They want to keep us alive
Bombs against Minorities, 1993–1996
Between 1993 and 1996, altogether 25 individuals and organisations received explosive mail. During the same time period, three concussion-type bombs and pipe bombs were detonated in Carinthia and Burgenland. These attacks resulted in 4 people killed, 4 people left with life-threatening injuries and 9 others injured. The terror was addressed exclusively to members of minorities and their supporters. The most serious attack took place in February, 1995, in the village of Oberwart in Burgenland, where 4 members of the Roma ethnic group fell victim to an explosion trap.
The exhibition of the Initiative Minorities is reminiscent of the horror of the right-wing extremist terror and the fear that accompanied Austria’s minorities for four long years.
It commemorates the victims, lets those affected have their say and shines a light on the role of the socio-political climate of the 1990s in these acts of violence. Video interviews with contemporary witnesses and experts comment on facets of those events from various perspectives.
Right-wing extremism is no longer a marginal phenomenon. Inhuman propaganda finds acceptance even in the so-called middle of our society. The transition from right-wing extremist ideas to right-wing extremist terror, from verbal attacks to physical violence is effusive. Not only the history of the letter and pipe bomb terror of the 1990s is a testament to this. The topic is blazingly current.