Memorial Marpe Lanefesch

On 20 October 2005, the former Jewish Bethaus on the campus area of the University of Vienna was reopened as a walkable memorial. The National Socialists had desecrated the Bethaus during the November Pogrom of 1938. After the NS regime, the building was used as a transformer station until the year 2000. With the transfer of the area of the old AKH to the University of Vienna, the former Bethaus also came into the possession of the University of Vienna. The rectorate of the University of Vienna commissioned the artist Minna Antova with the renovation of the Bethaus. It was restored as much as possible in its original form. In addition, a text embedded in the floor informs about the history of the building in Hebrew, German, English, and partly in Braille. The text can also be found on a metal plate. The floor of the Bethaus is transparent and reveals several layers of history: the blueprint of the Bethaus, a letter from the Gestapo from the year 1938, as well as a blueprint of the transformer room. Glass elements represent the destroyed roof, the destroyed entrance, and the destroyed Torah niche. On the wall, there are fresco paintings. Since the year 2009, the "Memorial Book for the Victims of National Socialism at the University of Vienna 1938" has been kept in the DENK-MAL Marpe Lanefesch. The naming was done in cooperation with the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde. "Marpe Lanefesch" means in Hebrew "Healing for the Soul."