L.A. Holocaust Museum Announces Honorees for 2nd Annual Dinner in November 2009, Austrian Consulate Los Angeles

Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust will confer a Lifetime Achievement Award upon Dr. Andreas Maislinger, founder and chairman of the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service. Dr. Maislinger will be recognized for his work establishing the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service Program. Since its creation in 1992, Austrian Holocaust Memorial Servants have fulfilled their mandatory military service by volonteering at Holocaust institutions throughout the world. Over 400 volunteers have served at institutions all across the globe to date. About Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service The Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service (AHMS) is an alternative to Austria’s compulsory national military service. Its participants serve at major Holocaust institutions. The AHMS program was founded by Dr. Andres Maislinger, a political scientist from Innsbruck (Tyrol, Austria) who adopted the idea from the German Action for Reconciliation (Aktion Suehnezeichen). Maislinger himself had worked as a volunteer at the Ausschwitz-Birkenau Museum, where the idea of the AHMS program was born. In 1991 the required legislation was enacted by the Austrian Government and Andreas Maislinger began organizing what became known as the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service program, an independent, though largely government-funded foundation. The intent of the AHMS program is to recognize Austria’s part of the collective responsibility for the Holocaust and the responsibility of each and every one of us to ensure that it “never again” happens (quote from the speech of the former Austrian chancellor Franz Vranitzky, Jerusalem, June 1993). The Austrian Service Abroad is the main body of the organization and authorized by the Austrian Government to send Austrian Holocaust Memorial Servants to partner organizations worldwide.