High Russian Honors Awarded Heads of Austrian Reconciliation Fund
Austrian Press Agency (APA) (10/17/05)
Ludwig Steiner and Richard Wotava received awards of honor, the first ever to be presented to foreigners, by the Russian government . Schüssel recommended for Nobel Peace Prize
Vienna Exceptional honor was bestowed upon the heads of the Austrian Slave and Forced Labor Fund (http://www.claimscon.org/index.asp?url=austria/forced_labor): Ludwig Steiner (83), Committee Chairman and Richard Wotava (72), Secretary General of the Reconciliation Fund, received the "Award of Honor of the Government of the Russian Federation," in the Russian Embassy in Vienna. Former Russian Minister of Labor and Director of the Board of the Russian Foundation, "Understanding and Reconciliation," Alexander Potschnick, who traveled to Vienna to present the awards, emphasized that they are the first foreigners ever to receive them.
Steiner, one of the most distinguished politicians of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), diplomat and former State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Wotava, Austrian diplomatic representative to various countries and international organizations, were authorized in December 2000 to manage the Fund with an endowment of 436 million euros. The Fund disbursed restitution to former slaved and forced laborers who suffered from the NS regimes which occupied the territory considered current-day Austria. Over the past five years, 131,578 people have received restitution from the " Austrian Fund for Reconciliation, Peace and Cooperation."
The choice of Steiner and Wotava was "a wise decision" by the government, said Potschinok to the two laureates, and he reported that Moscow has recommended Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel as initiator of the Fund to receive the next Nobel Peace Prize.
Steiner and Wotava expressed happiness not only over having been recipients of the award but also over having brought the challenging task to a successful conclusion. "It went well," said Steiner. The numerous letters of former forced laborers revealed "that for the first time people really received something tangible." Wotava said that that the remaining funds will flow into a "future fund" and will be used as humanitarian means for the benefit of former forced laborers.
Ludwig Steiner and Richard Wotava received awards of honor, the first ever to be presented to foreigners, by the Russian government . Schüssel recommended for Nobel Peace Prize
Vienna Exceptional honor was bestowed upon the heads of the Austrian Slave and Forced Labor Fund (http://www.claimscon.org/index.asp?url=austria/forced_labor): Ludwig Steiner (83), Committee Chairman and Richard Wotava (72), Secretary General of the Reconciliation Fund, received the "Award of Honor of the Government of the Russian Federation," in the Russian Embassy in Vienna. Former Russian Minister of Labor and Director of the Board of the Russian Foundation, "Understanding and Reconciliation," Alexander Potschnick, who traveled to Vienna to present the awards, emphasized that they are the first foreigners ever to receive them.
Steiner, one of the most distinguished politicians of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), diplomat and former State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Wotava, Austrian diplomatic representative to various countries and international organizations, were authorized in December 2000 to manage the Fund with an endowment of 436 million euros. The Fund disbursed restitution to former slaved and forced laborers who suffered from the NS regimes which occupied the territory considered current-day Austria. Over the past five years, 131,578 people have received restitution from the " Austrian Fund for Reconciliation, Peace and Cooperation."
The choice of Steiner and Wotava was "a wise decision" by the government, said Potschinok to the two laureates, and he reported that Moscow has recommended Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel as initiator of the Fund to receive the next Nobel Peace Prize.
Steiner and Wotava expressed happiness not only over having been recipients of the award but also over having brought the challenging task to a successful conclusion. "It went well," said Steiner. The numerous letters of former forced laborers revealed "that for the first time people really received something tangible." Wotava said that that the remaining funds will flow into a "future fund" and will be used as humanitarian means for the benefit of former forced laborers.
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Vienna Bestows Award of Distinction upon Ludwig Steiner
OTS (09/26/05)
Vienna. Ludwig Steiner, Ambassador Emeritus and Retired State Secretary, received the "Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to Vienna"
Vienna’s City Councillor for Cultural Affairs, Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, characterized Ludwig Steiner as a personality who has done a great deal for public affairs (res publica). "Ludwig Steiner committed his life, heart and soul to Austria’s rebirth," said Mailath, recognizing Ludwig Steiner as a resistance fighter who joined the Tiroler Resistance Group 05 toward the end of the war. Ludwig Steiner’s entire life embodies that of remembrance. As head of the Reconciliation Fund, he commemorates the people, their fate along with their suffering.
"Ludwig Steiner is an outstanding Austrian, a personality who has made his mark on history," claimed Kurt Scholz, Municipal Director for Restitution Affairs of the City of Vienna. After the war, Ludwig Steiner became "lawyer of social and political reconciliation;" he was instrumental in concluding the State Treaty and dedicated himself to finding a political solution to South Tyrol. Today one speaks of Ludwig Steiner respectfully as "Grand Seigneur of Austrian Foreign Policy."
Biography Ludwig Steiner
Ludwig Steiner was born in 1922 in Innsbruck. He attended the Trade Academy in Innsbruck, founded a Catholic youth organization and, toward the end of the war, joined the resistance group surrounding Karl Gruber. He participated in the political takeover in Innsbruck before the arrival of the U.S. Army.
In 1945, Steiner began his studies at the University of Innsbruck and received his Ph.D. in 1948. In November 1948 he joined the diplomatic corps and was posted to the Austrian Embassy in Paris. Negotiations involving South Tyrol in 1952 called him back to Innsbruck where he became head of the Foreign Affairs branch office of the Federal Chancellery. The same year Foreign Minister Gruber summoned him to Vienna to become his personal assistant. During 1953-58 he was Chief of Cabinet of Federal Chancellor Julius Raab. While serving in this position, he was also a member of the Austrian delegation during the decisive Moscow negotiations in April of 1955 which led to the Moscow Memorandum and finally to the conclusion of the Austrian State Treaty in May of 1955.
Finally he served in the diplomatic corps as Chargé d’Affaires in Sofia (1958-61), in Greece and in Cyprus (1964-1972). His main duties as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs involved the negotiations concluded between Austria and Italy that led to a solution of the problem of Southern Tirol.
From 1979 to 1990 he was delegate to the National Council and Foreign Policy Spokesman of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). Moreover, from 1990 until 1996 he acted as President of the Political Academy (Politische Akademie) of the ÖVP.
Since December 2000 Ludwig Steiner directs the Austrian Fund for Reconciliation, Peace and Cooperation (http://www.reconciliationfund.at/index.php). The task of the fund is to offer payments as restitution for forced labor under the NS regime. Since 1994 he is Vice President of the Documentation Archives of Austrian Resistance (DÖW). Furthermore, he is member of the administrative council of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.
Vienna. Ludwig Steiner, Ambassador Emeritus and Retired State Secretary, received the "Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to Vienna"
Vienna’s City Councillor for Cultural Affairs, Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, characterized Ludwig Steiner as a personality who has done a great deal for public affairs (res publica). "Ludwig Steiner committed his life, heart and soul to Austria’s rebirth," said Mailath, recognizing Ludwig Steiner as a resistance fighter who joined the Tiroler Resistance Group 05 toward the end of the war. Ludwig Steiner’s entire life embodies that of remembrance. As head of the Reconciliation Fund, he commemorates the people, their fate along with their suffering.
"Ludwig Steiner is an outstanding Austrian, a personality who has made his mark on history," claimed Kurt Scholz, Municipal Director for Restitution Affairs of the City of Vienna. After the war, Ludwig Steiner became "lawyer of social and political reconciliation;" he was instrumental in concluding the State Treaty and dedicated himself to finding a political solution to South Tyrol. Today one speaks of Ludwig Steiner respectfully as "Grand Seigneur of Austrian Foreign Policy."
Biography Ludwig Steiner
Ludwig Steiner was born in 1922 in Innsbruck. He attended the Trade Academy in Innsbruck, founded a Catholic youth organization and, toward the end of the war, joined the resistance group surrounding Karl Gruber. He participated in the political takeover in Innsbruck before the arrival of the U.S. Army.
In 1945, Steiner began his studies at the University of Innsbruck and received his Ph.D. in 1948. In November 1948 he joined the diplomatic corps and was posted to the Austrian Embassy in Paris. Negotiations involving South Tyrol in 1952 called him back to Innsbruck where he became head of the Foreign Affairs branch office of the Federal Chancellery. The same year Foreign Minister Gruber summoned him to Vienna to become his personal assistant. During 1953-58 he was Chief of Cabinet of Federal Chancellor Julius Raab. While serving in this position, he was also a member of the Austrian delegation during the decisive Moscow negotiations in April of 1955 which led to the Moscow Memorandum and finally to the conclusion of the Austrian State Treaty in May of 1955.
Finally he served in the diplomatic corps as Chargé d’Affaires in Sofia (1958-61), in Greece and in Cyprus (1964-1972). His main duties as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs involved the negotiations concluded between Austria and Italy that led to a solution of the problem of Southern Tirol.
From 1979 to 1990 he was delegate to the National Council and Foreign Policy Spokesman of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). Moreover, from 1990 until 1996 he acted as President of the Political Academy (Politische Akademie) of the ÖVP.
Since December 2000 Ludwig Steiner directs the Austrian Fund for Reconciliation, Peace and Cooperation (http://www.reconciliationfund.at/index.php). The task of the fund is to offer payments as restitution for forced labor under the NS regime. Since 1994 he is Vice President of the Documentation Archives of Austrian Resistance (DÖW). Furthermore, he is member of the administrative council of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.
A Conversation with German Survivor Gerald Schwab
Gedenkdienst (No. 2/2005)
"I wanted to be sent to Europe to participate in the struggle against the Nazis."
For several years Gerald Schwab worked as a volunteer in the Division of Senior Historians at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Gerry has his friends and colleagues call him, was born in Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany and given the name Gerd. Only when his military papers were drawn up during the course of naturalization in 1944 did he have his first name changed to Gerald. Together with his family, who originally came from Breisach on the Rhine, Gerald move to Basel, Switzerland in 1933 for a short time. His father was a businessman by profession and was active in various countries. Gerald’s family then lived for a time in France - in Saint Louis to be exact - a small town on the Swiss border where young Gerald attended school until mid-1935 when the family moved back to Lörrach in Germany.
In response to the massive anti-Semitic pogrom in 1938 known as Kristallnacht, Switzerland agreed to admit three hundred Jewish children. At this time, the german government did not object to the emigration of children. In April of 1939, at the age of fourteen, Gerd was sent to live with a farming family in Mönchaltsdorf and then lived in Hütten o Wädenswill on Lake Zürich. His parents were not permitted to either leave Germany or to enter Switzerland and had to remain behind in Lörrach. The family maintained regular contact. In May 1940, Gerd returned to Germany in order to prepare his emigration from Europe. His family had already been approved to receive immigration papers from the American Consulate in Stuttgart. They received their papers on the very day Germany invaded the Netherlands and Belgium (May 10, 1940).
On week later, the entire family made its way to America. They made the long journey to New York by sea on the George Washington via Genoa, Italy. One month later, this journey would have been impossible after Italy joined the war as Germany’s ally.
The émigré family settled in Long Branch, New Jersey, after a short stay in New York. At first Gerry’s father worked as a chauffeur and gardener and his mother as a domestic servant for a well-to-do family. In 1941, the family acquired a chicken farm with the help of the Jewish Agricultural Society. Gerry had to help out on the farm while he was going to school. At the beginning of 1944, Gerald Schwab volunteered for the military and, after thirteen weeks of basic training in Florida, was sent back to Europe as an infantryman.
Training there was very hard because it didn’t take place in the part of Florida you know from your holidays. Boot camp was located in the north, in a region of sand, swamp and snakes. After that training, he had two options: the units in the Pacific or those in Europe.
Gerry lapses into thought for a few moments and then continues: "I wanted to be sent to Europe to participate in the struggle against the Nazis." He smiles and adds: "It’s interesting to know how it happened: all the soldiers who wore glasses were required to have also a spare paid, and at this time, it was not so easy to get glasses. I had to wait for my spare pair. For this reason, I was not sent with the unit with which I was trained. The unit was sent to France and participated in the Battle of the Bulge, the last big battle of World War II. Two weeks after the departure of my comrades, I was deployed to Naples in November 1944. From there I went to Caserta and then further north in Italy with the 10th Mountain Division, which, incidentally, was the only existing American mountain division. A short while ago I was asked: "What were you doing on May 8, 1945, the day World War II officially ended?"
I was sleeping because at that point in time the war had already been over for us for a few days. We were tired and thought that we would shortly be transferred to the Pacific. My buddies were shipped back to the States in order to be transferred to the Far East. I, however, was directed to the headquarters of the 5th Army in Europe because it needed interpreters and translators.
Headquarters was at the Gardone Riviera on Lake Gardia where I served for the next two months. Then I was needed in Gmunden, Austria, and in May 1946 I resigned from the Army in Vienna. After the war Gerry worked in Germany for another year. For six months he was an interpreter and translator for the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg and then another six months as a research analyst in Berlin at the Ministry of Justice preparing documentation for the Nuremberg trials. At this time he had access to documentation about the Kristallnacht. He later wrote a book based in part on these materials. After that, Gerald returned to the United States and attended the University of Chicago, the only major university to accept incoming students without high school diplomas. After three years there he continued at Stanford and George Washington universities. After graduating in 1951, Gerald worked for the State Department, first in American and then in the Foreign Service. From 1955 to 1957 he worked in Vienna. Later he worked in several countries including Togo and Sierra Leone. Today Gerry lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and volunteers for the Division of Senior Historians, carrying out a variety of research tasks.
This text was written originally in German by Stefan Stoev, a young Austrian who served as a Gedenkdiener at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
"I wanted to be sent to Europe to participate in the struggle against the Nazis."
For several years Gerald Schwab worked as a volunteer in the Division of Senior Historians at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Gerry has his friends and colleagues call him, was born in Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany and given the name Gerd. Only when his military papers were drawn up during the course of naturalization in 1944 did he have his first name changed to Gerald. Together with his family, who originally came from Breisach on the Rhine, Gerald move to Basel, Switzerland in 1933 for a short time. His father was a businessman by profession and was active in various countries. Gerald’s family then lived for a time in France - in Saint Louis to be exact - a small town on the Swiss border where young Gerald attended school until mid-1935 when the family moved back to Lörrach in Germany.
In response to the massive anti-Semitic pogrom in 1938 known as Kristallnacht, Switzerland agreed to admit three hundred Jewish children. At this time, the german government did not object to the emigration of children. In April of 1939, at the age of fourteen, Gerd was sent to live with a farming family in Mönchaltsdorf and then lived in Hütten o Wädenswill on Lake Zürich. His parents were not permitted to either leave Germany or to enter Switzerland and had to remain behind in Lörrach. The family maintained regular contact. In May 1940, Gerd returned to Germany in order to prepare his emigration from Europe. His family had already been approved to receive immigration papers from the American Consulate in Stuttgart. They received their papers on the very day Germany invaded the Netherlands and Belgium (May 10, 1940).
On week later, the entire family made its way to America. They made the long journey to New York by sea on the George Washington via Genoa, Italy. One month later, this journey would have been impossible after Italy joined the war as Germany’s ally.
The émigré family settled in Long Branch, New Jersey, after a short stay in New York. At first Gerry’s father worked as a chauffeur and gardener and his mother as a domestic servant for a well-to-do family. In 1941, the family acquired a chicken farm with the help of the Jewish Agricultural Society. Gerry had to help out on the farm while he was going to school. At the beginning of 1944, Gerald Schwab volunteered for the military and, after thirteen weeks of basic training in Florida, was sent back to Europe as an infantryman.
Training there was very hard because it didn’t take place in the part of Florida you know from your holidays. Boot camp was located in the north, in a region of sand, swamp and snakes. After that training, he had two options: the units in the Pacific or those in Europe.
Gerry lapses into thought for a few moments and then continues: "I wanted to be sent to Europe to participate in the struggle against the Nazis." He smiles and adds: "It’s interesting to know how it happened: all the soldiers who wore glasses were required to have also a spare paid, and at this time, it was not so easy to get glasses. I had to wait for my spare pair. For this reason, I was not sent with the unit with which I was trained. The unit was sent to France and participated in the Battle of the Bulge, the last big battle of World War II. Two weeks after the departure of my comrades, I was deployed to Naples in November 1944. From there I went to Caserta and then further north in Italy with the 10th Mountain Division, which, incidentally, was the only existing American mountain division. A short while ago I was asked: "What were you doing on May 8, 1945, the day World War II officially ended?"
I was sleeping because at that point in time the war had already been over for us for a few days. We were tired and thought that we would shortly be transferred to the Pacific. My buddies were shipped back to the States in order to be transferred to the Far East. I, however, was directed to the headquarters of the 5th Army in Europe because it needed interpreters and translators.
Headquarters was at the Gardone Riviera on Lake Gardia where I served for the next two months. Then I was needed in Gmunden, Austria, and in May 1946 I resigned from the Army in Vienna. After the war Gerry worked in Germany for another year. For six months he was an interpreter and translator for the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg and then another six months as a research analyst in Berlin at the Ministry of Justice preparing documentation for the Nuremberg trials. At this time he had access to documentation about the Kristallnacht. He later wrote a book based in part on these materials. After that, Gerald returned to the United States and attended the University of Chicago, the only major university to accept incoming students without high school diplomas. After three years there he continued at Stanford and George Washington universities. After graduating in 1951, Gerald worked for the State Department, first in American and then in the Foreign Service. From 1955 to 1957 he worked in Vienna. Later he worked in several countries including Togo and Sierra Leone. Today Gerry lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and volunteers for the Division of Senior Historians, carrying out a variety of research tasks.
This text was written originally in German by Stefan Stoev, a young Austrian who served as a Gedenkdiener at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.