November 9, 2003 - November 11, 2003
Letters and poems written by young people, who succeeded in escaping the hell of the Shoah, are shared with the Viennese community.

Letters and poems, found in the Zionist Archive in 2002, written by young people, who in 1938-1939 succeeded in escaping the hell of the Shoah with the help of Aliyat Hanoar, were the basis of two very successful programs in Vienna. The programs were organized by the Austrian Zionist Federation. The letters were written to loved ones in the Diaspora, expressing on the one hand longings for home and family, and on the other hand feelings about building Israel as a Jewish homeland.

The first evening was organized with all the Jewish youth organizations, in the centre of the Viennese community. It was dedicated to the 65th anniversary of Lel Habdolach (Crystal Nacht) November 9th and to the above-mentioned letters. The program was also enriched with the personal reports of Kurt Karlitzky, who made Aliyah in1938 and Dr. Martin Vogel, who served as a youth leader of JUAL (Aliyat Hanoar) until it was closed down by the Nazis. The evening included Jewish youth songs of the Zionist Youth movements of the 1930's.

The second event was on November 11th within the framework of adult education in the community. This evening was dedicated entirely to reading the letters found in the Zionist Archives and Zionist songs of the 1930's.