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Tuesday May 6, 2003
Austrian Holocaust Victims Remembered

 VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Thousands gathered Monday to remember the 80,000 Austrian victims of the Holocaust in a rare public acknowledgment of the Alpine country's complicity in Nazi-era crimes.

The mostly youthful crowd released thousands of white balloons in memory of the victims at a ceremony attended by Holocaust survivors and President Thomas Klestil.

"Everyone was a possible victim of a regime, which like no other before or after, persecuted, tortured and murdered Austrians," Klestil said. "It's important, even indispensable, to keep the memory of that period alive."

The ceremony was the culmination of a nationwide grass-roots project in which school children were encouraged to research the Holocaust.

About 65,000 Austrian Jews perished in the Holocaust, as well as 15,000 others, including Gypsies, homosexuals, political resisters, Jehovah's Witnesses and handicapped people.

About 15,000 students joined the project - dubbed "A Letter to the Stars" - by "adopting" a victim, researching that person's fate through databases, archives and oral histories, and addressing thoughts about the victim in the form of a letter.

Later in the ceremony, several relatives of Holocaust victims placed small stones upon the balcony's balustrade in memory of loved ones and in accordance with Jewish tradition.

Most of the ceremony - held on the national day of remembrance for Austrian victims of the Nazi era - was conducted on a stage set up in front of the balcony where several Holocaust survivors briefly addressed the crowd.

Vienna's church bells rang out in memory of the victims, while the melancholic strains of the soundtrack to the movie "Schindler's List" were played at different times.

The project was started by two journalists who want to preserve the memory of the victims. "Even five years ago there wouldn't have been this kind of support," said Andreas Kuba, one of the organizers. "Today there's a new generation of students whose parents weren't involved in World War II."


Austrian victim

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Text, Courtesy ofGuardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003 
Phots, Courtesy of
http://www.LetterToTheStars.at