Community Oriented Memory Project on Exile:
The Austrian Heritage Collection

The Austrian Heritage Collection is based at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York. Since the mid-1990 young Austrians contact survivors from Austria as part of their social service (Gedenkdienst). Survivors are asked to fill out a questionnaire about their lives and experiences, hundreds of them were interviewed and those who have documents are asked to hand them over to the archive. Most important is the dialogue between young Austrians and survivors.

Albert Lichtblau is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Salzburg, Austria, where he is chair and vice-chair of the Centre for Jewish Cultural History. His areas of research include contemporary history, holocaust, genocide and migration studies, but also oral history and audio-visual history. Currently, he is working on various projects like the Austrian exhibition at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.