Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial, Vienna

A poignant monument. A must see when in the city.

MEMORIAL TO THE AUSTRIAN JEWISH VICTIMS OF THE SHOAH This memorial commemorates the 65,000 Viennese Jews who were murdered during the Nazi regime. It was created on the initiative of Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005). The reinforced concrete cube by the British artist Rachel Whiteread (b. 1963) represents an introverted, non-accessible library. Countless editions of the apparently same book stand for the large number of victims and their life stories. The Judenplatz is a place of Jewish memory and present. It was the center of Vienna's first Jewish community in the Middle Ages and was home to one of the largest synagogues in Europe. Important rabbinical leaders taught here. 1421, the entire Jewish community was expelled or murdered. The foundations of the destroyed synagogue are located below the memorial. They were discovered in 1995 and can be visited in Museum Judenplatz. There you can also get insights into the history of the medieval Jewish community and the emergence of the memorial.