Poland in South Africa

The Austrian Holocaust Memorial Prize was founded in 2006 by the Austrian Service Abroad. It is awarded annually to an individual or institution that has made special efforts to preserve the memory of the Holocaust. The AHMA serves as a symbol of the fight against racism and at the same time commemorates the victims of the Holocaust. In 2011, the award was granted to the Jewish Centre in Oświęcim, Poland.

The Austrian Service Abroad is a non-profit association founded by Andreas Maislinger, Michael Prochazka and Andreas Hörtnagl. The program is rooted in the acknowledgment of responsibility of the Republic of Austria for the crimes committed by National Socialism. Its services aim at the permanence of life on earth.

During the ceremony, occasional speeches were given and a chamber concert was performed by the soloist Leigh Nudelman Sussman, accompanied by a pianist of Polish origin, Avi Kanar. The AHMA award was presented to Tali Nates by Dr. Johann Brieger, Austrian Ambassador to South Africa.

The celebrations were attended, among others, by ambassadors of Austria, Germany, Japan and Poland.

Tali Nates, founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust&Genocide Centre and president of the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation, was named one of South Africa's 100 most newsworthy and noteworthy women in 2010 by South African weekly Mail & Guardian. She is often invited by foreign institutions and organizations to give lectures on Holocaust education, genocide prevention, reconciliation and human rights. Tali participates in numerous international conferences, including at the United Nations. Tali Nates comes from a family of Holocaust survivors. Her father and uncle were saved from extermination by Oskar Schindler (Schindler's List).

Tali Nates and the Johannesburg Holocaust&Genocide Centre regularly cooperate with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Pretoria in the implementation of various projects: exhibitions, film screenings, lectures and webinars. Currently, at the Johannesburg Holocaust&Genocide Centre, the exhibition “Gusen. Granite and death. Remembrance and Oblivion ” is presented.  The exhibition is devoted to the history of the complex of German Nazi concentration camps located near the town of Mauthausen, in the territory of Austria annexed by the Nazis.