LIBERATION: GUSEN, EBENSEE, MAUTHAUSEN, MELK
Mauthausen Memorial
On 9 May, a commemorative ceremony marking the liberation of the Gusen subcamp was held at the former Gusen concentration camp. The focus was on shared international remembrance and responsibility for the future. Approximately 1,000 visitors took part.
Since 2023, the commemorative ceremony in Gusen has been organised in cooperation between the Gusen Memorial Committee and the Mauthausen Memorial. This cooperation has significantly strengthened remembrance work at the Gusen site and has contributed substantially to a deeper engagement with its history. Particular thanks are due to the survivors, relatives and initiatives that have upheld remembrance over many decades.
The commemorative event took place at the former roll call square in Gusen. Speeches by national and international representatives addressed, under the shared motto “We stand together”, topics such as social cohesion and solidarity. They also underlined the significance of Gusen as part of the Mauthausen concentration camp system and the need to keep its history visible.
The project to expand and redesign the memorial site, led jointly by the Mauthausen Memorial and the Burghauptmannschaft Österreich, will make an important contribution to this effort. “We all have it in our hands to bring Gusen to life,” said Barbara Glück, Director of the Mauthausen Memorial.
On the same day the international commemorative ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp took place at the Ebensee Memorial. Numerous guests from Austria and abroad gathered to commemorate the victims of National Socialism and to send a message of remembrance and responsibility. The event was organised by the Ebensee Museum of Contemporary History.
In their welcoming remarks, Mayor Sabine Promberger and Stephan Matyus, Head of the Memorial Office of the Mauthausen Memorial, emphasised the importance of an active culture of remembrance. The declaration by the mayors of the Salzkammergut, “Together against right-wing extremism”, was also presented. It stressed: “Where democracy dies, human rights are never safe.”
At the centre of the ceremony were speeches by relatives and international representatives: Shimon Shahar, son of survivor Zvi Smitmaier; Aline Dreyer, representing the Belgian Amicale; and Gabriele Alberti, President of ANED Prato.
On 10 May, the International Commemoration and Liberation Ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp took place at the Mauthausen Memorial.
Thousands of visitors, as well as international delegations, survivors, relatives, young people and representatives of numerous initiatives, gathered to commemorate the victims of National Socialism and to send a clear message against forgetting. The event was organised by the Mauthausen Committee Austria.
This year’s ceremony focused on the theme “Perpetrators”. At its centre was reflection on the many people who supported and enabled the National Socialist camp system, as guards, administrative staff, doctors or officials. The ceremony also addressed the question of social responsibility and the continuing impact of exclusion, indifference and ideology into the present day.
The ceremony began with young people reading the “Mauthausen Oath” in several languages, followed by a welcome address by Willi Mernyi, Chairman of the Mauthausen Committee Austria. Led by students, survivors and international delegations, the commemorative procession moved across the grounds of the Memorial.
Speeches, including one by Guy Dockendorf of the International Mauthausen Committee, recalled the importance of international remembrance and the responsibility to keep memory alive. Mercedes Echerer and Konstanze Breitebner moderated the ceremony in several languages. For the first time, the moderation was also interpreted by a sign language interpreter.
Finally, on 11 May, the commemorative ceremony for the victims of the former concentration camp took place at the Melk Memorial. Around 300 visitors attended. In cooperation with the association MERKwürdig – Centre for Contemporary History Melk, the victims were commemorated together with relatives of former prisoners and international remembrance initiatives.
The ceremony was opened by Alexander Hauer, Chairman of the association MERKwürdig, and Barbara Glück, Director of the Mauthausen Memorial. At its centre were contributions by students of the Stiftsgymnasium Melk, who engaged with questions of responsibility and perpetration under the annual theme “Perpetrators”. The students showed that systematic injustice is sustained by many people and that remembering it means taking responsibility for the present. “Remembering and learning from it” was highlighted as a central task.
The students also drew connections to the present and asked questions about individual responsibility and room for action today. Their contributions made it clear that remembrance must have an impact in the present.
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