Speech for the Unveiling of the Memorial Plaque

Gunskirchen, April 3, 2025
Martin Kranzl-Greinecker

Dear women and men gathered here today,

No war and no political regime falls from the sky. It always takes people who make plans and carry them out—often by violent means. Even the Nazi concentration camps had to be built—perfidiously, by the prisoners themselves.

We stand at a place where, starting in late December 1944, under the euphemistic name “emergency housing construction,” the construction unit for the satellite camp of Mauthausen, located in the Hochholz forest near Edt, was housed. In this old school building, 400 men lived—men who were driven into the forest every day to erect, in less than three months, the massive camp that would stand there. In truth, it was such a miserable makeshift arrangement that today it wouldn’t be approved even for keeping animals—and even back then, the Nazis wouldn’t have subjected their animals to such conditions.

The Gunskirchen municipal chronicle records that exactly 80 years ago, 400 concentration camp prisoners from Mauthausen were housed in this building, the old school. Guarded by soldiers with rifles at the ready, the half-starved men—mostly Poles and Russians — marched daily into the forest to carry out hard labor, driven by beatings and brutally mistreated. At midday, they were given a thin broth. Again and again, it happened that exhausted prisoners had to be carried back by their comrades— back to this school, surrounded by barbed wire and guarded around the clock by SS troops.

Each day, the column of prisoners passed through the village twice. What might the people behind their windows have thought? Some felt pity—there are reports of food secretly passed to the prisoners. Many were likely horrified; most were fearful. Others looked away—and later claimed to remember nothing. And without doubt, there were also those who saw all of this as completely justified, even though the Second World War was already nearing its end—and what happened here clearly falls into the category of end-phase crimes.

In remembrance of the unspeakable atrocities that happened right here in the heart of the peaceful town of Gunskirchen—atrocities that stripped people of their dignity and cost them their lives—we unveil today a simple, unagitated memorial plaque. It also serves as a reminder of all other victims of war, terror, and violence—in every part of the world, yesterday as well as today.

Above all stands a clear message: Never to forget, and never to let it happen again.
Let not come true what is written on a memorial at Mauthausen:

"Forgetting evil is allowing it to happen again."

After the arrival of the U.S. liberators, this school was used as a medical station.
The Italian architect Ludovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, who was imprisoned here at the end of the war, created several drawings during that time, some of which have survived to this day. One of them — a view of the church steeple from this very perspective — is now being shown publicly for the first time. We would like to thank the Italian organization of Mauthausen survivors, ANED, for granting permission to use these authentic drawings in our educational and memorial work.

On behalf of the Austrian Mauthausen Committee and the Gunskirchen Working Group, which has worked for over five years to realize this memorial plaque, I would like to express sincere thanks to the municipality of Gunskirchen—especially to the mayor and the team from the municipal works department—for installing the plaque, as well as to all those who contributed to today’s unveiling.

Thank you to the music school for providing the musical accompaniment.
I also wish to thank graphic designer Wolfgang Mairinger for his expertise and design support, and in particular the company Voran in Pichl near Wels, and their operations manager Mr. Franz Lugmair, for the free production of the stainless steel plaque using modern laser technology.

To all my colleagues involved in remembrance and memorial work: thank you for your perseverance and commitment.
Today does not mark the end of this project. The work continues — for a future that we hope to shape together in such a way that, decades from now, there will be no need to erect new memorial plaques for people who had to endure the unimaginable among us once again.

Let us now take a moment of silent reflection in memory of those who suffered in this building.
Afterwards, we will begin the final stage of the Remembrance March, walking together along the very path into the Hochholz forest that the exhausted prisoners were forced to take — twice daily — from here.

Thank you very much for being here today.