Thomas Michael Baier and Hannah Lessing
Co-Heads of Austrian Delegation to the IHRA
Member country since: 2001
Remembrance Days: 27 January (International Holocaust Remembrance Day), 5 May (National Day against Violence and Racism in Memory of the Victims of National Socialism)
Michael Haider (Federal Ministry for Europe, Integrtation and Foreign Affairs) - Deputy Head of Delegation
Brigitte Bailer (Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance) – Academic Working Group
Gerhard Baumgartner (Documentation Centre of Austrian Culture) – Education Working Group
Werner Dreier (erinnern.at) – Education Working Group
Barbara Glueck (Mauthausen Memorial) – Museums and Memorials Working Group
Mirjam Karoly (Consultant on Roma and Sinti issues) - Committee on the Genocide of the Roma
Martina Maschke (Federal Ministry of Education) – Education Working Group
Evelina Merhaut (National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism/General Settlement Fund) – Communication Working Group
Heidemarie Uhl (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Commission for Culture Studies) – Museums and Memorials Working Group
Since its IHRA Chairmanship in 2008, Austria has considerably increased its activities within the IHRA in various ways. Austria emphasizes the relevance of Holocaust education for understanding the origins and threat of genocide and related phenomena such as mass atrocities, antisemitism, religious intolerance, xenophobia and hate crimes: In this context the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism was adopted. Secondly, Austria makes efforts to ensure that IHRA expectations are maintained within the organization by establishing and updating IHRA's Working Rules and through the introduction of a regular periodic reporting mechanism for member countries focusing on activities related to the Stockholm Declaration, and thirdly by directing IHRA’s first comprehensive evaluation process. Moreover, members of the Austrian delegation have been engaged in chairing Working Groups and Committees within the IHRA as well as in organizing and monitoring IHRA conferences.