Today is the day of Judaism

The word Transición describes the process of turning Spain from a dictatorship to a democracy in the 70ties and early 80ties. Between 1975 and 1980 new laws were imposed that transformed the country into a democracy. The speciality about the Transición is that change happened within the system. Spanish Parliament, still from the Franco era, for example voted in favour of its own dissolution. In addition a new constitution was put in place, political parties were legalised and Spain held its first free elections. Most people argue that the Transición ended in 1981 because the new democracy survived a coup by the military, during which Franco loyalists occupied the Parliament.
An important figure in the transition from dictatorship to democracy was performed by the spanish king Juan Carlos. Even though he was Franco's successor, he decided against following the dictator´s autoritarian curse and pursued a democratic agenda.

#auslandsdienst #neverforget #auslandsjahr #gedenkdienst #freiwilligendienst #madrid #spain #democracy ... See more

The genocide in Rwanda began on April 6, 1994 and lasted until mid-July. The cause of murdering more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu dates back to the colonial times. During the colonization of Rwanda by Germany and Belgium, the then better-off Tutsi minority and the then worse-off Hutu majority split. Through this distinction the feeling of having to assign oneself to a certain ethnic group arose. After Rwanda's independence a Hutu government followed. This caused a systematic suppression of the Tutsi. The shooting down of the plane of the obtaining President Habyarimana 1994 led to the assassinations of prominent Tutsi and also more moderate Hutu. The Hutu government accused the Tutsi via the media for murdering the president and summoned the people to kill them. It was the beginning of cruel violence in Rwanda. After about a hundred days, the Tutsi guerrilla managed to defeat the army and the Hutu militias and put an end to the genocide.

#auslandsdienst #neverforget #auslandsjahr #gedenkdienst #freiwilligendienst #kigali #kigalirwanda #kigaligenocidememorial #kigaligenocidememorialcentre ... See more

Hanna (real name Johanna) was born in 1906 near Hannover into a jewish family. At the age of 18 she began her studies in Philosophy, Philology and Theology in Marburg. During that time she got in contact with Martin Heidegger. While studying at different german universities she had professors, such as Edmund Husserl and Karl Jaspers.
In 1929 she moved to Berlin and started to look at her religion from a philosophical point of view. In 1933 she was arrested by the Gestapo and fled to Paris after her arrest. In 1941 she left France after being detained in a detention camp. During her time there she thought a lot about Zionism and married her second husband Heinrich Blücher.
In the USA she wrote some of her most important publications such as "Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951) and "The Human Condition"(1958) and was a guest professor at Princeton and Harvard. In 1961 she covered the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem for the magazine “New Yorker”. Those texts are collected in the book “Eichmann in Jerusalem - A Report of the Banality of Evil” and were heavily criticised from parts of society.
Until her death in 1975 she continued writing and teaching. During and after her life she received numerous awards from various countries. ... See more

Marion Gräfin Dönhoff was born in 1909 in East Prussia and was editor-in-chief and co editor of DIE ZEIT. She grew up on a noble estate with her six siblings in East Prussia. At the age of 19 she took her A levels and began her studies in Frankfurt. When Hitler seized power, several professors were dismissed and she continued studying in Basel. After receiving her doctorate, she went back to East Prussia, where she managed the family estate. During WW 2 she had strong contacts with the resistance and played an important role in the group of July, 20th 1944.
After WW 2 she fled East Prusia because of the Red Army and started working at DIE ZEIT in 1946. She took over the political department and became a loud and active voice in german politics. In 1971 she received the Peace Price of the German Book Trade for her commitment to reconciliation with Eastern Europe. After retiring from day-to-day journalism she supported a program for ex prisoners and continued her work to improve the relationships between Germany and Eastern Europe. Dönhoff died in 2002 at the age of 92 and left behind numerous books. ... See more

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man/woman changes his/her own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him/her... We need not wait to see what others do.”

Mahatma Gandhi (real name Mohandas Karamchand) was born on October 2nd, 1869 as the fourth of four children in a family that belonged to the merchant caste (upper class) in Porbandar in West Gujarat / India.
After studying law in London, he went back to corrupt India to work as a lawyer, first in Bombay, then in his homeland of Gujarat.
Gandhi was the initiator of the nonviolent liberation of India from the colonial rule of the British Empire. He organized a movement that campaigned for the country's independence through non-violence, fearlessness and lack of interest in material. Among other things, he organized non-violent strikes against the colonial government and boycotts against imported goods.
After a campaign of violence got out of hand and Gandhi was imprisoned from 1922-1924, his next goal was independence from Britain.
The infinite number of counter-actions against the British (“salt march”, hunger strikes, etc.) finally led to India's independence on June 3, 1947.
Gandhi died in 1948 as a result of the assassination attempt by a nationalist, but one thing is clear: the world still celebrates the freedom fighter as a role model and national hero.

#austrianserviceabroad #serviceabroad #voluntarywork #ahimsa #nonviolence #independence ... See more

Hedy Lamarr was born in 1914 in Vienna and was an austrian-american actress, inventor and film producer. From an early age on, she was interested in acting and participated in various plays and films. In 1933 she became famous around the world due to her first film "Ecstasy", which was forbidden in some countries because of a particular nude scene. In the same year she married an austrian arm producer, who she left again a couple of years later. In 1938 she moved to the USA where she continued her career and participated in more or less 25 film productions.
During WW2 she supported the USA against Germany and together with Georg Antheil invented a technology that made it more difficult to jam torpedoes. Her new technology was not used until the 60ties and the US army gave the public access to it in the 80ties. Today her invention is particularly important because it is used for Bluetooth. During most of her lifetime she did not get recognition for her inventions. She was usually noticed for her private life and her beauty, while people forgot about her inventions, her engagement agains Nazi- Germany and in favor of reconstructing Austria after WW2.
Hedy Lamarr died in 2000 in the USA. Nowadays there are various books and films about her life. Last year there was an exhibition dedicated to her at the Jewish museum of Vienna.

#österreichischerauslandsdienst #auslandsdienst #freiwilligendienst #reisen #erfahrung
#hedylamarr #womeninscience ... See more

Bertha Sophia Felicitas Freifrau von Suttner was born on June 9, 1843 in Prague. From 1873 she worked as a tutor. She worked for Karl Freiherr von Suttner in Vienna and taught his children music and various languages.

Bertha von Suttner fell in love with the youngest son Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner. She married him and moved to Georgia, doing a variety of odd jobs to survive. When the Russo-Turkish War began in 1877, her husband wrote war reports and travel stories. She wrote short stories and essays for Austrian newspapers. Both had great success with their journalistic activities and returned to Vienna.

In 1889 she published the book "Lay Down Your Arms". This caused a sensation and made her the most famous representative of the peace movement. The book was published in 37 editions and has been translated into 12 languages.

In 1906 she finally received the Nobel Peace Prize in Kristiana. In her speech she presented 3 points to resolve conflicts between states without violence.

She died on June 21, 1914. A few weeks later the First World War broke out, which she had so often warned about.

#austrianserviceabroad #serviceabroad #voluntarywork #responsibility #travel #experience #peace #suttner #History ... See more

In the next Wednesday conference on the 03rd of February at 8 pm we welcome three very special guests, Vanessa Currie, Kathleen Manion und Wahida Rahman. They are experts in the field of child and adolescent law. Vanessa Currie serves as the Executive Director of the International Institute for Child Rights and Development, where her focus is on children’s participation in their protection. Kathleen Manion is an Associate Professor at the Royal Roads University and an Associate at the International Institute of Child Rights and Development (IICRD). Wahida Rahman was a consultant with UNICEF India for four years and now continues her consulting work with Terres des Hommes.

#austrianserviceabroad #serviceabroad #voluntarywork #responsibility #travel #experience #wednesdayconference ... See more

Winston Churchill:

If you think of the most famous British politicians in history, almost certainly Winston Churchill will come to your mind first.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born in 1874 in England. He received his talent for politics by his father who was a co-founder of the conservative party (Tories). After he finished military academy, he was involved in several colonial wars. From 1900 on, he started his political career and was the conservative party's representative within the House of Commons. After having held several ministerial posts, he was named First Lord of the Admiralty and thus played a big role in British politics during the First World War. Due to failed operations, he resigned from his post in May 1915 and dedicated himself to writing.

The Appeasement policies pursued by the then Premier Minister Chamberlain towards Hitler were strongly criticized by Churchill. This led to him being paid political attention due to the expanding foreign policy of the German Reich and was again made First Lord of the Admiralty after the start of the war. After the Germans' occupation of Poland, Denmark and Norway, Chamberlain resigned and Churchill became the new Premier Minister.

After the German occupation of France, Churchill encouraged the resistance within the British people and made sure that the German Blitzkrieg was stopped in the West. This resistance forced Hitler to focus on his attacks on the Sowjet Union, which entailed the eventual war's turning point and the victory of the Allies.

In 1945, Winston Churchill lost the Prime Minister's elections, he died in 1956 in London.

#austrianserviceabroad #serviceabroad #voluntarywork #responsibility #travel #experience #greatbritain #politics ... See more

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Exactly 76 years ago, the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army.

#27january #holocaust #remember #international #remembranceday #auschwitz #birkenau #uno

United Nations
Auschwitz Memorial / Muzeum Auschwitz ... See more

You can check out the entire video by clicking this link!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxQ2YL2QsfQ


“My mother knew the man who was overseeing the whole Jewish problem there. [… ] He was a friend of my parents, a neighbor. She approached him and begged him to give the little boy to her. [Karina’s four years old cousin, who was destined to be deported] He said: ‘Why do you need him? He cannot work. What should you do with him?’ He looked down at her and he said: ‘If you don’t disappear this minute, I will put you in the vehicles too’. So what could she do? She left. That was a friend.”
Gabrielle Karina’s (*1930 in Bratislava, former Czechoslovakia) adoring, solicitous and sheltered childhood was shattered apart at the tender age of 8, when World War II emerged.
Early on her mother, who shared a delicacies store with her husband, partook in the partisan movement. Karina's mother proficiently acquired a list of Jews, who were designated to be deported and therefore managed to save numerous Jewish residents from the Nazi persecution.
During her mothers' resilience and resistance, Gabriele accompanied her to underground meetings, as her mother had contemplated, that soldiers wouldn’t dare to stop a lone mother with her young child after 6 pm, the curfew solely mandatory for Jewish residents. Following closely, Gabriele's parents managed to secure false papers. Afterward, they went into hiding. Karol Blanor, a valiant young lawyer, accommodated them, aware of the vital consequences.
Gabriele shared her story with us. Listen closely.

#austrianserviceabroad #serviceabroad #voluntarywork #responsibility #travel #experience #holocaust #survivors ... See more

D-Day:
On June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy. It was the beginning of the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi rule. A total of about 150,000 soldiers reached the coast that day. At the same time, 23,000 paratroopers landed in the hinterland of the coast the night before. In addition to the ground troops, the project was also supported by 7,500 aircraft, which were primarily intended to destroy German defense systems.

Nevertheless, the attack claimed numerous casualties on the Allied side, because the troops could not be brought directly to the beach from the landing craft. Therefore the soldiers had to get to the beach through waist-high water and were exposed to the German defense without any protection. The German soldiers had the advantage that on the one hand they had a good view over the coast from their bunkers and on the other hand they were still protected. Hitler himself, however, did not suspect this attack in Normandy, but was firmly convinced that the Allies had Calais in their sights. The British had placed an army made of cardboard, rubber and wood near this place. German reconnaissance planes reported what they had seen, which is why preparations were made in that region and not in Normandy, where the actual attack took place.

#austrianserviceabroad #serviceabroad #voluntarywork #responsibility #travel #experience #memory ... See more

The Galicia Jewish Museum was founded by Chris Schwarz in 2004 and focuses mainly on commemoration of the Holocaust while also attempting to cultivate the former colourful and divers regional Jewish culture.

The museum itself includes one permanent exhibition called "Traces of Memory" which attempts to present exclusively through pictures what Galicia was like before the Holocaust and what happened there during and after that time. There are also several temporary exhibitions and the museum is one of the biggest education institutions dealing with the topic of Judaism in Poland. However, the spaces are not only used for exhibitions but also for hosting different events. Those events range from Jewish festivities of the Jewish Community to architectural congresses. It is a very interesting and versatile museum.

At the moment, Sebastian Grünanger is doing his Gedenkdienst here.

#austrianserviceabroad #serviceabroad #voluntarywork #travel #experience #memory #responsibility #poland ... See more

The Austrian Service Abroad wishes Merry Christmas!