Leadership Talk by the Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria (2017–2019)

Sebastian Kurz Leadership Talk by the Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria (2017–2019)

As ayoungperson of thirty-two years, Ican hardlyimagine that nearlyone hun- dred years after the Shoah, antisemitism still exists. Anditisnot just almostin- conceivable to me thatantisemitism still exists, but that newlyimported antisemitism is constantlyemerging in our society. Being aware of all the efforts in Austria to ensure that awareness of our history is implementedatour schools, that what happened in Austria willnever be forgotten, thateveryone is aware that there werenot just victims in Austria during the Holocaust,but also manyperpetrators. Givenall that,Istill believethat direct contact with Holocaust survivors is crucial, for onlythey can describe what they and their families had to suffer, what all thosehad to suffer who did not survive.Although listeningtoHolocaust survivors and their suffering can be difficult and painful—thatwas at least my experience when meeting Holocaust survivors for the first time—Idobelieve that it was encounters with Holocaust survivors that brought about achange of attitude here in Austria. We have to admit though, that my generation most likelybelongstothe last ones who have the privilegeofencountering Holocaust survivors personally, and this is uniquelypossibleinAustria and Germany, but not all over the world. Being aware that the horrible crimes of the Holocaust,fortunately, were limited onlytoafew countries,italsomeans that students thereare not giventhe op- portunity to speak to Holocaust survivors. Nowadays we must be aware that antisemitism and anti-Zionismare increas- ingly merging.Being amember of the young generation in Austria, Ilearned about the Holocaust and the antisemitism leading to it at school. My perception of today’sactual dimensions of antisemitism, however,was sharpened when I was appointed State Secretary for Integration. Isimilarlyrecognizedthat antisemitism and anti-Zionismoften go hand in hand and are just two sides of the samecoin when Ibecame Austria’sForeign Minister.Iamconvinced that today, it is not just our responsibility as Republic of Austria to look back and deal with our history in astraightforward manner by establishing memorials such as the Shoah Wall of Names in Austria.We also have aresponsibility to look forward. Lookingforward will, fortunately,reveal manyopportunities for taking action—opportunities that are not meant to undo our own history,but that allow us to live up to the responsibilities stemmingfrom our history.

OpenAccess. ©2019 Sebastian Kurz, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the CreativeCommons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110618594-005 22 Sebastian Kurz

In this context,Iwould liketothank David Harris who invited me to Jerusa- lem along time agoand gave me the opportunitytoparticipateinthe AJCGlobal Forum. That was amoving experience for me, whereDavid Harris and Itogether developedthe idea for the high level conference “Europa jenseits vonAntisem- itismus und Antizionismus—Sicherung des jüdischen Lebens in Europa” on 21 November2018 in Vienna.Atthat time we wereconsideringwhat asmall coun- try like Austria, in concert with the European Union, could do to fight antisemitism. It seems to me that our opportunities and options are sometimes largerthan we realize. To give youone example, the Catalogue of Policies to Combat Antisem- itism wasdeveloped during the conference “An End to Antisemitism!” in Febru- ary 2018 in Vienna and was presented to the public in November 2018 at our high level conference. Let me conclude by emphasizing the commitment of the Republic of Austria not just to assume responsibility for the past but also to lookforward and to live up to our responsibility by implementing lasting measures.Istronglyhope that the adoptionofthe IHRA definition of antisemitism—proposed at the “High Level Conference on the Fight against Anti-Semitism in Europe,” but hopefully also as one of the European Council conclusions of on the fight against antisemitism and anti-Zionism,scheduled at the end of Austria’sPresidency—willmark an important step ahead, so that Jews in Austria,inEurope and everywhereelse will be able to live safely. Onlythen will we have liveduptoour historical responsibility.

Following hispositions as state secretaryfor integration in the Ministryofthe In- terior and Foreign Minister,Sebastian Kurz served as the Federal Chancellor of the Republic Austria from December 2017 to May 2019. In addition, Kurz has beenthe Chairman of the AustrianPeople’sParty (ÖVP) since May 2017.