Barbara Stelzl-Marx

Lukas Schretter

Established in Pernitz/Feichtenbach in 1938, the Heim Wienerwald served the SS association Lebensborn as a maternity home to increase the birth rate of "Aryan" children. This volume brings together recent research on the history of the Heim Wienerwald based upon unique sources: the articles focus on the maternity home in the wider context of National Socialist racial policy, presenting findings on the regulations for keeping births within Lebensborn secret, the requirements for admission to Lebensborn, and the assessment of mother and child. Secondly, the volume examines everyday life in this facility and the extent to which the stay of pregnant women and mothers was regulated in the context of National Socialist ideology. Thirdly, it provides an insight into the experiences and everyday life of the staff , especially the student nurses. Fourthly, the volume deals with the children born in the Heim Wienerwald who did not meet the "selection criteria" of the SS and were murdered as part of the National Socialist child "euthanasia" programme.

Lebensborn Maternity Home Wienerwald, 1938–1945

Günter Bischof

Stefan Karner

At the beginning of June 1961, the tensions of the Cold War were supposed to abate as both sides sought a resolution. The two most important men in the world, John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, met for a summit in Vienna. Yet the high hopes were disappointed. Within months the Cold War had become very hot: Khrushchev built the Berlin Wall and a year later he sent missiles to Cuba to threaten the United States directly. Despite the fact that the Vienna Summit yielded barely any tangible results, it did lead to some very important developments. The superpowers came to see for the first time that there was only one way to escape from the atomic hell of their respective arsenals: dialogue. The "peace through fear" and the "hotline" between Washington and Moscow prevented an atomic confrontation. Austria successfully demonstrated its new role as neutral state and host when Vienna became a meeting place in the Cold War. In The Vienna Summit and Its Importance in International History international experts use new Russian and Western sources to analyze what really happened during this critical time and why the parties had a close shave with catastrophe.

The Vienna Summit and Its Importance in International History

Silke Satjukow

Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg kamen in Österreich und Deutschland Hunderttausende Besatzungskinder auf die Welt: als Folge von Liebesbeziehungen, kurzen Affären, „Überlebensprostitution“, aber auch nach Vergewaltigungen. Sie galten als „Kinder des Feindes“, obwohl ihre Väter offiziell keine Feinde mehr waren. Häufig waren sie – gemeinsam mit ihren Müttern – Diskriminierung und Stigmatisierung ausgesetzt. Das Buch gibt erstmals einen Überblick über die Situation dieser besonderen Gruppe der Kriegskinder, über ihre Sozialisations- und Lebensbedingungen sowie über die lebenslange Suche nach dem Vater. In autobiografischen Texten kommen Besatzungskinder auch selbst zu Wort. Damit soll dieses vielfach bis heute tabuisierte Thema der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht und eine Lücke in der Zeitgeschichteforschung geschlossen werden.

Die Nachkommen alliierter Soldaten in Österreich und Deutschland

Besatzungskinder

Alexandra Kofler

Im Dezember 2005 wurde der Zukunftsfonds der Republik Österreich per Bundesgesetz mit einem Etat von 20 Millionen Euro errichtet. In den zehn Jahren seines Bestehens förderte der ÖZF rund 1.370 Projekte, die sich vor allem auch der Erforschung totalitärer Systeme im 20. Jahrhundert widmen. Mit dem expliziten Ziel des „Niemals wieder!“ avancierte der Zukunftsfonds zu einer nationalen Institution, deren zentrale Aufgabe in der Förderung einer nachhaltigen und zukunftsorientierten Erinnerungskultur sowie des demokratiepolitischen und menschenrechtlichen Engagements liegt. Das Buch präsentiert die wichtigsten Etappen der Entstehung und Tätigkeit des Zukunftsfonds. Neben einer Dokumentation seiner Wirkungsweisen analysiert es die Bedeutung des ÖZF für Forschung und Gesellschaft. Auf der Grundlage von Interviews kommen Persönlichkeiten zu Wort, die an der Entwicklung des Zukunftsfonds maßgeblich beteiligt waren. Exemplarisch dargestellte Projekte und deren vollständige Liste geben einen Einblick in die Vielfalt seiner Fördertätigkeit.

Entstehung, Entwicklung und Bedeutung

Zukunftsfonds der Republik Österreich

Sabine Lee

Heide Glaesmer

This volume presents research from an international, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral research project in which 15 doctoral researchers explored a range of issues related to the life-course experiences of children born of war in 20th-century conflicts. Children Born of War (CBOW), children fathered by foreign soldiers and born to local mothers during and after armed conflicts, have long been neglected in the research of the social consequences of war. Based on research projects completed under the auspices of the Horizon2020-funded international and interdisciplinary research and training network CHIBOW (www.chibow.org), this book examines the psychological and social impact of war on these children. It focusses on three separate but interrelated themes: firstly, it explores methodological and ethical issues related to research with war-affected populations in general and children born of war in particular. Secondly, it presents innovative historical research focussing specifically on geopolitical areas that have hitherto been unexplored; and thirdly, it addresses, from a psychological and psychiatric perspective, the challenges faced by children born of war in post-conflict communities, including stigmatisation, discrimination, within the significant context of identity formation when faced with contested memories of volatile post-war experiences. The book offers an insight into the social consequences of war for those children associated with the ‘enemy’ by virtue of their direct biological link.

Past, Present and Future

Children Born of War

Gunter Bischof

Fritz Plasser

For more than a generation after World War II, offi cial government doctrine and many Austrians insisted they had been victims of Nazi aggression in 1938 and, therefore, bore no responsibility for German war crimes. During the past twenty years this myth has been revised to include a more complex past, one with both Austrian perpetrators and victims. Part one describes soldiers from Austria who fought in the German Wehrmacht, a history only recently unearthed. Richard Germann covers units and theaters Austrian fought in, while Th omas Grischany demonstrates how well they fought. Ela Hornung looks at case studies of denunciation of fellow soldiers, while Barbara Stelzl-Marx analyzes Austrian soldiers who were active in resistance at the end of the war. Stefan Karner summarizes POW treatment on the Eastern front. Part two deals with the increasingly diffi cult life on the Austrian homefront. Fritz Keller takes a look at how Vienna survived growing food shortages. Ingrid B÷hler takes a rare look at life in small-town Austria. Andrea Strutz analyzes narratives of Jewish refugees forced to leave for the United States. Peter Ruggenthaler and Philipp Lesiak examine the use of slave laborers. And Brigitte Kepplinger summarizes the Nazi euthanasia program. The third part deals with legacies of the war, particularly postwar restitution and memory issues. Based on new sources from Soviet archives, Nikita Petrov describes the Red Army liberation. Winfried Garscha analyzes postwar war crimes trials against Austrians. Brigitte Bailer-Galanda and Eva Blimlinger present a survey of postwar restitution of property. And Heidemarie Uhl deals with Austrian memories of the war.

New Perspectives on Austrians and World War II

Stalins Soldaten in Osterreich

Rainer Schulze

Gustavo Corni

Pertti Ahonen

Jerzy Kochanowski

Tamás Stark

Europe has a long history of state-led population displacement on ethnic grounds. The nationalist argument of ethnic homogeneity has been a crucial factor in the mapping of the continent. At no time has this been more the case than during and after the Second World War. Both under the aggressive expansionism of the Third Reich and after Germany's defeat, millions were brutally forced out of their homelands. Presenting a history from the top as well as the bottom, People on the Move reconstructs the complex map of forced population displacements that took place across Europe during and immediately after the Second World War.

Barbara Stelzl-Marx

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