AUSTRIA, May 4 - To mark the 77^th anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camp, on 4^th May 2022, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg visited the Mauthausen and Gusen memorial sites. He was accompanied by President Alexander Van der Bellen, National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka, Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler, Minister of the Interior Gerald Karner, Minister of Education Martin Polaschek, Minister of Finance Magnus Brunner, Minister of EU Affairs Karoline Edtstadler, Minister of Defence Klaudia Tanner and State Secretary Claudia Plakolm, among others. 

In memory of the over 90,000 people who lost their lives in the Mauthausen concentration camp system, the government representatives laid flowers at the memorial site’s central monument—the sarcophagus in the roll-call area—and read aloud short biographies of the people who fell victim to Nazi terrorism in the Mauthausen camp. This was followed by a personal moment of remembrance in the Room of Names.

Foreign Minister Schallenberg had visited the concentration camp memorial site at Mauthausen just recently, on 27^th January 2022, with his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid, and he remembered the people murdered in Mauthausen and its satellite camps—including Lapid’s grandfather, Bela Lampel—while also acknowledging Austria’s full historical responsibility for the Nazi atrocities.

We need to face the shadows of the past—whether it is as a state, as politicians or as individuals. For far too long, we saw ourselves only as victims of National Socialism and avoided recognising our historical responsibility. Today we fully accept this responsibility. It is the only way to ensure that ‘never forget’ becomes ‘never again’,

said Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg. 

Following his visit to the Mauthausen concentration camp memorial site, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg also took part in the first official commemoration at the former roll-call area in the Gusen concentration camp. Through this commemoration ceremony, the Republic of Austria symbolically took responsibility for the properties on the site of the former concentration camp, acquired in March of 2022. Between 1939 and 1945, approximately 71,000 people from all over Europe were deported to the Gusen concentration camp. Around 36,000 of them fell victim to the Nazi regime before the camp was liberated, along with the Mauthausen concentration camp, by American troops on May 5, 1945.