CATFISH. Since 2000, the initiative has awarded the Elfriede Grünberg Prize to committed personalities who work for human rights and integration and against hate speech, racism and right-wing extremism. This year the award goes to a grandmother and a judo coach, among others.
In 2018, Helene Kaltenböck brought “grandmas against the right” to Upper Austria. Since then, the association has been present on social media and at events with more than 100 members. Willi Reizelsdorfer is not only a judo coach. At the LZ Multikraft Wels association, he sets many initiatives for integration. He organizes homework supervision and teaches the children and young people values such as respect and tolerance towards others. The third winners are the busy leaders of the Mauthausen Committee Vöcklabruck, Rudolf Loidl and Frederik Schmidsberger.
The management team around Werner Retzl reported in the well-attended courtyard hall of the Schloss Puchberg educational center with seventy members and guests about the diverse activities of the past association year.
The namesake for the award
Elfriede Grünberg, born on April 1, 1929 in Wels, is the youngest Jewish Holocaust victim from Wels. She was deported to Belarus in June 1942 at the age of thirteen and murdered by the National Socialists on June 15, 1942 in the Maly Trostinec extermination camp. The Welser Initiative prize is named after her.
