Austrian Federal Chancellery (10/19/2009)

Young people attending the Lauder Chabad School in Leopoldstadt in Vienna’s 2nd district gathered in numerous workshops to reflect on their religious-cultural views and identity through painting, illustration, film and photography.

Through their artistic activities the pupils, ages fifteen to eighteen, improved their individual perceptions and adjusted attitudes influenced by stereotypes. The works of art were shown at a shopping mall at Stadion Center from October 29 – November 11, 2009. The exhibition was organized within the framework of district partnership of Leopoldstadt-Brooklyn, founded in 2007. The exhibits will travel to Brooklyn, New York, while the works created at the partner school in New York will be presented in Vienna.

The history of the stadium named after soccer champion and coach Ernst Happel (1925-1992) has not always been glorious. During the NS period (1938-1945), the stadium was also used as military barracks, a strategic center and a collection site for the deportation of Jewish citizens. In September 1939 Viennese Jews were detained in the stadiums. Some 1,038 prisoners were deported to Buchenwald, where only sixty men survived. Since November 13, 2003, a memorial tablet remains a reminder of the murderous crimes.