The Minister of the Interior and the Governor of Lower Austria remember the victims of the Mauthausen concentration camp – the fight against extremism and anti-Semitism must be continued
Vienna (OTS) – On the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, 2024, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner visited the two former subcamps of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Melk and Gunskirchen. “The commemoration in the satellite and subcamps of the Mauthausen concentration camp such as Melk and Gusen is part of a regional memorial work that has been continuously developed in recent years and reminds us that we must constantly fight against all forms of extremism and anti-Semitism,” said the interior minister.
State Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner said: “This day of remembrance reminds us every year of the terrible crimes of the Nazi era. Especially in view of the current international tensions against Jews around the world, triggered by the terror of Hamas in Israel, it must serve as a strong reminder to us: We must never forget the atrocities of the Holocaust and we must do everything to prevent them never repeat.”
Melk subcamp
A concentration camp with around 14,000 prisoners existed in the Birago pioneer barracks in Melk from April 1944 to April 1945, making it one of the largest subcamps of the Mauthausen concentration camp site. The prisoners built an underground tunnel facility for the armaments industry, in which armaments from the Steyr-Daimler-Puch company were manufactured. Due to the devastating living and working conditions, around a third of the prisoners in Melk died. The former crematorium of the concentration camp was spatially separated in 1950 and developed into a memorial site, which was dedicated as a public monument by the Republic of Austria in 1962.
During the commemorative ceremonies on May 8, 2023 to mark the liberation of the former Melk subcamp, the first subcamp stele was unveiled. This stele is a marker in the form of a four-meter-high column made of stacked concrete prisms, which lists the place names of the 40 satellite camps without hierarchy and makes the network of exploitation and destruction with the organizational center in Mauthausen spatially tangible.
The subcamp stele acts as a link between the existing Melk concentration camp memorial in the former crematorium building and “Object 10” on the Birago barracks area.
Gunskirchen subcamp
At the end of 1944, another subcamp was set up three kilometers south of Gunskirchen in the so-called “Forst Hochholz”. From March 1945 it served as a reception camp for thousands of Jewish-Hungarian prisoners who were driven on death marches to Mauthausen and Gunskirchen towards the end of the war. Under disastrous hygienic conditions, 20,000 prisoners were left to fend for themselves in makeshift barracks. Between 2,700 and 6,500 people died.
After archaeological investigations with the University of Vienna and the Federal Monuments Office, parts of the area, which is privately owned by several property owners, were placed under monument protection in 2020. On January 16, 2024, the Mauthausen Concentration Camp Memorial, together with the Austrian Mauthausen Committee, unveiled the new satellite camp stele in Gunskirchen. After Melk, it is the second satellite camp stele.
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