Kleine Sperlgasse, Castellezgasse, Malzgasse
Sixty-six thousand Jews in Austria were murdered by the National Socialists. For most of these people, the journey to extermination began in the heart of Vienna, in the collection centers on Kleine Sperlgasse, Castellezgasse and Malzgasse. An exhibition organized by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in the crypt of the Holocaust Memorial casts light on these forgotten places of the Holocaust and the fates of the victims of the deportations.
The journey to extermination began in the heart of the city. Kleine Sperlgasse 2a, Castellezgasse 35, Malzgasse 7 and 16 – these addresses in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt district scarcely register in Austria’s collective memory. But they are key places in the topography of the Shoah. There were four collection centers here during the time of the National Socialist terror, where Jews were interned prior to being transfered in trucks to Aspang railway station in groups of 1,000 people for deportation. From there, a total of 45 deportation trains brought these people to ghettos and extermination camps between February 1941 and October 1942. The majority of the more than 66,000 Austrian victims of the Shoah were therefore dispatched for extermination from Vienna’s four collection centers. (Source: Press release of the Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Crypt of the Holocaust Memorial, Mon-Fri 9.00 – 11.30 am and 12.30 – 4.00 pm (closed: December 19, 2016 – January 8, 2017)
Information (in German): www.oeaw.ac.at
