Minister Karner and Minister Tanner Remembered the Victims at Melk Concentration Camp
It was 60 years ago on March 13 that the former Melk concentration camp (KZ) was dedicated as a public memorial. Together with Defense Minister Tanner, Interior Minister Karner commemorates the victims of the Melk concentration camp.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner and Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner Commemorated the Victim of the Melk Concentration Camp / Picture: © BMI Bundesministerium für Inneres / Jürgen Makowecz
The Melk subcamp was one of the largest camps in the Mauthausen concentration camp system. From its founding in April 1944 until its dissolution one year later, more than 14,000 prisoners were deported to Melk. There, they had to construct a 65,000 square-meter tunnel facility with the camouflage name "Quarz" for the armaments industry.
About one-third of the prisoners perished due to the devastating living and working conditions. The former crematorium on the southwestern edge of the concentration camp grounds was spatially separated in 1950 and developed into a concentration camp memorial dedicated as a public monument by the Republic of Austria in 1962. On March 13, 1963, Leopold Figl, then Governor of Lower Austria, performed the dedication as a public memorial.
"85 years ago Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany, thus began unspeakable and cruel suffering for millions of people. Moreover, exactly 60 years ago, the memorial in Melk was erected to commemorate those people who lost their lives in the Melk concentration camp. We must never forget these atrocities of the Second World War. Because there is no place for hatred and violence in our society," emphasized Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner.