Vienna and Thessaloniki are cities heavily laden with profound, diverse and heterogeneous Jewish pasts and histories. Their Jewish communities played crucial roles in the cultural, commercial and urban life of these cities as well as the wider imperial states to which they belonged. They have not however been studied in a comparative way. The international workshop “Vienna and Thessaloniki. Two cities and their Jewish histories” thus seeks to capture, and reflect on, the multiple ways in which the Jewish histories of these two multi-ethnic and multi-confessional cities are interconnected and entangled. By bringing together emerging and established scholars this workshop offers not only an opportunity for dialogue on these histories but also aims to provide greater visibility for them.

Thursday 24 February 2022

19:00 Hotel Post - Meet & Greet and Welcome Dinner 

Friday, 25 February 2022

9:00 Welcome

Christophe Erisman (Head of the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies)

9:15-9:30

Dimitrios Varvaritis (University of Vienna), Introduction

9:30-11:00 Jewish Communities, Topographies and Spaces (Chair: Dimitrios Kousouris)

Anna Ransmayr (University of Vienna), Fellow Balkan merchants - the Turkish-Israelite and the two Greek Communities of Vienna from 1718 until World War II

Susanne Korbel (University of Graz), Viennese Jewish Spaces 1880-1930: A Relational Approach

Fani Gargova (University of Vienna), Decentering the Centers: Reassessing the Role of Vienna and Thessaloniki in a Balkan context

11:30-12:30 Viennese and Salonican Jewish memories  (Chair: Vasiliki Dimoula)

Eleni Beze (University of Thessaly), Greek Jewish, Leftist and Women: Narrating the experience of the Shoah

Stefania Zezza (Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata): Aftermath: Viennese and Salonikan Jews interviewed by David Boder in 1946

14:00-15:00 Salonican Jewish Networks of Trade and War Relief (Chair: Maria Stassinopoulou)

Lida Dodou (University of Vienna), Salonica Jews in the Habsburg Empire, 1867-1918: A forgotten story.

Paris Papamichos Chronakis (Royal Holloway University of London), ‘Trading with the Enemy’ Salonican Jews, Central Europe, and the Politics of Contraband Trade During the First World War 

16:00 Keynote Lecture

Rika Benveniste (University of Thessaly), Salonika, Vienna: Entangled Jewish Histories in the 20th Century

18:00 Dinner for Participants 

Saturday 26 February 2022

9:30-10:30 The Holocaust in Photography (Chair: Frank Stern)

Maria Kavala (Aristotle University, Thessaloniki), Α "black" photo diary. The rare photographic material of the young German soldier Werner Range on Black Saturday in Thessaloniki (Andreas’ Assael collection)

Nathalie Soursos (University of Vienna), Photographs as Evidence in Court and Memorial Literature

11:00-12:00 Round Table 

with Frank Stern, Maria Stassinopoulou and Dimitrios Varvaritis.

Institut für Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik der Universität Wien

Augasse 2-6, Kern A, 3. Stock

1090 Wien
T: +43-1-4277-410 01­­

Nathalie Soursos
nathalie.soursos@univie.ac.at
Tel.: 0043/650 20 09 830

Dimitrios Varvaritis 

dimitrios.varvaritis@univie.ac.at
Tel.:

Hotel Post

Fleischmarkt 24
1010 WIEN/ Österreich
Telefon; +43 1 515 83 0
Telefax: +43 1 515 83 808
office@hotel-post-wien.at

At the University of Vienna the rule of being PCR-tested, or vaccinated or of having recovered from a COVID-19 infection (2.5 G rule) applies. Access to and stay at university buildings is only permitted with a valid proof. In accordance with this rule all participants will be checked at the entrance to the workshop venue. Please note that the wearing of FFP2 face masks is mandatory inside all buildings of the University of Vienna. The workshop venue will be regularly ventilated in order to ensure the circulation of fresh air.

If you wish to get PCR-tested, the Schweden-Apotheke (Schwedenplatz 2, 1010 Vienna, https://schweden-apotheke.at/) is located only 100 m from the hotel and offers tests for 35 EUR for guests from outside Austria. The opening hours for the tests are 9-12:00, 14-18:00. We would appreciate if you use this service

The restaurants we will visit apply as well the 2.5 G rule. We will have separate tables.

If there are any further questions, please contact us. We will do give our utmost best to keep us all safe and healthy during the workshop.

COVID-19 Information
University of Vienna
City of Vienna