Chanukah menorah from Simmering transit camp

In 1973 Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky was criticized internationally because he complied with conditions imposed by terrorists. After an attack by Palestinians he ordered the closure of Schönau Castle in Lower Austria, the transit station for Soviet Jews on their way to Israel or the USA. It was replaced immediately by Wöllersdorf Barracks. In 1974 the transit camp moved finally to the Simmering district of Vienna. When the building was demolished in 1993, a Chanukah menorah made of bottle tops, probably the work of a child, was found. Before 1989, some 300,000 Jews emigrated via Austria.