Der Standard, May 4, 2021
German Original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000126389240/republik-fixiert-kauf-des-ehemaligen-konzentrationslagers-gusen
The negotiations have concluded; now a concept for the commemoration site is to be developed under direction of the Mauthausen Committee.
St. Georgen/Gusen - The Republic finalized the purchase of central parts of the former Gusen concentration camp in Upper Austria. The negotiations “were concluded positively,” said Minister of the Interior Karl Nehammer (OVP) on the occasion of a wreath laying ceremony the evening before the liberation day on May 5th. The entrance to the tunnel system Bergkristall in St. Georgen, two SS administrative barracks, the stone crusher, and the muster ground in Langenstein are being acquired by the Republic.
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp, the federal government had already decided to enter into negotiations with the land owners. Parts of the outer camp are now formally being acquired by the Burghauptmanschaft (an agency of the Federal Ministry for Digitalization and the Economy) for the Republic and then made available to the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
Lasting Assignments
The concepts for the design of a “visible sign of remembrance” are set to be developed together with international, national, and regional stakeholders under the direction of the Mauthausen Memorial. “In a time when the voices of contemporary witnesses wane, the memorial sites have to speak ever louder. Let this new memorial in Gusen serve the memory of the victims and be a reminder for the living,” said Nehammer. The Governor of Upper Austria, Thomas Stelzer (OVP) reminded that “freedom and liberation did not only come to us in 1945, but freedom and democracy are lasting assignments.
Gusen was an outer camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp, which was liberated by U.S. troops on May 5th, 1945. Some 200,000 people were imprisoned in Mauthausen and its 49 auxiliary camps, about half did not survive. In Gusen alone, some 20,000 prisoners were detained at the time of liberation; 35,000 people were murdered there in the course of a few years.
Forgetfulness
While the former concentration camp Mauthausen was handed over to the Republic in 1947 under the condition to erect a memorial site and most of the commemoration since has focused on this location, Gusen has been drifting into oblivion. Only a small memorial site currently commemorates the victims of the camp, which at times was even bigger than the main camp Mauthausen and had a higher death rate.
Considering this shadowy existence of the Gusen memorial site, and the fact that many Poles were among the prisoners, the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki showed an interest to buy the remains of the camp in 2019. (APA, May 4, 2021)