The neo-Nazis in Germany and Austria have a new and formidable opponent: grandmothers.
The rise of right-wing anti-Semitism in those countries, along with years of intensifying xenophobia encouraged by political elements, has pushed Susan Schul, a retired TV journalist, into action.
In the fall of 2017 she joined the Omas Gegen Rechts group, or ‘Grandmothers Against the Right’ which was then in its infancy.
"When I saw the group, I said 'I'm inside,'" she says.
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The group began its journey in 2017 as a group of 10 older women, who took part in a demonstration of thousands against the right-wing policies of former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Since then it has become a movement of over 100 local branches in Germany and seven branches in Austria.
Some of the women are Jewish, most are not, but all are united against the forces that they say drive anti-Semitism.
They often wear pink "pussyhats" hats, inspired by the "Women's March 2017", a series of demonstrations held by American women against former President Donald Trump.
Their efforts did not go unnoticed by Jewish organizations and their supporters.
In 2020, the Central Council of German Jews awarded the group members the Paul Spiegel Prize for Civilian Courage.
The award has been given since 2009 in memory of former council president Paul Spiegel, and is given to activists in the war against racism and anti-Semitism.
"The women of 'Omas Gegen Rechts' regularly suffer from harassment because of their activities, but they do not allow themselves to be threatened," wrote Josef Schuster, president of the council.
"They are sending a strong and clear message against anti-Semitism and racism. This is exemplary behavior and we wanted to honor it with this award. They show that this kind of active support for democracy is still possible even in old age."
The Central Council of German Jews awarded the group a prize in 2020, Photo: Courtesy of Omas Gegen Rechts
The grandmothers began as part of what became known as the 'Thursday demonstrations' every week in Vienna, following the Ibiza affair, in which then-Chancellor Heinz Christian Stracha was seen in a video in which he allegedly confessed to a variety of acts of corruption.
The video led to the collapse of the ruling coalition in parliament, and to a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Kurtz, a young politician who has forged close ties with Israel, has promoted himself as a leader focused on tackling anti-Semitism.
But Schul, who now serves as deputy chairman of Vienna's Grandmothers' branch, argued that the reality on the ground did not justify this reputation. Vienna's Jewish community reported the highest number of antisemitic incidents in 2020 since the organization began documenting them 19 years ago .
The rise in anti-Semitism in Germany is more pronounced: the Central Council of German Jews reported a sharp rise in antisemitic crimes in late 2020, a year after the attempted shooting at a synagogue in Hala and the murderous riot in a bar in Hanau aimed at immigrants.
After the 'Thursday demonstrations' subsided, the grandmothers began to hold separate protests of their own.
In 2019, when Holocaust denier Nikolai Nerling photographed himself denying the genocide in front of school children who visited the Dachau concentration camp, under a sign that read "For German Culture," the "grandmothers" showed up with a sign that read "For Cultural Diversity."
The group's branches in Germany are also engaged in cleaning the 'stumbling blocks', the same brass tiles scattered across the streets of the country and marking the former homes of Jews who were forced by the Nazis to abandon their homes.
In September 2020, the 'grandmothers' led a daily protest shift, Monday through Friday and from ten in the morning until four in the afternoon, as a sign of solidarity with the refugees stranded in camps across Europe.
The branch in Berlin also protects the famous monument in memory of the murdered European Jews, and the grandmothers surround it as protests by extremist right-wing elements and the Quardenken movement, which organizes protests against the German government's corona policy, pass by. The use of images from the Holocaust to protest the closures and other public health measures taken to fight the corona virus is particularly common in Germany. Protesters are often seen wearing a yellow badge in the shape of a Star of David with the words 'unvaccinated' written on it, despite criticism that it is a disregard for the memory of the Holocaust.
"Together with the Jewish community and everyone else in Berlin who did not want them to march next to the synagogue or the Holocaust Memorial, we were able to change their course," said one of the "Grandmothers Against the Right" companies about their counter-demonstrations.
She asked to remain anonymous because her name appeared on lists circulated by far-right elements.
"We stood up to them and showed them what we support, and what we oppose. We did not want them to just go on their own without an answer."
Suzanne Schul is today the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Vienna Grandmother's Branch, Photo: Courtesy of Omas Gegen Rechts
Schul grew up in a Viennese Jewish family, but only years after her childhood did she realize that she herself had internalized social anti-Semitism.
She did not receive explicit instructions to hide her Judaism, but the message seems to have passed to her nonetheless.
Schul recalled incidents that as a child did not seem particularly significant to her, and only later did she realize that these were antisemitic incidents.
According to her, Western European countries have not yet fully accounted for their contribution to the Holocaust, and the lack of this mental account "allowed the return of overt anti-Semitism."
"It's just a complete absurdity," Schul said.
"People have never properly processed what happened, and it has been passed down from generation to generation."
Regardless, Schul insists that Austria was and will remain her home.
"Despite everything, I'm first and foremost an Austrian," she said.
"And I will not allow myself to be expelled from this country."
She recalled a turning point in one of Thursday's demonstrations, when she first felt the impact that grandmothers could have: as a gesture of respect for grandmothers, a group of black protesters allowed them to lead the demonstration.
"There were a lot of young people cheering us on, smiling and waving at us until we moved to the front of the demonstration," Schul said.
"We had a calming effect and I think this is a role we took on even though we did not necessarily plan it in advance. Today it is known that when the Omas Gegen Rechts are in the demonstration, the demonstration is conducted calmly."
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