On January 27, 1945, the Red Army troops freed the last survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. In 2005, the United Nations declared the anniversary of this event to be an international day of commemoration to the victims of the Holocaust. The Austrian parliament has been organizing memorial events for several years for several years. This year the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau was recalled with a discussion event for students. National Council President Walter Rosenkranz, Federal Council President Andrea Eder-Giftschthaler, Second President of the National Council Peter Haubner and third president of the National Council Doris Bures, invited to the event.
The focus of the event was the contemporary witness Erika Freeman, who had to flee from the National Socialists from Vienna as a child and who became an internationally known psychoanalyst. It is one of the last “living voices” of a generation whose world has been changed forever by the atrocities of National Socialism. The young people had the opportunity to ask their own questions to the contemporary witness.
Escape from Vienna at the age of 12
Danielle Spera introduced into the topic of the event and interviewed Freeman on forming experiences of her childhood and youth before and after the so-called “connection” of Austria to Nazi Germany. Freeman was born in 1927 as the daughter of Arthur and Rachel Polesiuk in Vienna. After the “connection”, Erika had to leave her previous school and attended the only high school, which remained for Jewish students, the Hebrew Chajes-Gymnasium. There she experienced excellent teachers, including high-ranking scientists who had been sold by the Nazi regime from their positions.
Erikas for Czech Social Democracy was kidnapped to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. It was only after the war that Erika accidentally found out that her father -believed father could survive the concentration camp and emigrate to Sweden. “Miracles always happen, but sometimes they need a little,” Freeman is convinced.
Freeman’s mother was a convinced Zionist and one of the first Hebrew teachers. She taught young people who prepared for emigration to Palestine and therefore remained in Vienna. Rachel Polesiuk was able to survive in Vienna until the end of the war. In March 1945, she died in one of the last difficult bombing of the Second World War in the “Philipphof” on Albertinaplatz. Why didn’t miracle be done for her mother? “Maybe God wanted to have her with him earlier,” said Freeman.
Erika would have had the opportunity to emigrate to Palestine. However, she decided to go to relatives to America so that another child could take their place for emigration to Palestine. As a twelve -year -old, Erika Vienna left to Amsterdam by train and came to New York by ship. Freeman recalled the American relatives and did not believe their stories about Vienna. As a “difficult child”, they gave them in a Jewish orphanage, where they spent the years.
Through hard work, Freeman managed to train as a psychoanalyst. She became a sought -after consultant for film stars and public life. In conversation with Spera, Freeman remembered, for example, that she could give the Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir useful tips for the correct way of dealing with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. Their lives are aimed at the Jewish idea of the “Tikkun Olam”, the improvement of the world, which could also be done by small actions, said the psychoanalyst.
The conversation with excerpts from the book “I’m fine, if not today, then tomorrow”, was supplemented by actress Maria Köstlinger. Based on his numerous conversations, Dirk Stermann traced Erika Freeman’s “life novel”. From 2007 she came to Austria again for the memory project “A Letter to the Stars” and campaigned against forgetting as a contemporary witness. Today Freeman, who re -accepted Austrian citizenship in 2022, lives at the Hotel Imperial in Vienna and continues to work as a psychotherapist.
Freeman: “It is my duty to improve the world”
From the experience of her life, she has won the conviction that it is important to improve the world. “Be the good!” said Freeman. “Self -addiction is stupid, hatred makes you sick and stupid”.
Initially, the people in the USA would not have believed that as a young girl, she told her about the atrocities of the Nazis and therefore “sent them to psychiatrists,” said Erika Freeman to the young people who had prepared numerous questions. The students were particularly interested in how they experienced the “connection” of Austria, hatred of the Jewish population and the early separation from the parents as a Jewish child.
When Hitler marched into Austria, there was a great cheer and Nazi flags were seen everywhere on the houses, Freeman recalled. Since it was known what had happened to the Jews in Germany, they knew what would follow in Austria. Freeman said that she too was often beaten after school, “the Jews were always hated”. For them, hate is not an option. She always saw it as her duty to improve the world, according to the Jewish idea of the “Tikkun Olam”. This could be done by small acts, said the psychoanalyst. Because if everyone develops further, the whole world will be better.
Freeman gave this and many other inspiring advice to the student: on the way on the way: “Don’t let yourself be persuaded that you can’t do something” and “don’t make yourself important, make yourself right”. If you are really convinced of something, do “do what you want, don’t ask for permission” and “No is not an answer, no is the beginning of yes”. There was a huge applause for so much wisdom and encouragement.
Parliament participates in a virtual memorial campaign #WE Remember
Since 2017, the World Jewish Congress and the UNESCO have been calling for the #weremember campaign on the occasion of the International Holocaust Memorial Day. In the digital memorial campaign, photos with a board with the inscription “We Remember” can be posted on social media. From January 24, 2025 to January 27, 2025, there was in the auditorium for visitors: inside and parliamentary employees: Inside, the opportunity to set a sign of commemoration with a photo in front of an LED wall with #Weremember lettering. As part of the memorial campaign, numerous buildings are also irradiated with the #Weremember lettering. The facade of the parliament is also illuminated on the evening of January 27th. (Conclusion) Sox/Sue
Notes: Photos From this event as well as a Reference to past events Find im Parliament web portal. A record of the event is also a video-on-demand in the Parliament media library made available.