Gusen concentration camp: decision “in the next few days”?

Officially, the Gusen concentration camp, which extended over the municipal areas of Langenstein, St. Georgen an der Gusen and Katsdorf, is only considered a “subcamp” of Mauthausen. However, around 37,000 people died in Gusen alone, including a number of prisoners from Poland.

In order to enable these victims of the Nazi dictatorship to be commemorated with dignity, the Ministry of the Interior plans to purchase former concentration camp sites in Langenstein that were crime scenes of serious crimes. As reported, there is also a feasibility study. In an ON interview yesterday, the Polish ambassador Jolanta Kozlowska also urged the Republic of Austria to buy these properties.

The ON asked the Ministry of the Interior what was the current state of affairs. “Intensive discussions are currently underway in the background, also with regard to the feasibility study,” said Daniela Fazekas, spokeswoman for Minister Karl Nehammer (VP) yesterday. “Something will happen in the next few days,” said the spokeswoman. But she didn’t want to reveal any details.

“The remains of the camp must be made accessible to the general public,” says Martha Gammer of the Gusen Memorial Service Committee, who has been committed to commemorating the Gusen victims for many years. There is no need for a museum or additional buildings. Above all, it is about the former roll call area, “which was a place of death for many”. Today, this is divided between different property owners and in an “unworthy state”. Except for the “Jourhaus”, in which the concentration camp command then resided and which is now a residential building, the properties in question, on which the concentration camp barracks were located, were used for industrial purposes. “We have learned that it is difficult in negotiations with the owners to evaluate these properties financially,” said Gammer.