Austrian Service Abroad

General information

The association for Services Abroad, founded in 1998 by Andreas Hörtnagl and Andreas Maislinger was renamed in 2006 as Austrian Service Abroad. Since 2001 Michael Prochazka is also in the board of directors of the non-governmental organization. Once a month a meeting takes place in each federal state.

Structure

The organization provides positions for an alternative Austrian national service all over the world and is based in Innsbruck. The regular nine month alternative national service (Zivildienst) is substituted by a 12-month service at one of its partner organisations abroad. There are great variations in the requirements. Austrian Service Abroad is an institution which provides young male Austrians with a government funded alternative to the compulsory military service. Its main focuses are social work and Holocaust Memorial Service.

Types of service

Austrian Service Abroad offers three different types of Zivildienst-substitutes:

Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service (Österreichischer Gedenkdienst)

This program was founded in 1992 and has been a part of the association Austrian Service Abroad since 1998. It deals with the victims of Nazism. Austrian Holocaust Memorial servants work for Holocaust memorials, like museums and research facilities (for example at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, the Jewish Museum Berlin, the European Roma Rights Centre in Budapest or Yad Vashem in Jerusalem)

For several years now, Austrian Holocaust Memorial servants also have been sent to assignments in former refuge countries of the victim groups persecuted by the Nazis, for example the Casa Stefan Zweig in Petrópolis (Brazil), the Centre for Jewish Studies in Shanghai, as well as the Jewish Museum of Australia in Melbourne. Since 1992 hundreds of young Austrian Holocaust Memorial servants in 22 countries have reappraised the history of the Holocaust worldwide and made an important contribution to the Austrian processing of history.

Austrian Social Service (Österreichischer Sozialdienst)

It is performed within the scope of projects that serve the economic and social development of the respective country. Social servants are active in the following areas: projects for street-children, educational projects and children's villages, care for the old and handicapped, medical care as well as care and help for homosexuals.

Further places of assignment are environmental projects and developing projects (for example: improvement of drinking water supplies) in the countries of the Third World. Andreas Daniel Matt, the first foreign servant of the year who has provided his social service in 2004 in a SOS children's village in Lahore (Pakistan) has, with the organization proLoka, founded even another place of assignment.

Since October, 1998 hundreds of Austrian Social servants were predominantly assigned to countries in Central and South America, Africa and Asia. But also organizations like royal London Society for the Blind in England and the orphanage faith in Saint Petersburg (Russia) are part of this worldwide network.

Austrian Peace Service (Österreichischer Friedensdienst)

Peace servants are occupied within organizations that serve the achievement or protection of peace in connection with armed conflicts. They work, e.g., in non-state organizations in Israel where they organize workshops or common initiatives of the conflicting parties.

In Nanjing in China a peace service application place exists since 2008 in the John Rabe house which reappraises the massacre of Nanjing in 1937. This edged out event still strains the Sino-Japanese relations and was decisive in 2005 for wide protests in Beijing and other towns. The Japanese school book quarrel led in China to movements against falsification of history in Japanese school books. That's why the Austrian Peace Service donated together with the Thomas Rabe Community Center in 2009 for the first time the John Rabe Award.

International Council

The International Council is the advisory arm for the executive committee of the Austrian Service Abroad regarding all matters of the respective country.

Ernst Florian Winter, Chairman

 Argentina: Erika Rosenberg

 Australia: Paul R. Bartrop, Daniel James Schuster

 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Eli Tauber

 Brazil: Alberto Dines

 Canada: Walter Absil

 Costa Rica: Roland Spendlingwimmer

 Croatia: Branko Lustig

 France: Michel Cullin, Beate Klarsfeld

 Georgia: Gabriela von Habsburg

 Germany: Thomas Rabe

 Hungary: György Dalos

 India: Barbara Nath-Wiser

 Israel: Ben Segenreich

 Italy: Camilla Brunelli

 Palestinian territories: Andreas Sami Prauhart

 Poland: Władysław Bartoszewski

 Russia: Ilya Altman

 Senegal: Charles M. Huber

 Sweden: Gerald Nagler

 United Kingdom: Ladislaus Löb

 United States: Randolph M. Bell, Anna Rosmus

Partners

The US is currently the country with the largest number of places offered for Holocaust Memorial Service. Well known Holocaust Museums and Memorial Institutions like the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation in Los Angeles received several Holocaust Memorial Servants since the 1990s.

At present, Austrian Service Abroad sends young Austrians to the following partner institutions:

 Argentina

Buenos Aires - Center for homeless children and adolescents

 Australia

Melbourne - Jewish Museum of Australia

Melbourne - Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre

The Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre considers the finest memorial to all victims of racist policies to be an educational program which aims to combat anti-Semitism, racism and prejudice in the community and foster understanding between people. The Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service representatives work in different fields and areas of responsibility, undertaking translation, research, working in the library and on the museum’s database, and helping with exhibitions and events. Belarus

Minsk - Belarusian Children's Hospice

Minsk - Dietski Dom No. 6 (Children's Home No. 6)

Minsk - Kindergarten for Children with Special Needs

 Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sarajevo - Phoenix Initiative

 Brazil

Alagoinhas - Associacao Lar Sao Benedito

Lauro de Freitas - Community Centre Christ Liberator

Petrópolis - Casa Stefan Zweig

Rio de Janeiro - Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL)

 Bulgaria

Sofia - Schalom - Organization of the Jews in Bulgaria

 Canada

Montreal - Holocaust Memorial Centre

The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre was founded by a group of Holocaust survivors and opened to the public in 1979. Through its Museum, its commemorative programs and its educational initiatives, the Centre aims to alert the public to the dangers of anti-Semitism, bigotry and hate, while promoting respect for diversity and the sanctity of human life. The field of activity of an ‘Austrian Holocaust Memorial Volunteer’ at the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre is very diverse. The duties range from helping with tasks in the office, to translations (German-English) as well as to research assistance or to the description and digitization of collection artefacts. Another essential part of the work schedule is covering the museum front desk. In doing so, the volunteer interacts with Holocaust survivors, students, teachers and visitors to coordinate tours and to ensure a proper daily routine. Furthermore, the volunteer is involved in several projects and events including “Witness to History”, “A Bar &Bat Mitzvah to Remember”, “Kristallnacht Commemoration”, and others.

Montreal - Kleinmann Family Foundation Montreal

The Austrian Holocaust Memorial Servant at the “Kleinmann Family Foundation” digitalizes and archives artifacts, documents and photographs as well as maintains and improves the database and the website. The volunteer gives presentations in high schools and colleges about the Holocaust and Moral Responsibility. The servant also interviews Holocaust survivors for "Oral History"-projects.

Toronto - Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre / Hillel Canada

This internship is a joint partnership between Jewish Federation of Canada-United Israel Appeal of Canada's University campus Hillel Canada and United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Toronto's Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre. The intern's primary responsibilities will be to complete projects that have been assigned by the two agencies. The intern will be supporting students in developing new education programs in terms of the Holocaust with the center and on university campuses. Other tasks are: support for the organization of the education trip to Vienna for Canadian, Jewish students, outreach to, and maintaining connection with local schools in terms of Holocaust education related activities. Chile

Santiago - CTD Galvarino - Sename (planned)

 China

Harbin - Harbin Jewish Research Center (planned)

Qiqihar - China SOS Children's Village Association

Shanghai - Center of Jewish Studies

 Costa Rica

La Gamba - Tropical Field Station La Gamba

The biological station in La Gamba is an Austrian institution, which serves as base for investigations for scientists from all over the world. Furthermore, the station started projects like the reforestation, the creation of environmental awareness and also projects to support the inhabitants. Our servants in La Gamba help to keep the station functional and collaborate in many of the named projects.

Finca Sonador - Finca Sonador

 Czech Republic

Prague - Federation of Jewish Communities

 France

Oradour - Centre de la Mémoire d'Oradour

Paris - La Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Déportation

Paris - Amicale de Mauthausen The Amicale de Mauthausen is a French institution in memory of the Mauthausen concentration camp and its many subcamps. Founded in october 1945 by survivors of the Mauthausen concentration camp the Amicale de Mauthausen is present at the annual camp liberation ceremonies in Austria and organizes excursions for its members as well as for French high school students. The volunteers tasks include french-german translations of documents and assistance with the planning of excursions as well as the digitalization of the organizations archives.

Strasbourg - Congress of the Council of Europe, European Alliance of Cities and Regions for Roma Inclusion

 Gabon

Lambaréné - Medical Research Unit, Albert Schweitzer Hospital

 Germany

Berchtesgaden - Dokumentation Obersalzberg

The Dokumentation Obersalzberg is a place of guided learning and remembrance designed by the Institut für Zeitgeschichte. At the Dokumentation Obersalzberg the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Servant works at the museum educational service. The main part of the work is the organisation of guided tours and workshops. He also gets the opportunity to create new educational material like workshops.

Berlin - Jewish Museum Berlin

Berlin - Ecumenical Memorial Centre Plötzensee - Christians and Resistance

Cölbe - Terra Tech

Moringen - Concentration Camp Memorial at Torhaus Moringen

Munich - Jewish Museum Munich

 Guatemala

Santa Rosita - ASOL Casa Hogar

 Hungary

Budapest - European Roma Rights Centre

 India

Auroville - Auroville Action Group (AVAG)

Dharamsala - Nishtha - Rural Health, Education and Environment Center

Dharamsala - Tibetan Children´s Village

Dharmshala - Tibetan Welfare Office

Kochi - Mata Amritanandamayi Mission

 Israel

Jerusalem - St. Vincent-Ein Kerem

Jerusalem - The Alternative Information Centre

Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

 Italy

Milan - Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea

Prato - Museo della Deportazione

Rome - Fondazione Museo della Shoah

 Japan

Hiroshima - Peace Culture Foundation

 Madagascar

Antalaha - D'Analalava

 Mexico

Mexico City - Museo Memoria y Tolerancia

 Nicaragua

Granada - Casa de los Tres Mundos

 Netherlands

Amsterdam - UNITED for Intercultural Action

The main part of the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Servant at UNITED is secretarial work, which includes assisting, translating documents, doing self dependent research and investigation, as well as organising internal and external teamwork-projects. The Servant is engaged with organising conferences, administrating databases, publishing reports and preparing future projects. Pakistan

Lahore - SOS SOS Children's Village Association

Lahore - proLoka Pakistan

 Peru

Lima - The information and education centre for the prevention of drug abuse CEDRO

 Poland

Kraków -Judaica Foundation - Center For Jewish Culture

Kraków - PAH Polska Akcja Humanitarna

Kraków - Galicia Jewish Museum

Oświęcim - Auschwitz Jewish Center

 Russia

Moscow - Russian Research and Educational Holocaust Center

Saint Petersburg - GU SRZ Vera

 Sweden

Stockholm - Forum för levande historia

Uppsala - Uppsala Universitet

 Uganda

Fort Portal - Mountains of the Moon University

 Ukraine

Kiew - Jewish Foundation of Ukraine (JFU)

 United Kingdom

London - Royal London Society for the Blind

London - The National Yad Vashem Charitable Trust

London - Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library

 United States

Detroit - Holocaust Memorial Center

Houston - Holocaust Museum Houston

The HMH was installed to promote understanding, remembrance and education about the Holocaust. The Austrian Holocaust Memorial Servants at the HMH usually work at the office, help to create new exhibitions, guiding tours through the museum and meet and work with the last survivors of the Holocaust in the United States.

Los Angeles - Simon Wiesenthal Center

The main part of the work of an Austrian Holocaust Memorial Servant at the Simon Wiesenthal Center is working as a tour guide in the Museum of Tolerance, which is the educational arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. These tour groups are mainly Middle School and High School students from the Los Angeles area, but also from further away. Besides from giving tours, the servant also helps out public visitors to the museum, helps with translations and interacts with Holocaust survivors as well.

Los Angeles - Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

The Austrian Holocaust Memorial Servant at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust serves as tour guide, facilitates seminars and lectures by survivor docents, and works with teachers to schedule and coordinate tours. The volunteer interacts with Holocaust survivors, students, teachers and visitors to the Museum on a daily basis. The servant also works with primary documents and artifacts, which he translates, reviews and interprets.

Los Angeles - USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education

The volunteer at "USC Shoah Foundation Institute" for Visual History and Education translates all types of different documents, from contracts to letters; he also helps to translate German terms or places which often appear in interviews with Holocaust Survivors. A main task for the Holocaust Servant is indexing German testimonies and maintaining the museum's database. Further, he helps the museum organizing different events like discussions or film screenings.

New York - Gay Men's Health Crisis

New York - Museum of Jewish Heritage

At the Museum of Jewish Heritage, which tells the story of Jewish life before, during and after the Holocaust and also hosts galleries for special exhibitions, the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Servant works in the Collections & Exhibitions Department, where he is in charge of translating documents and other artifacts into English. Besides he listens to audio testimonies of Holocaust Survivors in either English or German and writes summaries, which are added to the museum's database. Further tasks include maintaining the database, guiding visitors, research and the installation of new exhibits.

New York - Anti-Defamation League

New York - American Jewish Committee

Reno - Center for Holocaust, Genocide & Peace Studies

Richmond - Virginia Holocaust Museum

The Virginia Holocaust Museum features 28 exhibitions including “The Ipson Saga,” which documents the story of Museum Director and Founder, Jay M. Ipson and his family from pre-war Lithuania, through their escape to liberation. The Nuremberg Trials Courtroom exhibition is the only existing replica of the famous courtroom that set the standard for modern international law. The tasks for the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Servant are manifold. Duties at the Virginia Holocaust Museum range from giving tours through the permanent exhibit to translations (German-English) to assisting in research or helping at the reception desk among other things.

San Francisco - Holocaust Center of Northern California

St. Petersburg - The Florida Holocaust Museum

Chicago - Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center

The Austrian Holocaust Memorial Servants help in the administration, assist in education, event planning and museum tours. Furthermore, they are responsible for translations between German and English. After having received special training they will also guide groups through the museum.

Austrian Servant Abroad of the Year

2004 Stefan Stoev, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC, United States

2005 Dr. Andreas Daniel Matt, SOS Children's Villages Lahore, Pakistan

2006 Martin Wallner, Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai, China

2007 Daniel James Schuster, Yad Vashem Jerusalem, Israel

2008 René J. Laglstorfer, Centre de la mémoire d'Oradour, France & Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai, China

2009 Joerg Reitmaier, Auschwitz Jewish Center, Poland & Virginia Holocaust Museum, United States

2010 Peter Loibner, GU SRZ Vera, Russia

2011 Francesco Konigsberger, Federation of Jewish Communities, Czech Republic,
Cornelius Schwärzler, Russian Research and Educational Holocaust Center, Russia & Fondazione Museo della Shoa, Italy & Dokumentation Obersalzberg, Germany,
David Witzeneder, Tropical Field Station La Gamba & Finca Salvador, Costa Rica

Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award

In 2006 Andreas Maislinger, chairman of the Austrian Service Abroad, initiated the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award (AHMA). Winners:

2006: Prof. Pan Guang., Shanghai, PR China.

2007: Alberto Dines, Sao Paulo, Brazil

2008: Robert Hébras, Oradour-sur-Glane, France

2009: Jay M. Ipson, Richmond, Virginia, United States

2010: Eva Marks, Melbourne, Australia

2011: Auschwitz Jewish Center, Oswiecim, Poland

2012: Ladislaus Löb, United Kingdom

2013: Hugo Höllenreiner, Munich, Germany