19 March 2008 – 22 June 2008

Life! Jews in Vienna after 1945 - Photographed by Margit Dobronyi

Almost all of the 180,000 Jews living in Vienna before the war had left or been murdered, and fewer than 2,000 Jews survived living underground. Practically no one expected that Jews could or would settle again in the city. But the photographs in this book taken between 1958 and 1998 prove the contrary. They show happy people, families celebrating, colourful modern life in a grey city. They tell of an urgent need to start over again and to come to terms with life. Surprisingly post-war and reconstruction Vienna developed into a small but dynamic hub of Jewish life in Europe. First came the survivors from the displaced person camps, then the refugees from the Communist Eastern Bloc. Many continued on their way to Israel or the USA, but some stayed, founded families and revitalised the small community. Margit Dobronyi herself escaped from the Communists to arrive in Vienna in 1956. The pictures by this photographer, now 95 years old, provide one of the most important testimonies to Jewish life in Vienna after 1945. The catalogue and exhibition at the Jewish Museum Vienna were conceived by film maker Ruth Beckermann, whose last film, Zorros Bar Mizwa, also portrayed the multifaceted life within the Vienna Jewish community. The book and the exhibition Leben! provide a vivid contrast to the Holocaust, which started 70 years earlier.

Address

Jüdisches Museum - Wien
Dorotheergasse 11
1010 Wien
phone +43 1 535 04 31
http://www.jmw.at

Opening Hours

Sunday-Friday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Thursday till 8 p.m., closed on Saturday.

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