View back: Bundesheer and Mauthausen commemorate the victims of the war

View back: Bundesheer and Mauthausen commemorate the victims of the war

The Austrian Armed Forces intensifies its educational work in the sign of the culture of remembrance and has been involved in a cooperation with the Mauthausen concentration camp memorial since October 8, 2020. This initiative aims to educate officers of the Theresian military academy about the dark history of the Second World War, the role of the Wehrmacht in the war of extermination and the cruel conditions in concentration camps. Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner emphasizes the importance of this cooperation to ensure that the past learns and future dangers can be prevented. In 2024, 738 members of the Federal Army took part in excursions to the Mauthausen memorial to raise awareness of the Nazi past, such as ots.at reported.

memory of the victims

The Mauthausen memorial, which was a scene of horror from 1938 to 1945, sees 190,000 detained people from more than 40 nations, with at least 90,000 lost their lives in this camp. The term "Mauthausen" stands for the deep wounds that were left in the affected countries; Your scars are still visible, especially in the form of memorials and memorial signs. A new project, the international Mauthausen remembrance sign, is designed as an outdoor exhibition in order to appreciate the memory of the victims internationally and to draw visitors to the lived memorial work in the countries of origin of the victims, such as mauthausen-Memorial.org reported. This exhibition is opened in May 2025 on the occasion of the 80th liberation celebration.

It is of central importance that the victims and their stories are still in focus. Representatives of the victim countries are actively involved in the commemorative year in order to keep the memory of the crimes of National Socialism alive and to emphasize the importance of remembering for future generations.