Dispute Threatens Future of Vienna Wiesenthal Institute

UNCLAS VIENNA 000987

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM AU
SUBJECT: Dispute Threatens Future of Vienna Wiesenthal Institute


1. (U) Summary: The entire seven-member board of the Vienna Simon
Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) resigned in late
July in a dispute over access to the archives of Vienna's official
Jewish Community. VWI board members assert that the Jewish
Community reneged on an earlier promise by imposing onerous
conditions that would make it impossible for VWI researchers to
conduct their work. Jewish Community leaders say they are committed
to reaching a compromise. End Summary.

Red Tape Complicates Access
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2. (SBU) VWI Board Chairman and political scientist Anton Pelinka
told Emboff that he and his fellow board members resigned in
frustration over the increasingly complex conditions being imposed
by Jewish Community lawyers regarding access to the archives.
Pelinka said the red tape reached the point where effective research
would not be possible.


3. (SBU) Pelinka claimed that Jewish Community President Ariel
Muzicant had previously promised simple conditions, similar to the
terms of an established agreement between the Jewish Community and
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Pelinka doubted that Muzicant
was to blame for the complications, noting that Muzicant had backed
the VWI initiative from the beginning. He suggested instead that
other Jewish Community officials may be trying to undermine the VWI.
He said he hoped that the resignation of the entire board would
force the Jewish Community to return to the simpler conditions
initially promised.


4. (U) Muzicant, in a newspaper interview, rejected the board's
charges, arguing that it would make little sense for the Jewish
Community to block access to the archives after investing so much
time and energy into the VWI initiative. Resolution of the dispute
will have to wait at least until Muzicant's return from vacation at
the end of August.

Background on the Institute and the Archive
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5. (U) The origins of the VWI project date back to a 2002 initiative
by the Jewish Community, independent researchers, and the GOA to
establish a major Holocaust research center in Vienna. The late
Simon Wiesenthal was personally involved in planning for the VWI,
which would be dedicated to the research, documentation and
collection of information on anti-Semitism, racism and the
Holocaust. Under the plans, the VWI would combine the Simon
Wiesenthal Archive, containing some 8,000 files on Nazi crimes and
perpetrators, with parts of the Jewish Community archive.
Considered to be the largest surviving archive of a Jewish community
in the world, the Community archive comprises thousands of
administrative files, correspondence and books from three
centuries.


6. (U) Funded by the Austrian Federal Government, the City of
Vienna, and other sources, the VWI started provisional operations at
the beginning of 2009, with full operations scheduled for 2012 after
the institute moves to its permanent location, a former palace
currently under renovation.

Comment: Strong Motive for Compromise
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7. (U) This is not the first time the Jewish Community has become
embroiled in a dispute over access to its archives; the General
Settlement Fund (providing restitution to Holocaust victims) ran
into similar problems in gaining access to the archives for its
restitution records. The VWI, a worthy project, is probably not
viable without ready access to the archives. Given what is at
stake, both parties have a strong interest in reaching a solution.