The Gedenkdienst Program

In September 2022, Melbourne Holocaust Museum CEO Jayne Josem participated in a conference and a reception in the Austrian Parliament in recognition of 30 years of the Austrian Gedenkdienst service. As an alternative to compulsory military service, this form of civilian service has seen over 1,300 young Austrians serve in Holocaust museums and memorials across the globe and has expanded to include social service and peace service.

The Gedenkdienst (literally “memory service”) concept sees the Austrian government and its young people facing and taking responsibility for a dark chapter in their country’s history. A young Austrian has volunteered at MHM for 11 of the past 12 years, completing a 10-month internship with financial support from their government.

The program was established by Andreas Maislinger, an Austrian who visited Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1976 and was convinced Austria needed a state-supported civilian service.

These young Gedenkdiener, as the participants are known, arrive well prepared in institutions like ours across the globe, having completed intensive Holocaust studies ahead of their service. Interns at MHM leave as ambassadors of the museum and gain work and life experience skills during their stay.

The conference was an exchange between different host institutions such as Yad Vashem in Israel, the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, the Auschwitz Jewish Centre, Jewish Museum Berlin, Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, and the Kigali Genocide

Memorial in Rwanda. Representatives of the Austrian Services Abroad, the Austrian Foreign Ministry, politicians, and diplomats all presented at the conference.

The commemoration culminated on 1 September 2022 with a reception in the Austrian Parliament hosted by President of the National Council of the Austrian Parliament Wolfgang Sobotka.

Among the special guest speakers were US Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt, and Chairman of Yad Vashem Dani Dayan.

CEO Jayne Josem, participated in a panel discussion at the event featuring two of the Austrian Gedenkdienst participants, Director of the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Center Tali Nates and Director of the Auschwitz Jewish

Right: President of the National Council of Austria, Wolfgang Sobotka

The event was of personal significance to Jayne, whose father and grandparents were born in Vienna but were forced to flee after the Anschluss in March 1938:

Center Tomasz Kuncewicz. Later that day, the panellists met with President Wolfgang Sobotka and Rabbi Abraham Cooper from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for a conversation about Holocaust memory and antisemitism. This meeting, at Café Central, was published in the local newspaper.

Jayne recounting the important meeting said:

“It was an honour to speak about them in parliament, to ensure their names are uttered and their truth is told; that they once lived here and felt themselves to be Viennese, and that although they fled after experiencing the initial fear and terror, both my grandparents, Albert and Josephine Grossbard, died young – Josephine aged 41 and Albert aged 57, before I was born.”

In November 2022 we welcomed our current Austrian Intern Tim Kumpf, who has added value across various departments within the museum. As part of his 10-month internship, Tim is undertaking an important project alongside the library team, researching European hometowns of Holocaust survivors to understand the impact the war had on these towns today. The Gedenkdienst program itself and the messages that echoed through the conference were all about the power of taking responsibility. From the Melbourne Holocaust Museum’s experience with our Austrian Gedenkdiener, we believe that this program embodies the concept with a sound practical outcome, and we commend the Austrian government for its continued support of this form of service.

I impressed upon President Sobotka the value of the Gedenkdienst program to institutions such as ours to ensure they continue to support it. When the first memorial servant from Austria came to us in Melbourne (in 2008), we only had twelve paid employees. An extra person for a whole year makes a huge difference because, as a non-profit association, we have to keep a strict eye on our costs. And the fact that young volunteers come from Austria to get involved here is of great value not only for the few remaining Holocaust survivors but also for their descendants.