The Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service (AHMS) is an alternative to Austria's compulsory national military service / alternative service. Its participants serve at major Holocaust memorial institutions in 23 countries. The AHMS was founded by Andreas Maislinger, a political scientist from Innsbruck ( Tirol, Austria) who adopted the idea from the German Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (Aktion Suehnezeichen/Friedensdienste). Maislinger himself had worked as a volunteer at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum, where the idea of the program was born.