“When entering the museum, you can’t see any signs or clear directions. Many visitors at first don’t know where they need to go. It should encourage them to start a conversation with us or maybe even meet a survivor at our dialogue table,” Vincent Ballweber explains. As he guides through the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, DC, Vincent talks not only about historical facts and the architecture of the building, but also about encounter with Holocaust survivors and findings of his own research on the topic.

The 22-year old Austrian is currently volunteering as a memorial servant (Gedenkdienst volunteer) at the USHMM. The Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service, established in 1991, is a program of international reconciliation, largely funded by the Austrian Federal Government. It serves as alternative to the all-male compulsory military service. Young Austrians are given the opportunity to work in organizations focused on Holocaust remembrance. Since 2016, women can also participate in this particular volunteer program.

Vincent’s day to day work is varied, dealing with research requests, administrational tasks and assisting with reparation claims. A big part of his job is translating original documents from German to English. “I like to see how I can help descendants of victims or research fellows when I translate something for them, especially when it has never been done before.” He is currently working on a handwritten diary of a man who died in a concentration camp.

At present, Vincent is the 27th Austrian memorial servant volunteering in Washington, DC. Besides the USHMM, the Leo Baeck Institute in New York City and the Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles also offer positions for Austrian memorial servants.

When asked about the most moving part of his job, Vincent hesitates. The young man is confronted with incredibly emotional stories of survivors, victims and eyewitnesses of the Holocaust on an everyday basis. “I think what strikes me most is meeting with the survivors,” he says. Vincent regularly meets a 94-year old Austrian emigrant, whose family fled to the U.S. in the 1930s. After being drafted he returned to Europe as member of the U.S. Armed Forces at the end of World War II, because he was able to conduct interrogations in his mother tongue. “You can’t imagine what kind of stories this man has to tell.” It is part of Vincent’s job to encounter these people and talk with them – sometimes for hours – about what they or their families experienced in their lives. “Because it is so crucial to never forget.”

#NeverForget #AskWhy

Author: Luisa Fohn