From March 17–21, 2025, the Schüler*innenschule hosted the project “The Second World War: From Fear of Democracy to National Socialism.”

Through workshops, lectures, and excursions, students explored Hitler’s rise to power, fascism, National Socialism, antisemitism, persecution, and resistance from different perspectives.

A special highlight for our students was meeting an eyewitness of the postwar period in person at our school. Mrs. Liesl Nitsch-Spira shared her story: how her parents had to flee Austria from the National Socialists. Born in British exile in 1944, she returned to Vienna in 1946 with her parents and sister, the well-known filmmaker Elizabeth T. Spira. There, former Nazis in the school system and everyday antisemitism were part of daily life.