Visit this solemn Holocaust Memorial at Judenplatz on the site of an excavated medieval destroyed synagogue.
In the Middle Ages, Vienna was an important and thriving the center of Jewish life. This came to an abrupt halt and violent end in 1420 to 1421 as Viennese Jews were murdered and expelled. The ruins of the then-destroyed synagogue, excavated under the Judenplatz in 1995, bear witness to the life and destruction of that medieval community. This modern memorial unites the present horrors with past tragedies as it is built above the medieval synagogue that was burned down in the "Viennese Geserah" of 1420.
In 2000, Vienna unveiled the somber Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial in the center of what was the center of the Jewish district. British artist Rachel Whiteread designed a reinforced concrete cube resembling a Nameless Library with its volumes turned inside out. This symbolically represents the 65,000 Viennese Jews, "People of the Book" with loss of life and loss of learning, who were murdered during the Holocaust. As Simon Wiesenthal elaborated at the unveiling, "This monument shouldn't be beautiful, it must hurt." read more