When the motorway bridge over the Alm was built in Vorchdorf during the Nazi era, the National Socialists used forced laborers and prisoners of war, mainly from Russia and Poland. For this purpose, a separate shanty town was built near the construction site. The prisoners lived and worked under the worst conditions. Many died. “They were starving, eating worms, mice and the intestines of slaughtered pigs,” says Bruno Schernhammer (64).
Long hidden chapter
Born in Vorchdorf and living in Vienna, he published the fact-based novel “And everyone waved. In the shadow of the Autobahn” in 2018. In it, Schernhammer tells of the events of that time. The book was particularly popular in Vorchdorf. Also because it sheds light on a long-hidden chapter of the municipality and the construction of the motorway.
The market town of Vorchdorf has now taken up Schernhammer’s literary research in order to erect a memorial to the victims of the bridge construction in cooperation with ASFINAG. It was unveiled yesterday with a ceremony attended by more than 100 people.
The Viennese historian Bertrand Perz gave a lecture on the construction of the western autobahn, which began immediately after Austria was annexed to Germany in 1938. Contrary to myth, the autobahn was not an invention of the National Socialists, according to Perz. “On the contrary: when the first autobahn was built from Cologne to Bonn before they seized power, the National Socialists were the only ones who spoke out against it.” Only after seizing power did Hitler use the autobahn construction to present himself as a hands-on chancellor. And when the construction of the Autobahn continued in the 1950s, Austria’s post-war politicians also liked to adorn themselves with it.
There was silence about the maltreated and killed forced laborers in Vorchdorf, and that was to remain the case for decades to come. Now, 83 years after the first fatal accident on the construction site, a memorial has finally been set up for them.
Source: Nachrichten
