Monday, November 10th, 2008, Vienna

Monday morning was our first breakfast buffet at Hotel Stephanie, which I consider the fanciest of the three hotels. The breakfast room was huge, and the food selection was amazing.

After breakfast we walked back over to Stephanplatz, to find the Jewish Welcome Service. They were helping the Radetzkyschule to put on the events we were attending, and my mother had corresponded with Susanne, the President of the organization. She recommended that we take a walking tour of Jewish Vienna, which was only offered on Mondays. We decided to do that, but first headed to the district that we knew my Grandmother and her parents had lived in.

We knew that my Grandmother had lived at 30 Langegasse, but we're unsure of exactly when. This address is written on most of the paperwork we have of hers from that time. Walking around the neighborhood was really emotional, even though most of the buildings are clearly different, just knowing that this was a neighborhood my Grandmother spent time in was very moving.












Due to miscommunication, we ended up missing the meet up for the walking tour. We decided to walk to the first location on the tour on our own, and happened to run in to the small tour on our way. This turned out very lucky for us, because the tour leader, Barbara, ended up finding more information about my Grandmother, her brother, and their parents than we had previously known.

This Holocaust Memorial is in Judenplatz, and it was done by the artist Rachel Whiteread. The candles and flowers were left out because of the anniversary of Kristallnacht. The memorial consists of thousands of books, and the names of all the concentration camps.