Monday morning we had our meeting with Dr. Eckstein at the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien registry. Here, the community maintained and still maintains records of weddings, deaths and births from the 18th century in old leatherbound books that are still in pretty good condition. All of it has been microfilmed.
Some categories of information are also available in their database. The Mormons duplicated much if not all of these records, which they now keep in Utah. Apparently, the registry still responds to inquiries to establish credentials for reparations. We found the record of my (Debbie's) maternal grandparent's marriage, with their signatures, address before marriage and their witnesses (at the bottom of this page).
At the Stadttempel synagogue tour we had learned about the Reform influences in the construction of the building with the bimah at the front, instead of the center. There we met Carolyn and Stephanie Hesz and learned about Stephanie's master's thesis about the Vienna Holocaust Memorial:
We visited the Jewish museum at the memorial, that explains the medieval synagogue that was found beneath the area where the memorial was built and checked the plaque on one of the buildings that surrounds the square in which the memorial stands.
On our walk back to the the Berg theater we saw a plaque honoring Polish leader Jan Sobiejski and his role in saving Vienna from the Turkish siege (but the photo is not in focus).
On Tuesday morning we made our way to my (Debbie) maternal grandparents' address/apartment building, which looked as though it might be the same building they actually lived in, judging from the floor and the old style of the elevator (Debbie peeked in).
We had decided to stay in Vienna for Seder, as you know, because we weren't sure whether we could find one in Krakow. We since have learned there was a Seder at a hotel in Krakow.
Just before Seder we walked across the Danube and saw the Mexico Plaza (mentioned at the beginning of our Vienna report).
We really enjoyed Seder with a Viennese family we had met.