Leadership Talk by the Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria (2016–2017); Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (2016–2018)

Dealing with antisemitism is a very specific and sensitive issue in our country, and that is because of two main reasons. The first one is because I strongly believe that human dignity is absolutely untouchable. And the second is that we have to take care in a very sensitive way because of our heritage. This heritage imposes three main duties for a representative of Austrian society. The first one, perhaps, is that we are obliged to run a zero ‐ tolerance policy as far as antisemitism is concerned. The second is that this heritage constitutes a very specific, special, and solidary relation to the State of Israel. And the third duty is to remember, not only with regards to the victims and their relatives, but it is also an important aspect as I strongly believe that the way how we deal with our past constitutes in what type of future we are going to live. And there is another specific issue — and I was totally impressed by one of the quotes and sayings of Noah Klieger. He is a survivor of the concentration camp in Auschwitz, and he was a member of the boxing squad, he was a sportsman, an active sportsman, and his resume after all the years was to say that “ some fights, ” he learned, “ you can win, but they are never over. ” ¹ And that is exactly my position as far as antisemitism is concerned. It is a permanent task we have to undertake. And I would like to tell you a short personal story which is very important in order to understand my way of thinking. It is a story which happened in my family. My mother was born in the year 1928, and my grandmother was serving a housekeeper for an old Jewish couple in the late 30s, early 40s. After the Nazis took over, the old Jewish couple had to at the garret. My mother ’ s task was to provide the old couple with food and drinking water. One day, re-ceived at the doorstep of the house of the old couple by Gestapo officers. They chased away and from that day the old