And here are the letters to Susanne Bock that we have received from visitors to this site. We thank you very much for them and are pleased that you are keeping Susanne Bock's heritage alive.

Do you also want to write a letter to Susanne Bock? Please send an email to brief@susannebock.at - we will publish it here.

Wedding photo of Erwin and Magdalena Diamant, provided by William and Nancy Diamant

My parents Erwin and Magdalena Diamant were the recipients of your administrative efforts in Vienna after the war. Your commitment to assist the survivors of the holocaust enabled them to emigrate to the United States. Shown here at their wedding shortly before they met you, they continued their correspondence and friendship throughout their lives. They often told their children and grandchildren how your good work helped them start a new life. For that we shall be forever grateful.

William and Nancy Diamant, Seal Beach, California

August 23, 2025

Dear Susanne,

You always demonstrated greatness as a petite, delicate woman! “Never again fascism!” were never empty words for you.

Your friendship with my grandmother Fanni Grossmann, which began during your school days in Red Vienna, and your shared ideas for a better world gave you both strength during difficult times.

You both survived in British exile and contributed to the rebuilding of Austria. After Fanni’s death in 2009, our friendship grew stronger.

I thank you for your immense support in uncovering the history of the antifascist youth movement Young Austria in Great Britain, the country that made survival possible for you and Fanni. Young Austria was the organization that offered young Austrian exiles under Nazi rule a replacement for their homeland — and much more.

You remained loyal to social democracy, and Fanni to the communist movement. That never harmed your relationship — because life is about more than just politics. Your development into strong women was shaped by similar family circumstances. As only children, raised almost solely by strong and determined mothers in Vienna and forced into exile by a traumatic shock, you had to grow up quickly.

You stood against Nazi Germany during World War II as a nurse, and later earned recognition as an author and as an elderly contemporary witness. After Fanni’s death, we both felt it was important to honor her and your fellow exiles with a memorial in the Young Austria book.

You gave tremendous support to me and our organization KunstPlatzl — as a witness of history, as an editor, and as a translator for the Young Austria book and exhibition project! Thank you also for your support with the publication about the three Steinmetz sisters and women in the resistance.

We honor your dedication on our KunstPlatzl website!

We will continue to preserve your memory as our unforgettable honorary member — see:

https://www.kunstplatzl.info/Mitglieder/Susanne%20Bock%20Ehrenmitgl/Susanne%20Bock.htm

Sonja Frank
Chairwoman, KunstPlatzl
October 2, 2024

Dear Susanne,

I often think of you. And it always makes me sad when I realize that I can no longer congratulate you on your birthday. Because that was something I always did.

With you, I lost a friend. A friend whom I admired for her vitality. A friend with whom I could have political discussions but also laugh.

Your life was not easy. You survived two fascist regimes. You always resisted. Together with your Red Falcons group, you distributed leaflets against Austrofascism. Especially during the Nazi era, you felt all the hatred and antisemitism directed at you as a Jewish student. You had to leave Austria.

When you returned after 1945 - thanks to love - you wrote books about these experiences and gave lectures and readings to school classes. You fought against forgetting, because something so terrible should never happen again.

Your watchful and critical eye was always on the present as well. The political events in Austria - especially in recent years - have caused you great concern: the resurgence of hatred, increasing agitation, and disinformation.

Until the very end, you remained active and worked for a different, better world. Your Falcon heart beat with great passion even in old age.

Dear Susanne, just as your life always gave us strength, so shall the memory of you give us new courage in the future. Courage to give courage. Courage to stand up against injustice. Courage to always and everywhere remain human.

Thank you - for everything!

Your Jürgen

Mag. Jürgen Czernohorszky
Viennese City Councillor for Climate and Federal Chairman of the Children’s Friends Austria
July 29, 2024

Dear Dr. Bock,

Your tireless commitment against antisemitism and your outstanding efforts to address the Nazi past deserve the highest recognition. Despite the numerous obstacles you had to overcome after your return to Austria, you have fought for justice and remembrance with impressive determination and courage.

Your work and dedication are not only a reminder but also an inspiration for all of us. They show how important it is to stand against hatred and prejudice and to honestly and thoroughly address the dark chapters of our history. Through your tireless efforts, you set a powerful example of humanity and justice.

In this spirit, I would like to express my deepest thanks and highest respect to you.

Your work will not only have great significance today but also in the future.

With kind regards,

Johannes Rauch

Federal Minister

July 23, 2024

Dear Susanne,

It was a goosebump moment: the Federal Conference of the Austrian Children's Friends in the Wappensaal of the Vienna City Hall. A contemporary witness of National Socialism was announced, a Falcon who had to go into exile and only survived because of it.

And then you came on stage. Immediately, all eyes were on you, and everyone listened intently to your reports and stories. You could have heard the proverbial pin drop. Even the children and young people present followed your stories attentively.

Or that moment when we jointly organized a reading in a Viennese bookstore in Seestadt and we were able to honor your activities by presenting you with the "Red Cloth" - the highest award of the Red Falcons.

Or your moving speech at Vienna's Heldenplatz on the occasion of the annual event "Jetzt Zeichen setzen" on International Holocaust Remembrance Day in January. Even though it was a physical strain for you, it was so important to you to seize this opportunity to remember and warn.

There were so many moments when you, as a contemporary witness, a warning voice, and living proof that it is worth fighting, brought this terrible time closer to our children and imparted the lessons from it.

In many personal conversations, you impressed us until the very end with your memory, but also with your interest in current world developments - especially everything concerning children and young people was always important to you. And your interest in the role of women in our society was remarkable.

It was an honor for us to publish your last book. We will preserve your memory and pass your books on to the next generation. As a reminder and a mandate at the same time.

Friendship!

Daniela Gruber-Pruner
Federal Managing Director of the Austrian Children's Friends

July 18, 2024

Dear Susanne Bock,

I met you for the first time when you were almost 100 years old, and I visited you at the retirement home in the 19th district. We talked about your appearance at a memorial event, and you wanted tips from me that I couldn't give you. You were the one who had been expelled, who had to live with loss and deprivation, who was brave enough to return to the place from which she had been expelled. And who learned to love this city anew and became politically engaged in it.

We all learned from you, you shared with us: your courage, your confidence, your pedagogical ideas - and your personal experiences, which were anything but easy for you to talk about. Yet you did it, using all your strength for it. But it was so important to you to pass on what you experienced and to warn: Never again! You were aware that this is more important than ever. Today, we are in the midst of a society where exclusion, denigration, and dehumanization are being made socially acceptable to create a mood and gather votes.

Dear Susanne, we miss you more than ever! We still draw on your memory, your strength, and your conviction. And it is up to us and the younger generations to ensure that your testimony never fades and your warning remains alive.

Thank you for everything,

Penny

Petra Bair MA MLS

Member of the National Council

Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

June 12, 2024

Dear Dr. Bock,

Dear Susanne,

Your life and your tireless commitment to the culture of remembrance touch and deeply impress me.

What particularly inspires me about your life is your consistent commitment to dialogue and enlightenment. You not only dealt with the past but also actively contributed to ensuring that subsequent generations could learn from history. Your tireless work shows how important it was to you to create connections and reach people. This dedication is a shining example of how communication and education can shape a better future.

From your life, I can learn for my own actions. Your perseverance and commitment are a model for me, always having the courage to stand up for what is right and to fight against injustice.

With deep respect and gratitude,

Sabine Schatz

Member of the National Council, SPÖ

June 12, 2024

Dear Susanne,

I had the privilege of getting to know you several decades ago, and you welcomed me in a very human and friendly manner. These were my first steps within the framework of SPÖ education in Vienna, and I was certainly still unsure. Your way of presenting your story and your warmth in conveying it prompted me, even as a rather impoverished worker, to buy my first political book, "With a Suitcase in Hand." Before that, I had repeatedly borrowed books from public libraries, which was also in our mutual interest.

That book has since been joined by hundreds more, and my political book collection will now become the centerpiece of an office in my eldest son's former bedroom, as he is now moving out. And right in the middle is your book, which you read a bit to me back then.

We occasionally saw each other at events or party meetings, but we didn't exchange much. It was clear to me that you inspired many people both within and outside your immediate environment.

At 102 years, you enjoyed a long and hopefully fulfilling life, and I was fortunate to witness some of your best days and years. I was particularly pleased when the participants of the 54th course of the Vienna Party School chose you as their namesake. I know this keeps your work in memory.

I also want to thank everyone involved in this unique project. This is how one honors a person who has given many people joy, hope, and courage.

Wolfgang Markytan
Head of the Vienna Party School

June 10, 2024

Dear Mrs. Bock,

You were so many things in your life.

A social democrat since your youth, you dedicated your life to advocating for workers' rights.

You actively fought Austrofascism and National Socialism and were a defender of democracy.

As a voice against forgetting, your words were especially for the poor, the weak, the insignificant, the unheard. Those who found it harder to flee, harder to survive in foreign lands, harder to regain a foothold in their homeland after returning, harder to have their stories of flight heard and remembered.

Dear Mrs. Bock, you will be remembered.

As an immensely courageous woman.

As a paragon of steadfast principles.

As a shining example of lived social democracy.

As a role model in the fight against forgetting.

MMag. Peter Jessner

Course Supervisor of the Party School of the Vienna Education Academy

Chairman of Section 15 of SPÖ Wien-Margareten

June 8, 2024

Dear Susanne,

I read your life story with deep concern. I address you by your first name as we know each other fleetingly. I am a school friend of your son Peter and often visited you after school.

I was deeply affected by the ignorance and deliberate avoidance of politically sensitive topics during my youth in the 1960s. Although I did not experience the terrible time of National Socialism, for the generation of my parents and teachers, it was still so vividly remembered that they hardly wanted to talk about it. Whether it was fear of painful memories or because they themselves were perpetrators or followers.

As a high school student, I was little aware of these motives. Despite my friendship with Peter, I never learned about the difficult fate of your family - probably because people did not like to talk about it. When it was discussed, as you yourself write, the term "Jew" was fraught with prejudice. Today, I am ashamed that it took so many decades for at least a large part of the population to acknowledge the injustice committed by our ancestors. I am even more ashamed that in today's Europe, racist groups are allowed to exercise their seemingly democratic right to free speech and act in such a contemptuous manner. No restitution payment to survivors can ever make up for the loss of so many family members.

You stand as a courageous woman, who escaped the Holocaust through wisdom and luck, as a role model for all of us. Without fear of repression, you expressed your opinions during the time of Austrofascism and stood up for the disadvantaged.

I thank you for that and for sharing your experiences with the youth until old age, thus preventing forgetting.

Dr. Manfred Car

Archivist

Municipality of Brunn am Gebirge

June 5, 2024

Dear Comrade Bock,

I am over 80 and have experienced a lot. Your mission to never remain silent about developments like those you experienced has always been important to me, and it is more relevant today than ever. When you see this right-wing trend that has been emerging worldwide and across Europe recently, all alarm bells should be ringing. The poll results are shocking. People do not learn from history because they unfortunately do not engage with it.

I have spent a lot of time studying the Nazi era and therefore know a little about what I am talking about. The current developments are alarming when compared to the time before the Nazis came to power. It is alarming because there are so many parallels to that time.

At my age, I no longer need to engage with day-to-day politics, but I do concern myself with our ideology and the history of our country. Therefore, I take every opportunity to talk to our youth about all these terrible events, just as you did. I also use every opportunity to utilize new media for this purpose.

I was not only a member of parliament but also a restaurateur for 45 years. I come from a working-class tavern and experienced the post-war period up close. That is why it is also important to me not to remain silent about all that I have experienced. Like you, I lived through the years of deprivation after the war and cannot forget them.

Dear Comrade Bock, I wish you all the best and assure you of my full admiration for your conduct.

With warm regards,

Komm.Rat Günter Kiermaier

Former Member of the National Council

June 5, 2024

Dear Susanne,

First of all, I want to thank you for your courage and your commitment. But also for the danger you faced in resisting the Nazi regime to fight for a free world, human rights, and tolerance.

"We must never forget" the atrocities committed by National Socialism.

"We must never forget" the hatred, the incitement, the discrimination, the reign of terror, and the Nazi regime.

"We must never forget" the murder of six million Jewish men, women, and children by the Nazi regime.

"We must never forget" the persecution and killing of Roma, Sinti, Communists, Socialists, and homosexuals.

And you dedicated your life to this "We must never forget." You spoke about the suffering inflicted upon you, the fear you felt, and the terror you experienced firsthand, so that future generations could learn about and learn from this cruel past.

The past teaches us that we must defend democracy and our freedom, fight against discrimination, and strengthen cohesion and tolerance in society.

Unfortunately, we are currently witnessing a resurgence of right-wing and nationalist parties, whose sole aim is the destruction of democracy and our freedom. Multiple crises, such as the Covid pandemic, the war at Europe's doorstep, inflation, or climate change, and the resulting dissatisfaction in society, provide fertile ground for extreme tendencies. We must resist this, just as you did all your life with great courage and perseverance.

We must all stand together against fascism and right-wing extremism! "Never again" is always and everywhere.

Your courage and commitment should inspire us all to work every day for a better, more social, and peaceful world.

We will never forget you!

In eternal remembrance,

Mag. Andreas Schieder

SPÖ-EU Delegation Leader

Member of the European Parliament

June 4, 2024

Dear Dr. Susanne Bock,

As the granddaughter of a resistance fighter, I can well understand your life story and actions. It can still serve as a guide for us, even when the protagonists are no longer among us. Many years ago, the fight against fascism was my motivation to enter politics.

The end of the war is not even 100 years past, the historic milestone of founding a European Union based on values and human rights achieved. And yet many of the problems and challenges we face today are very similar to those of the past; indeed, alarming parallels can be seen: once again, many people are forced to flee; once again, it is life-saving that there are some European countries willing to take them in; once again, right-wing and nationalist groups that incite hatred are gaining momentum and are drawn to regimes that invade other countries and act according to the "law of the jungle"; and alarmingly, Jews in Europe must once again fear for their safety.

But just as there were courageous people back then who showed humanity and solidarity, your confidence, commitment, and humor should inspire us today. Never forget!

With admiration,

Dr. Monika Vana

Delegation Leader of the Austrian Greens in the European Parliament

June 4, 2024

Dear Susanne,

As a young person, I want to thank you for your courage and unwavering dedication. Especially the younger generations, born long after the end of the Second World War and who have not experienced its direct consequences, strive to understand the atrocities of the past. This is no easy task, influenced by several factors. For one, there are hardly any eyewitnesses left today who can directly recount their experiences and the suffering they endured. Although we have research, there is still much to be done in that field. Commemorative work, as valuable as it is and must be, is often an overlooked and forgotten part of our daily lives.

Therefore, it is all the more necessary to engage with your story and understand why you stood up against two fascist systems alongside thousands of people. You did this out of a deep conviction to your values and beliefs - even as a teenager. The amount of courage and conviction you must have had cannot be put into words. Unfortunately, we also know how cruel the world was back then - and how it is today. Fascism and right-wing extremism are not things of the past; the opposite is true at the moment. Therefore, I see it as a necessity to learn from you and your numerous comrades. Defending democracy is like fighting for a better world: it does not come by itself; everyone must help.

Especially today, 79 years after the end of fascism in Central Europe and two years after your passing, it is important and right to reflect on your story and your life - as a courageous example of resistance, as a courageous example of conviction.

Of course, it is up to us young people to carry the torch of remembrance and commemoration one day - and to a significant extent, we are already doing that. Despite the great time difference and the fact that what happened is no longer tangible, we want and must do this. And alongside the torch, we carry in spirit the flags and banners with the names of all those who suffered, fled, or died during the times of fascism and National Socialism. Our task is, will, and must always be to remember that fascism is not an option and goes against democracy. We all, as humanity, cannot afford that - whether today or tomorrow.

With your comrades, we keep you and your actions, your life, in memory.

With a final "Friendship!"

Alexander Rath

State Board of the Association of Social Democratic Freedom Fighters of Upper Austria

May 24, 2024