselves, they were somewhat curt and pushed a booklet toward me on how to submit claims. Why after 7 years is there no access? Why is there no promise of access?
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