@Reinhard Werner
Austria is still torn between its horrible past and its democratic present. Ari Rath, former editor of the "Jerusalem Post", changed his speech in a performance at Vienna's Burgtheater to react to a recent far right fraternity ball in the centre of Vienna.
He still is the same hard-hitting reporter. At 89 Ari Rath, the legendary former editor of the "Jerusalem Post" scribbles on a piece of paper while sitting on stage during the performance of "The Last Witnesses" in Vienna's Burgtheater state theatre. Then he walks out under the lights in front of the stage and delivers his deftly updated statement:
"On Friday evening 1500 far-right fraternity members assembled under the leadership of Mr. Strache, the head of the hard-right FPÖ party, for their so-called "academics’ ball" in the Hofburg. They were protected by 2000 police officers who had been called in from all over Austria to fend off demonstrators who protested against this event. These fraternity members do not want to learn from this country’s history. The poisonous serpent of racism, xenophobia and right wing nationalism has lifted her head again. You have come to see this performance by us, the last witnesses. It has already been shown seven times. But the danger outside in the streets is far from over."
The audience agrees. The applause is long and strong. Six men and women bear witness to how it felt 75 years ago during the "Anschluss" of Austria to the Third Reich in March 1938, when, as Ari Rath says later in the debate with moderator Peter Huemer, we were degraded "from human to sub-human". The memories of Rudolf Gelbard, Vilma Neuwirth, Lucia Heilmann, Marko Feingold, Ari Rath and Suzanne-Lucienne Rabinovici were dramatised by author Doron Rabinovici and the director of the Burgtheater, Mathias Hartmann. The seventh witness, Ceija Stojka, died last year during the preparation of the project. She is represented by an empty chair.
The dramatic climax comes with the deeply moving account of Shoshanna Rabinovici, whose mother hid her in a backpack and carried her like this on her shoulders through rows of soldiers, who beat women and children in two directions - to the right for those big and healthy enough to work, to the left straight into the gas chambers. Shoshanna's mother knew her child would not survive the selection alone because she was too young and too small. The mother succeeded in saving her daughter and so Shoshanna is able to bear witness 70 years later.
Her son, the author and dramatist of this production, is pleasantly surprised at the huge success of the piece. The original plan to perform the "The Last Witnesses" only five times has been changed. It has already played for seven sold-out performances and there are three more to come.
This is where Austria stands today. The dignified treatment of the victims of the Third Reich in the Burgtheater stands on one side. The ball of the fraternity members, of which some are far-right extremists, in Hofburg, the former emperor's castle in Vienna, stands on the other. For sure, neither of these so very Austrian groups will die out in the near future.
Many young people come to see "The Last Witnesses". A student of psychiatry asks Vilma Neuwirth in the debate after the performance how one can return to normal life after what she has endured during the war. Frau Neuwirth answers: "I had seven years to imagine what I would do if I survived the war. And I have been doing it ever since."
Links to reviews and articles in German only:
http://www.burgtheater.at/Content.Node2/home/spielplan/premieren/Die-letzten-Zeugen.at.php
http://derstandard.at/1381368778290/Doron-Rabinovici-Alle-Wunden-heilen-sicher-nicht
http://www.hanser-literaturverlage.de/buecher/buch.html?isbn=978-3-552-05585-8