Tribute to Jews killed in Nazi era

Austria broke ground on a new memorial to the country’s 65,000 Jews killed during the Nazi era.

The Memorial To The Jewish Children, Women And Men Of Austria Who Were Murdered In The Shoah being erected in Vienna’s central Ostarrichi Park will consist of large slabs set in the ground in a circle, engraved with the names of the 64,000 victims who have been identified.

Another 1,000 are known to have been killed by the Nazis, but their names have been lost.

Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was born in Austria, and many in the country welcomed Germany’s annexation of it in 1938, the year before the Second World War.

At that time, around 210,000 Jews lived in the country. Many fled, but later found themselves in Nazi hands again.

The memorial, to be completed by next spring, is envisioned as a place of reflection, and both a tribute to those who lost their lives and a reminder of the perils of anti-Semitism.