STORY: :: Jewish students prevent Austria's far-right speaker from laying a Kristallnacht wreath
:: They say Walter Rosenkranz is abusing the memory of victims of the 1938 Nazi pogrom
:: Austrian Union of Jewish Students
:: November 8, 2024
:: Vienna, Austria
Protesters including members of the Austrian Union of Jewish Students held hands to form a cordon around a Holocaust memorial in the historic centre of Vienna, where Rosenkranz had been due to lay a wreath in his official capacity. They held a banner that read: "The word of those who honour Nazis is worthless."
In a tense standoff, a protester told Rosenkranz: "We do not want you to spit in our ancestors' faces," to which Rosenkranz replied: "You are insulting me" as his police escort looked on.
Kristallnacht, or the night of broken glass, known in Austria as the November Pogroms, was a coordinated wave of intense violence against Jews across the Nazi Third Reich. Vienna was a major centre of that violence, with dozens of synagogues and prayer houses destroyed and thousands of Jewish shops looted.
