On Thursday, May 2nd, members of the federal government, among others, will commemorate this at a ceremony in Mauthausen. On May 4th there will be a joint celebration by the Mauthausen Memorial and the Gusen Memorial Service Committee in Langenstein and the next day the traditional liberation celebration under the leadership of the Mauthausen Committee.
This world’s largest concentration camp liberation celebration will take place on May 5th at the roll call area of the former camp, which is now the memorial site. This year it is dedicated – as are numerous celebrations in the subcamps – to the topic of “Law and Justice in National Socialism”. In addition, there will again be a virtual commemoration on the online platforms of the Mauthausen Committee Austria (MKÖ). Everyone is invited to submit a contribution on why the “ethnicization of the law must be prevented at all costs and action should be taken against all such tendencies,” according to the MKÖ’s appeal.
- Also read: Dedicated to the victims of the wars and the concentration camp: The Stations of the Cross in St. Mary’s Cathedral [OÖNplus]
A ceremony will take place at the Mauthausen Memorial on May 2nd, attended by Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and several ministers, as well as members of victims’ organizations and the Mauthausen International Advisory Board, in which 20 Holocaust victim nations are represented, as well as a youth group from Luxembourg to be expected. The celebration is entitled “The diversity of remembrance”. There will be a statement on the topic “What does Mauthausen mean for us today?” are read out, then flowers are laid at the cenotaph, the memorial in honor of the victims. Between 1938 and 1945, almost 200,000 people from more than 40 nations were held captive in the Mauthausen concentration camp and its more than 40 subcamps, and around 90,000 did not survive.
Gusen subcamp dismantled after liberation
Conditions were particularly harsh in the Gusen subcamp, where 71,000 prisoners from almost 30 nations were interned, of whom around 36,000 died. The prisoners had to build a tunnel complex for the armaments industry under the code name “Bergkristall”. After the liberation, the camp was dismantled and houses were built. For a long time there was repeated criticism from at home and abroad that the remembrance of this place of horror was being neglected.
After the Republic finally purchased land on the site of the former Gusen concentration camp in Langenstein in recent years and has now initiated a process to redesign the memorial there, memorials are also being commemorated at the former roll call area in Gusen, as in the previous two years. Regional memorial organizations are involved here, and National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) will most likely represent official Austria.
- More on the topic: These are the key points of a new concentration camp memorial in Gusen
The traditional “Festival of Joy” on the anniversary of the surrender of the German Wehrmacht on May 8th will also focus this year on “Law and Justice in National Socialism”. The highlight is the speech by contemporary witness Rosa Schneeberger; the opening words at Vienna’s Heldenplatz will be spoken by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen and MKÖ Chairman Willi Mernyi. There will be another commemoration in Parliament on May 3rd.
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Source: Nachrichten
