Stairs of death in Mauthausen remain closed

A motion to lift the ban, tabled by SP MP Sabine Schatz, was postponed yesterday afternoon by the governing parties ÖVP and Greens in the National Council’s Interior Committee.

For years, national and international victim associations have been criticizing the closure of the stairs and calling for their reopening, said Schatz. According to Schatz, the fact that the ÖVP and the Greens have postponed the red motion is “tantamount to ignoring the wishes of the survivor organizations”.

During the Second World War, concentration camp prisoners had to carry 50-kilo blocks of stone up the stairs. The stairs of death are an important place for the mediation work in the Mauthausen memorial.