Festive celebrations to open three new stations in the 10th District, April 30, 2019.
More than 40 people gathered at the entrance of Ahornhof in Vienna’s 10th District. The ceremony opened with the music of Avanim. With Karin Waniek, Daliah Hindler and Heidelinde Gratzl performing, they opened the ceremony with the Jewish Song of the Unemployed to mark the day before Labour Day.
District Manager, Mr Markus Franz, then gave a short speech urging us to resist the increasing onset of exclusion and denigration. Current political tendencies must be taken seriously, he said. As history has taught us, such tendencies can be catastrophic. The “Stones of Remembrance” play an essential role in reminding us of the need to preserve our historical knowledge and keep the memory of the past alive.
Following this, Roswitha Hammer introduced the “Stones of Remembrance Association” and explained how the city of Vienna officially began to remember following the “Waldheim era”. Public subsidies for the association were provided and the stones became recognized as official monuments by the city of Vienna. For the association, the personal remembrance of relatives and friends through the stones laid today continues to be an important political act.
Ahornhof 10
Here we commemorated Marie Zwergfeld, née Roubitschek.
Her granddaughter, Helen Fielding, a professor of philosophy from Canada who is currently on sabbatical in Berlin, delivered touching words in perfect German. She expressed her deep gratefulness to the association and to the many people present for the opportunity to honour her grandparents with this final ceremony.
Quellenplatz 2
At this house, we commemorated Stefanie and Leo Roubitschek.
Helen Fielding, their great-niece, recounted how her father, Herbert, nephew of Stefanie and Leo, had been sent to England on the Kindertransport and never saw his parents again.
Leo’s sister, Marie, who was Herbert’s mother, was also lost during the Holocaust.
It was only much later in life that he learnedabout his family’s tragedy.
Erlachgasse 95
At this address we commemorated Philipp and Olga Suschizky.
Speaking on their behalf, Danielle Bolhuis from the Netherlands expressed the 
importance of remembering those who had been deprived of their right to life.
Phillipp Suschizky had owned a bookstore with his brother, and Olga was a well-known dance teacher. The whole family was very cultured and artistic.
Gunhild Oberzaucher- Schüller writes of Olga Suschizky in Wiener Tanzgeschichten (tanz.at):
“Volksbildnerische Körperarbeit (Educational bodywork) and dance activities pursued by Olga Suschitzky and her daughters Karla and Ruth, based in her school in Vienna’s Favoriten, were not the only activities of the Suschitzky women. They were equally active in the field of theatre. If their innovative ‘body-work’ played a part in shaping “Red Vienna”, they were equally remarkable for their contributions made to theatre at the time. Their modernism in dance covered a multi-faceted spectrum that spanned not just body movement but also to music theatre and cabaret, forging an unmistakable ‘new’ artistic force.”