Initiator Beatrix Wimmer writes:

“The building at Fluchtgasse 7 is located in what is known as the Volksoper Quarter in Vienna’s 9th district. For quite some time, I had suspected that this building, in which I live and work, might bear witness to Nazi terror and persecution.

In May 2005 that I discovered that pupils had compiled a database with the resonant name “A letter to the Stars”. This database allowed you to find out whether former residents at any given address had fallen victim to the Nazi regime.

And after entering my address into the search engine I – sadly – got several hits. My initial research revealed that three women from Fluchtgasse 7 had been deported to concentration camps and were subsequently killed. I wanted to pay tribute to these women, to raise their profile. I asked myself: was a commemorative plaque a possibility?

My fellow residents, Mrs Erzsébet Fuchs and Mr Ron Schwarzbaum, whom I initially consulted about my plans, were supportive from the very start.

Following a suggestion from Mrs Fuchs we established contact with the Lokale Agenda Alsergrund and formed an action group. This step towards a more professional approach in implementing our plans proved to be helpful in establishing contacts at a local political level. Credit needs to be given to the Lokale Agenda team, in particular to Liette Clees, for their support, which helped us to progress in a very structured and focused way.

Soon, historian Maria Czwik was able to start a thorough historical study of the house. We now know that between the years of 1939-1945, far more residents of Fluchtgasse 7, namely a total of 27 individuals, were persecuted, robbed of their possessions, deported and killed.

We also established contact with the managing directors of the Vienna Volksoper, artistic director Robert Meyer and financial director Christoph Ladstätter, with a view to gaining their support and cooperation. Having already learned that a PhD thesis was being written based on research into the fates of staff members of the Volkoper under the Nazi regime, this helped us to build a good rapport with the directors and we were met with positive interest, even the prospect of cooperation.

A musician from the Volksoper orchestra joined our group and we linked up with the society “Servitengasse1938”, members of which have supported us since, both in word and deed. Barbara Sauer volunteered as a further member of our group and has so far made valuable contributions owing to her professional competency as a historian and her experiences with the project “Servitengasse1938”.

We continued with our activities:

By issuing pamphlets we have managed to broaden our base by recruiting interested members of the public to participate in our work. We have also now founded a registered society and created this webpage: www.volksopernviertel1938.at.

We are confident that we will unveil a commemorative plaque at Fluchtgasse 7 in spring 2015.

We would like to thank all those who have supported us and continue to contribute: their valuable voluntary work provides us with their skills and know-how – from digging out old blueprints and building diagrams to the construction of this website.”

Members of the core group (in alphabetic order):

Josef Bednarik, Maria Czwik, Erzsébet Fuchs, Josef Lischka, Vera Müller-Hanacik, Susanne Regner, Barbara Sauer, Ron Schwarzbaum, Beatrix Wimmer