>Mandelbaum Verlag

ALIVE! - JEWS IN VIENNA AFTER 1945

Who would have guessed, there would be any jews wanting to resettle in Vienna? Austria has after all been a land, the persecuted people wanted to leave as soon as possible! Nevertheless, the collection of photographies from 1958 to 1998 tells another story. They show modern jewish life, happy people, frolic parties and gay colours in a city, in which all jewish life and culture were meant to be destroyed. They tell about the need to catch up on life, enjoy living in spite of everything and create new things.

Vienna after war in fact developed to a lively turning point for jewish migration. At first, survivors from the Displaced Person Camps, afterwards refugees from the communist Eastern Bloc. A lot of them moved on to Israel or the USA, some of them stayed or postponed their leaving from year to year, others came back.

The book was part of an exhibition in the jewish museum, 70 years after the "Anschluss", concepted by filmmaker Ruth Beckermann.