In Search of Kindertransport Denkmal

25 August 2010

After a long day of debriefing Mauthausen and walking from the Jewish Museum to the Military History museum I caught a ride to Westbahnhof in search of a memorial that I heard about on my second Jewish walking tour. I heard that there was a memorial to commemorate the British for receiving Vienna’s children in das Kindertransport. In December of 1938 (nine months after the Anschluss) the Refugee Children Movement organized the transport of over 10,000 children out of Vienna to England in order to save them from the concentration camps. I found myself on a mission to find this memorial. How hard could it be to find?

It proved to be quite difficult, so difficult in fact that I left without having ever found it. I didn’t leave because I was tired and hungry after two other museums since lunch (although I was indeed ‘hangry’). I left because I had spent an hour searching for it and asked five different people who worked there if they knew where it was. One of the answers was to hand me a map while circling the tourist information desk at Albertina Platz, telling me to ask them as if to say memorials are for tourists. That was while I was inside the building. Here I did find one plaque with the inscription, “Niemals Vergessen” (never forget), but not the right one.

Since my search failed inside the building I decided it must be outside by where the trains are. That is where I would put it, so people who arrive and depart can all happen upon this memorial. No dice. I was not ready to give up yet. Since it wasn’t outside by the trains, it must be at a main entrance. That’s also a logical place to put it, so everyone entering from the streets would remember this opposition to fascism and never forget the lives of children lost. I walked around the entire building and looked at each entrance and still could find no Kindertransport Denkmal. Then I proceeded to walk home thinking it may be in the parks up the street. Just across the street I found a gigantic and impossible-to-miss statue, in the middle of the road, commemorating Lueger (which is quite troubling considering his anti-Semetic ideologies).

I arrived home trying to give my failed search a couple benefits of doubt. One: maybe I was unable to find it because it was not actually there and I had been given false information. Two: or it could have been removed for safe keeping while parts of the station are under construction. Three: maybe it was there and just hiding right underneath my nose. However, I do not believe any of my doubts would withstand trial. One: when I returned home to the Internet I was able to confirm that the statue was there at some point through picture evidence in two locations, which I will locate just in case I missed it. Two: if it used to be there, why did not one person I asked know about it or seem to even recognize the term ‘kindertransport’ (I’ll give a little grace for the possibility for a loss in translation)? I obviously have questions and some may wonder why I care.

I have three main concerns: First, I am concerned that I was directed to a tourist info booth while looking for a memorial. Is a memorial solely a tourist attraction? Second, why is a memorial so hard to find? Should it not be in plain sight in order to be seen by the most amount of people as possible? Finally, why did not one single employee know about it and more poignantly, why did they not even seem to know about the kindertransport? I am not the most perceptive person in the world and can understand not noticing a statue. However, I walked away not certain if those I asked even had any idea what the Kindertransport was, which is most troubling. How can one “never forget” (which is a slogan written across the memorials of the Holocaust) what one has no clue about in the first place? Maybe some of my concerns and questions will subside if I am able to find this elusive memorial before I return to California. I have one week, however I’m not sure if I can rest until it’s found.

…to be continued.





I finally found it. It was however, in plain view and I cannot believe I missed it. While I may have been blind, my concerns are still there, why could I not find a single person who worked in the place who could point me to the location of this memorial? I asked the info desk at the OBB that the memorial sits next to and I even asked the workers of the info booth that the memorial stares at day in and day out. Not a single person could point me in the right direction. As I photographed the memorial, I did notice travelers stopping by to read the plaque about the kindrtransport memorial. At least a few more would never forget.