Address of Austrian President Dr. Thomas Klestil to the Knesset, Jerusalem, November 15, 1994 Mr President of the State of Israel, Mr President of the Knesset, Distinguished members of the Government and Parliament, Ladies and gentlemen: I am very conscious of the momentous nature of this occasion as I stand here before you. I stand before you as the first president of the Republic of Austria ever to have visited the State of Israel. And it is 125 years to the day since the Austrian emperor Francis Joseph, who had the title of "King of Jerusalem," visited the holy places of the Jews, the Christians and the Moslems. I stand before you as the representative of the Austrian people, whose destiny has been and still is so fatefully bound up with both the greatness and the despair of the Jewish people. I stand before you as a friend, who knows full well the burden of history, but who also firmly believes in the opportunities that the future holds for us all as we rediscover what we have in common. I stand before you here in the Knesset, the very heart of Israeli democracy. Here to my right the visionary father of the State of Israel, Theodor Herzl from Vienna, looks down on us from high, and yet it is the hall in which the flag of my native country Austria was rent asunder in the hour of our greatest estrangement. Deeply moved by the interplay between the extremes of closeness and distance in our relations, I accepted your president's invitation with particular pleasure and gratitude, and, I can confess, with the highest expectations. My expectations have been more than met. Today - with our visit drawing to a close - my delegation and I are overwhelmed by all that we have seen and experienced. For all the wealth of our impressions, I regard this opportunity to address you, the elected representatives of the Israeli people, as a historic highlight. Much - far too much - has happened, for an unclouded festive mood to prevail on this occasion. Yet the numerous meetings and positive discussions over the past few days have been so full of hope and cordial sincerity that we cannot allow ourselves today to be engulfed by the darkness of history. Austria is, and remains for all time, a land of destiny for the Jewish People. Jewish thought, Jewish culture, Jewish identity once flourished extensively on Austrian soil. In so doing, it contributed much that was as distinctive as it was indispensable to the development of Austria, and to the identity of a region which extended far beyond the bounds of the present republic. Almost one hundred years ago, Austria was also the source of a major inspiration: The dream of a Jewish state. That dream became an inescapable reality when the Jewish communities - not least within Austria and at the hands of Austrians - plummeted into the depths of their greatest tragedy. No people should be blamed with collective guilt. And no one knows that better than the Jewish people, who have suffered more than any other from such sweeping allegations. Nevertheless, there remains a burdensome legacy arising out of our history that Austrians must acknowledge. To my mind, anyone who speaks of Austria and Israel - anyone who really wants to understand the past, and what must happen in the future to guard against the forces of evil - must face up to historical truth: to the entire truth. This truth is complex. The thin line that ran between perpetrators and victims at that time ran right through the people, sometimes through their families, often enough through one and the same heart. The seed of foment and the tragic blend of force and fascination gave rise to the Jewish tragedy also in Austria. It was also the seed for the suppression of truth that followed. For too long, it has inhibited a critical reappraisal of the past and proved such a burden for a frank and open dialogue of trust between our two peoples. Today, we Austrians recognize that an acknowledgement of the full truth as long overdue. We know full well that all too often we have only spoken of Austria as the first state to have lost its freedom and independence to national socialism - and far too seldom of the fact that many of the worst henchmen in the Nazi dictatorship were Austrians. And no word of apology can ever expunge the agony of the Holocaust. On behalf of the republic of Austria I bow my head with deep respect and profound emotion in front of the victims. We know full well that for far too long we have not done enough, and not always the right thing, to alleviate the plight of the survivors of the Jewish tragedy and the victims' descendants. And we know full well that for far too long we have neglected those Jewish Austrians who were forced to leave their native land, humiliated and embittered. As Federal President, and as a citizen of Austria, I want to reach out today to all my Jewish compatriots who have since found refuge in Israel and in other countries around the world. I want to thank them for keeping a piece of Austria in their hearts, despite everything that has happened. I learnt many important lessons during my years as Austrian ambassador in the United States, not the least of which helped me view in a new light some of the impassioned discussions about Austria. Among the conflicting feelings which many emigrants bear towards Austria, there lies an unending love - a profound, albeit bitter, longing for Austria which for far too many years we have failed to recognize and reciprocate. Ladies and gentlemen: After all that has happened, we Austrians can lay no claim to reconciliation. Our deeds are, and should be, guided by a sense of remembrance, of awareness and of hope. History has taught us Austrians many lessons - mostly at the price of awesome sacrifice : The price of nationalism was war and hatred of strangers. The price of dictatorship - injustice and bondage. The price of intolerance - racism and mass murder. Today, half a century later, I stand before you as the representative of a new Austria, an Austria which is different from the country of the past, unsure of its purpose and ability to survive. It was in the concentration camps and prisons of Hitler's dictatorship that the founding fathers of the Second Republic came together again and discovered a common aim - to build the antithesis of Nazism. Austria has long since become a republic featuring a stable democracy and pluralist society, displaying a strong economy and a high measure of social justice. For millions of refugees from Eastern Europe, and hundreds of thousands of Jews from the former Soviet Union, this new Austria stood out as a haven of freedom and a champion of humanity and human rights. The expanding Jewish community in Austria also bears testimony to a growing sense of new-found confidence and security, above and beyond the memories and suspicions of the past. Prominent Jewish citizens who have accompanied me on this visit - among them Simon Wiesenthal - have long been acclaimed as courageous warning voices demonstrating the necessary understanding and sensitivity. They come to the fore whenever issues arise related to fringe groups and minorities, questions of solidarity and tolerance, and the very culture of living together. I wish to take this opportunity to extend my special thanks to them all for their uncompromising honesty. The struggle against the evils of the past is never won. In recent years, the Europeans have come to realize how alarmingly explosive every piece of an unresolved past can be and just how swiftly unbridled nationalism and intolerance can lead to open violence. I was thus all the more pleased when this summer the Austrian people responded with a resounding yes to the question of their country's membership in the European Union, staking their future on a new opening and a new era of internationalization. To my mind, this vote was a clear commitment: There shall be no place in Austria for nationalism and radicalism, for narrow-mindedness and intolerance. We must lead and live up to a new sense of European togetherness, drawing strength from a rich variety of cultures, nationalities and religions. Ladies and gentlemen: Our two countries are situated in regions which are undergoing a process of fundamental change. Almost simultaneously, Israel and Austria now find themselves enjoying an unrestricted view of their neighbors over borders, previously long-closed and marred by minefields and barbed wire. We are going through an era of historic opportunity, but it is also a time when long-held certainties are disappearing. The primeval force which finally broke through the ice of political paralysis has for many of our fellow-citizens evoked a feeling of fear and disorientation. This holds very true for Austria, and probably for Israel as well. We know all too well how easy it is - and how disastrous it can be during a confused transitional period like today - to fall back upon old stereotypes and prejudices of the past. We also know the labors and difficulties of building bridges, bridges of trust and bridges of humanity. Words can kill, and words can heal. We can invoke fear and intolerance, and we can invoke solidarity and reconciliation. That, too, is an experience that our countries have in common - and it should not be forgotten. We Austrians - not least because of our memory of the horrendous fate that befell the Jews - have always supported Israel whenever she was threatened and her existence endangered.