Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien). Austria.

 The Shoah Memorial at Judenplatz, officially known as the Memorial to the Austrian Jewish Victims of the Shoah, commemorates the more than 65,000 Austrian Jews murdered during the Holocaust. Designed by British artist Rachel Whiteread and unveiled in 2000, the memorial takes the form of a concrete structure resembling an inverted library, symbolizing lives cut short and stories that can never be read.

Located in Judenplatz, the memorial stands above the archaeological remains of a medieval synagogue destroyed in 1421, creating a powerful link between centuries of persecution and remembrance. The site also connects to the Jewish Museum Vienna – Judenplatz, where exhibitions provide historical context about Jewish life in medieval Vienna and the events leading to the Shoah. Together, the memorial and museum form a significant place of reflection on memory, loss, and the importance of confronting antisemitism and preserving historical truth.

We visited the Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien), one of the oldest Jewish museums in the world, which explores the history, culture, and contributions of Jewish life in Vienna from the Middle Ages to the present. The museum operates in two main locations: Dorotheergasse, focused on Jewish history and religious traditions, and Judenplatz, built over the remains of a medieval synagogue destroyed in 1421, where a permanent exhibition examines medieval Jewish life and persecution. Through historical artifacts, ritual objects, documents, and contemporary art, the museum addresses themes of memory, identity, antisemitism, and cultural continuity, offering a meaningful perspective on Vienna’s Jewish heritage within its broader European context. We discovered some of their treasures and detailed maps to ubicate Vienna Jewish Quarters.