Wirth Institute Receives Gift from Historian of Modern Austria.

Maurice Williams, Professor of History at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan Campus and a specialist on modern Austrian history, recently donated his collection of a number of Austria-related periodicals to the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies.

13 December 2011

Maurice Williams, Professor of History at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan Campus and a specialist on modern Austrian history, recently donated his collection of a number of Austria-related periodicals to the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies. These include twenty years (1975-1995) of the newsletter Austrian Information published by the Austrian Press and Information Services, as well as an almost-complete set of the Austrian Studies Newsletter (1989-2011) published by the Center for Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota. The short-lived Newsletter for Habsburg and Austrian History (1987-1990) was also included in Professor Williams' gift.

Perhaps the most significant contribution is the almost two hundred editions of the reports of the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (1975-present). This important centre was set up in 1963 by ex-Austrian resistance fighters and ant-Fascist historians to document the crimes of the Nazi regime in Austria and the efforts of those who put up resistance to it. The centre sponsors a virtual exhibition at http://www.doew.at/ausstellung/index_en.html and its website contains documentation concerning over 63,000 Austrian Jews who were victims in the Holocaust.

The Wirth Institute is very grateful to Professor Williams for sharing these resources with the academic community at the University of Alberta. For further information, please contact the Institute Director, Professor Joseph F. Patrouch, patrouch@ualberta.ca.