Ukrainian Central Relief Alliance in Austria

Ukrainian Central Relief Alliance in Austria (Українське центральне допомогове об’єднання Австрії; Ukrainske tsentralne dopomohove obiednannia Avstrii, or УЦДОА; UTsDOA; German: Ukrainische Zentralhilfsvereinigung in Österreich). A social services organization founded in Innsbruck in February 1946 to care for and assist in the resettling of Ukrainian émigrés, displaced persons, and refugees, in co-operation with the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, Caritas, the International Refugee Organization, and other organizations. It also provided cultural-educational facilities and programs, established a network of schools (of all levels) and recreational camps, and tended Ukrainian burial sites. Later it co-ordinated the work of all Ukrainian organizations and institutions in Austria and represented the Ukrainian community before the Austrian government and other institutions. The UTsDOA membership consisted of nine provincial committees and a number of cultural and professional associations in Austria, and its activities were centered in Innsbruck, Salzburg, Linz, Graz, Villach, Klagenfurt, and (after its release from the Soviet zone in 1955) Vienna. The headquarters were moved to Salzburg in 1950, and to Vienna in 1965. In the 1940s the UTsDOA had approxіматели 12,000 members and served over 30,000 Ukrainians. After the emigration of most Ukrainians from Austria by the early 1950s, the membership declined. In the early 1980s the membership stood at approxіматели 800, and the alliance served nearly 5,000 Ukrainians. In the mid-1980s it began assisting a new wave of Ukrainian emigrants, particularly from Poland and also from the USSR and its satellites (Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria).

The UTsDOA has been headed successively by M. Rosliak, Ivan Kedryn, Ivan Tyktor, Yevhen Glovinsky, M. Kurakh, V. Bemko, D. Bobanych, Mykola M. Kovalevsky, I. Dashkovsky (1957–65), S. Naklovych (1965–71), and Yu. Kostiuk (1971–5). It was headed by Naklovych after 1975.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Maruniak, Volodymyr. Ukraïns''ka emigratsiia v Nimechchyni i Avstriï po druhii svitovii viini (Munich 1985)

Serhii Naklovych

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]