Honored Persons

 

Leon Zelman

Leon Zelman (born June 12, 1928 in Szcekoci in Poland, + July 11, 2007 in Vienna) was an Austrian-Polish publicist. He founded and directed the Jewish Welcome Service Vienna. Zelman lost his parents and brother because of the Nazi persecution. He himself survived the concentration camps Auschwitz and Ebensee, a branch of the concentration camp Mauthausen, where he was freed on May 6, 1945 by US troops. Leon Zelman did not emigrate, but moved to Vienna in 1946, where he graduated in 1949 and then studied journalism. Zelman was subsequently an Austrian travel agent at the Verkehrsbüro (ÖVB). He was an expert in travel from Austria to Israel, but also noted increasing interest among Israelis who had lived in Vienna until the Nazi era. Many of them were not wealthy enough to finance a trip to Vienna themselves. Zelman therefore had the idea that Vienna could help its former citizens reconcile with the city of their birth and expulsion. Together with the Viennese city politicians Leopold Gratz and Heinz Nittel, he created the Jewish Welcome Service Vienna (JWS) in 1980/1981. The tourist office was involved in the association and provided the JWS with a part of Zelman's working hours, an office and an information desk for free. Zelman became a sought-after interview partner on questions of Jewish life in Vienna. The editor-in-chief of the magazine “Falter”, Armin Thurnherr, wrote a book about Zelman's life, which also appeared in English with the title "After Survival". Leon Zelman died on July 11, 2007 at the Hospital of the Brothers of Charity. He was buried in the new Jewish section of the Central Cemetery in Vienna.