MARTA HALPERT
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you have to do so without illusions and without self-deception. One
should regard as allies those Austrians who in recent months have
spoken openly and who have neither political party interests nor af–
filiations; the sensitive few felt that the political and social climate
had reached a limit they no longer could tolerate. Many of these
have learned to walk upright out of conviction .
One should strengthen those people between the ages of thirty
and forty who went to the wholesale flower market and bought white
roses to distribute in front of the synagogue to the "Jews we want to
have among us.» Those young journalists who initiated a poster–
campaign against the anti-Semitic deputy mayor of Linz, Carl
Hoedl, deserve Jewish support. Furthermore, one should recognize
cultural contributions in this city. In reaction to the Waldheim af–
fair, the renowned Viennese
Burg theater
and the Kreis theater group
have been producing plays dealing with the hideous past and its con–
sequences. For the polarization within Austrian society sparked by
the Waldheim affair has, volcano-like, spat out the bad-and clearly
shown the good.
