Grenzland Anzeiger, 15. Oktober 2002

Braunau am Inn honors Righteous Austrians

On 28th of September, 2002, Gerhard Skriba, mayor of Braunau am Inn (Upper Austria), stood at the memorial stone in front of the birthplace of Adolf Hitler in Braunau. He was holding a sign saying "Roman Erich Petsche". Hofrat Petsche, painter and school inspector from Ried im Innkreis is one of 83 Austrians honored by Israeli memorial center Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations". During World War II he saved the lives of two Jewish girls in Novi Sad.

From 1992 on the Braunauer Zeitgeschichte-Tage (Braunau Contemporary History Days) have been taking place in Braunau, and from 1992 on young Austrians have been serving their Zivildienst (compulsory civil service year) at holocaust memorial centers all over the world. Mayor Skiba, Mag. Florian Kotanko, chairman of the society for Contemporary History, and Dr. Andreas Maislinger, founder of Gedenkdienst, were the hosts of the conference. They welcomed as a guest of honor Dr. Fred Friedman, honorary consul of Austria in Buffalo, NY.

The Braunauer Zeitgeschichte-Tage deal with the "unwanted heritage" of National Sozialism. The organisation board managed every time to include current topics of interest, or to be ahead of their times by inviting former war captives and forced labour workers. This happened in 1993, the Austrian government needed almost a decade after that to reach an agreement on compensation payments for these groups.

In 1993, mayor Skiba initiated this gesture of friendship towards people from countries occupied by the Third Reich. In 2002, together with members of the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service, he commemorated Austrians who saved Jews, endangering their own lives. Even though Austria could be proud of these "Righteous", people are familiar with only few of the names. To change this, Gedenkdiener will commemorate these 83 Righteous in other places as well during the next months, as well as provide information in the Internet.