redaktionsbüro: Nuno Valente
Andreas Maislinger:
- What is the Austrian Service Abroad?
- The idea for the „Austrian Service Abroad “ appeard in the end off the 70´s, because I thought that Austria should have a more truthfull relation with it´s history. Austria should learn how to deal with it´s past. More than ten years after the idea, it became reality, in the form of „The Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service“ Gedenkdienst when the first Austrian went to Museum Auschwitz, in Poland. This was in 1st of September 1992, 53 years after the invasion of Poland.
These activities are an alternative for the Austrian Compulsory National Military Service and the participants serve at major Holocaust institutions.
Nowadays, the „ Austrian Service Abroad“ has three domains: Holocaust Memorial Service, Peace Service and Social Service, and it cooperates around the globe.
- Do you know any other similar association in other countries?
- Yes. The first organization to develop this kind of project, is the German „Action for Reconciliation“, attached to the Protestant Church. Our Association is not connected to any religious group. We are mainly supported by the Austrian Government.
- Are there any objections to your work? Is it well accepted?
- It´s very well accepted by the society. At the beginning of our engagement, some people came to me, and told me not to think so much about the past, criticizing the idea. I even received threats, anonymous letters, with jewish-hate sentences. Nowadays, there are no such problems.
- What are the associations plans for the future?
- The Association is expanding. Recently, we received an invitation from a Holocaust Center in Australia, and we will probably have it as a partner organization. Also, in Gabon and Birma/Myanmar, aswell as in Bulgaria, we are ready to start cooperation with local associations.
A short note of the interviewer Nuno Valente
The workshop took place in a library. When I was preparing the interview, I searched for a nice room, silent, where I could concentrate on the task, that had the difficulty of being in conversation between two persons, using a language that was not native for any of them. After I felt prepared, sitting in a perfect room, silent, and with perfect sunlight, I decided to make the phonecall, and start the interview. Suddenly, in the middle of the second question, an obviously disturbed lady bursts into the room, shouting in some language I could´t understand, except for one repeated word: "Privat!! Privat!!". There was nothing I could say to calm her, as obviously we didn´t spoke any language in common. So I was forced to face the fury of this austrian cleaning lady, leaving the room in a hurry, carring all the papers, while trying to keep everything quite unware from Mr. Meisinger. Next time I found myself under a staircase, holding the phone with one hand, the notebook in another, and yet I am not sure of how did I manage to write the interview. In the end, everything worked out quite well, I believe. The lesson to learn: Watch out for the fury of an austrian cleaning lady!
