2023-05-08 18:17:14
The commemoration of the liberation from National Socialism reached its climax with the “Festival of Joy” on Monday. The celebration, which was originally intended to prevent a fraternity march, took place for the 11th time on Vienna’s Heldenplatz. The Wiener Symphoniker played once more, and the singer-songwriter Konstantin Wecker made a guest appearance. The motto of this year’s festival was civil courage, which Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen also called for in his speech.
Van der Bellen reminded that large parts of the population still yearn for the “strong man” and are afraid of a colourful, diverse society. These are views, “because it is not an attitude”. “Look and act, that’s civil courage, that’s attitude,” Van der Bellen appealed to the Austrians. However, attitude does not come for free, nor is the use manageable.
The Federal President also recalled – without naming names – that fundamental democratic values were being called into question once more and once more – “not in a cryptic way, but openly and effectively in the media”. It is not enough not to pay attention to such speeches, because: “Linguistic attacks are the sledgehammer with which the wall of humanism is broken down.” Moral courage is therefore already in demand today and “not only when it requires true heroine courage”.
Previously, the chairman of the Mauthausen Committee, Willi Mernyi, traditionally only welcomed one group of guests: the eyewitnesses. “You are role models, admonishers,” he said, not only to the survivors of the Holocaust who were present. “You stand for ‘never once more’ and ‘never forget’.” Mernyi also emphasized values such as solidarity and civil courage. This not only applies to open racism, but also to hate speech and bullying.
Accordingly, the speech by eyewitness Anna Hackl was the highlight of this year’s “Festival of Joy”. She showed civil courage. On the night of February 2, 1945, more than 500 Soviet prisoners of war tried to escape from the Mauthausen concentration camp. The “Mühlviertel manhunt” that ensued was a horrific hunt for those Soviet prisoners who had escaped. Together with her family, Hackl took in two Soviet soldiers and hid them from the SS until the end of the war.
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