Vienna

We toured the infamous Central Cemetery outside of Vienna this past weekend. This vast cemetery houses the graves of Beethoven, Strauss, and Brahms to name a few. Other more notable politicians, leaders, artists, and important people of society can be found here as well. The Jewish section of the cemetery is very sombering to walk through. Overgrown grass and weeds cover many grave markers. Along the main corridor the grave stones are marred with holes, cracks, and broken off pieces of once beautiful and inscribed granite. These marks are not the result of weather and time but rather purposeful vandalism done by the Nazi soldiers during their occupation of Austria after Anschluss was declared in 1938. The hatred of the Jews was so widely felt by the Nazis that it was not enough to torture and humiliate them in life... but also after death.