History · Holocaust

The Long Shadow of Austria’s Nazi Past

Summarizing Steven Feldman in Moment · Published Tuesday, March 25, 2025

JL;DR SUMMARY Steven Feldman reflects on his journey to Linz, Austria, with familial ties to the Holocaust, exploring the persistent shadow of Nazi history in the city. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Places mentioned

Linz, Upper Austria, Austria

"Last spring, my wife Anne-Marie and I had traveled to Linz, Austrias third largest city, to attend the May 4 ceremony marking the liberation, by American troops, of a concentration camp located in the woods outside the small town of Gunskirchen, 25 miles southwest of Linz."

Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, Hungary

"Our mothers were from nearby cities in eastern Hungary and had been deported weeks apart to Auschwitz, while our fathers had both been impressed into the Hungarian forced labor battalions attached to the Hungarian army, which was fighting on the side of Nazi Germany during World War II."

Gunskirchen, Upper Austria, Austria

"My father and my wifes father were among the estimated 130,000 Jewish men who had been impressed into the Hungarian forced labor battalions."

Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Austria

"Before our trip we had arranged with Wolfgang to visit the nearby Mauthausen concentration camp, where he had formerly been a guide; he would also join us two days later at the Gunskirchen commemoration."

Asten, Upper Austria, Austria

"The only refugee camp that I have any memories of was one near the small town of Asten, only 10 miles southeast of Linz."

Hungary

"Our mothers were from nearby cities in eastern Hungary and had been deported weeks apart to Auschwitz."

Vienna, Austria

"We would spend nearly five years in various refugee camps, at first in and around Vienna and later in and around Linz."

Budapest, Hungary

"In the winter of 1956, in the chaos that followed the failed uprising against Communist rule, my family, who had returned to Hungary after the war, fled and escaped over the border to Austria."

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Retrieved	2025-03-26 05:30:41 UTC
Curated	2025-03-26 08:30:54 UTC

The Long Shadow of Austria’s Nazi Past

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