At the Judenplatz

For my 22nd birthday, one of my presents was another fantastic tour with Dr. O, this time in the Leopold Museum, which houses a lot of art from around the turn of the 20th century. Much Klimt, Schiele, and other Jugenstil-style art. This particular day was a special day to be at the Leopold Museum as Schiele's apparently famous "Portrait of Wally" was back in Vienna for the first time in ages. I saw a newspaper headline that proclaimed it to be "Austria's Mona Lisa," but Dr. O wasn't too sure about the authenticity of that claim.

The walking tour of the afternoon saw us at the Judenplatz, where my attention was caught immediately by the large memorial to the Holocaust in the center of it. It is The Nameless Library - a large library that one can never penetrate as the spines are all turned inwards. They represent the stories of the countless Jews that can never be known now.


It is undoubtedly very stark and meant to provoke. Yet I find it a bit ironic that there is a plaque from 1500 not too far away commemorating a pogrom against the Jews that happened in this very square. How can both of these monuments to similar tragedies - but with different attitudes - coexist? And why is the "pogrom plaque" still up there in this day and age? I suppose it is alright to have other plaques around the square that recognize atrocities committed against the Jews in Vienna but still...something just doesn't seem right.

The German word of the day is "wegen," meaning "because of."