Image: APA/ROBERT JAEGER
For example, 36 percent of those questioned in an Ifes survey found that Jews ruled the “international business world.” 19 percent agreed that Jews had too much influence in Austria. 18 percent see “Jewish elites” responsible for price increases (see chart).
People with a higher level of education express significantly less agreement with anti-Semitic statements. Basic knowledge about Jews is also crucial – for example about the number of people murdered in the Holocaust. Conspiracy myths continue to thrive in relation to the Holocaust. In the Ifes study, 36 percent found that Jews today wanted to “take advantage” of persecution during National Socialism (see graphic for further details).
Anti-Semitic attitudes are more widespread in the comparison group with a migration background than in the general group, although project coordinator Thomas Stern emphasized that this is not a “monolithic bloc”. Above all, Israel-related anti-Semitism is more strongly represented here. For example, 62 percent said that Israelis would behave no differently in relation to Palestinians than the Germans in World War II had in relation to the Jews.
The corona pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and their consequences have also had an impact on anti-Semitic prejudices. “One could say that anti-Semitism follows the crisis,” Stern summed up. Ifes boss Eva Zeglovits also had positive things to report. Younger respondents aged 16 to 25 could definitely have identified anti-Semitism in their environment.
National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (VP), who commissioned the study, described anti-Semitism as a threat to democracy. “We need a variety of instruments and a new way of thinking,” pleaded Sobotka. When asked why his party governed in Lower Austria with the FPÖ, he simply replied that every movement had to come to terms with its past.
“The results are frightening, but not surprising,” reacted Oskar Deutsch, President of the Jewish Community in Vienna (IKG). The study is “an important element in making anti-Semitism visible”.
“Do not legitimize waiter Nazis”
According to the IKG President, the danger does not only come from right-wing extremists and Islamists. “Anti-Semitism also exists in mainstream society, as the data clearly shows.” It is all the more important “that basement Nazis are not politically legitimized, as was recently the case with an ÖVP cooperation with the FPÖ in Lower Austria”.
The greater susceptibility to Jew hatred among Turkish and Arabic-speaking Austrians makes it clear once again that neither politics nor civil society should be blind to this eye.
Source: Nachrichten
