Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance

The Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW) was established in 1963. Its main topics deal with research concerning resistance and persecution from 1938 until 1945, exile, Nazi crimes, right-wing extremism after 1945, and victims' reparations.

Its main seat is located in the former town hall of Vienna on Wipplingerstraße.

History

The Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance was founded on February 11, 1963, by , , Paul Schärf, and , former members of the Austrian resistance, victims of NS-persecution, and committed scholars from the sciences and humanities. The late foundation 18 years after the end of World War II is explained by the hostile political and social environment that existed in Austria in the postwar years, which was still dominated by participants of the World War and former Nazis. Resistance was long seen as an act of cowardice, treason and murder.

A landmark in the development of the center was the establishment of the DÖW Foundation in 1983, which is supported by the Austrian Federal Government, the City of Vienna, and the DÖW Society, thus putting the center on a sound financial footing. From its modest beginnings, when work was carried out mainly by idealistic victims of Fascism and later by a qualified younger staff, the center has developed into an authoritative institution, respected in Austria and abroad. The focal points of the center's broad range of tasks can be summarized as follows:

• Resistance and persecution
• Exile
• Nazi crimes, in particular the Holocaust, Nazi concentration camps, and criminal medical policies
• The justice system in the Nazi era and the prosecution of Nazi criminals in the postwar era
• Right-wing extremism since 1945, (neo-Nazi) Holocaust denial
• Welfare service for victims of Nazism, restitution and compensation since 1945

Activities

The activity of the center encompasses the following areas:

• Collecting and archiving relevant source material and its scientific evaluation; publications
• Managing archive and library; advising or supervising students, pupils, journalists, and other visitors
• Managing the highly valuable Oral History-collection (2800 tapes from more than 1000 interviews) and the extensive databases created in recent years (Austrian victims of the Holocaust, political victims of Nazism, those persecuted by the Gestapo and the Nazi justice system, Austrian anti-Fascists in the Spanish Civil War, etc.)
• Informing the younger generation and adults about the crimes of National Socialism by compiling teaching material for schools, organizing groups to visit the DÖW and its permanent exhibition, providing victims of Nazism with opportunities to talk in schools, offering courses at university, etc.
• Updating the center's homepage www.doew.at with details of events, the presentation of projects and their findings, book reviews, current news on the extreme right-wing scene; servicing the databases mentioned above.

Criticism

DÖW is criticized for overstepping the mission for which it was originally founded (i.e. documenting anti-Nazi resistance in Austria during the time of Nazi-occupation 1938-1945 or the time preceding it) and instead engaging in political campaigning of a distinctly 'anti-fascist' character. Instead of doing historic research on Nazism, it is assuming a mission of fighting contemporary 'right-wing extremism', by which term it understands anything that runs counter to a hermetic left-liberal world view. For some time now, the fight against ‘right-wing extremism’ as understood in this way has been directed not only against the right-wing populist FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria), which has been the leading party in opinion polls since the early 2020s and has also been the strongest faction in the National Council since 2024, but also against the Catholic Church (or at least parts of it).

In its The “Right-wing Extremism Report 2024” published by the DÖW was met with criticism and incomprehension because it named individuals who, for example, advocated for the protection of life (against abortion) or took a critical stance on same-sex marriage, positions that stem directly from Christian moral teaching and are shared by many Austrians, and do not indicate any particular affinity with National Socialism, as hallmarks of “right-wing extremist” beliefs. The ‘Right-wing Extremism Report 2025’ wisely refrained from naming names, but it once again shows a tendency to denounce Christian-conservative socio-political positions and associate them with National Socialism.<https://www.kathpress.at/goto/meldung/2548366/christenschutz-meldestelle-kritisiert-dw-rechtsextremismusbericht />

External links

• Database of victims of the DÖW
• DÖW: Documentation of the homicide of disabled children at the Institution Am Spiegelgrund
• American Friends of the Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance

References