On May 3, 1997, the story of KZ Gusen I, II & III entered Austria´s official history when the Memorial Crematorium at KZ Gusen was transferred to the Republic of Austria during the Local-International Commemoration.
On behalf of Comite International du Souvenier du Camp de Gusen and Amicale Francaise de Mauthausen, former KZ Gusen I prisoner Pierre Serge Choumoff presented what is undoubtedly the most important memorial on Austrian territory to Sektionschef Dr. Wolf Szymanski of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior.
In the early 1960´s, survivors and families of KZ Gusen victims sponsored the memorial with
98,551.91 French Francs to prevent the KZ Gusen incinerators´ removal to the Mauthausen Museum.
The initiative to create this international monument for all victims of KZ Gusen I & II
dates back to an International Mauthausen Commitee conference in March 1961 in Budapest.
Dr. Ermete Sordo, of Milano, Italy, bought an area of 1750 m2 around the KZ Gusen incinerators to commemorate his brother, who died at Gusen.
Then, in January 1962, the Italian and French Mauthausen Associations founded the
Comite International du Souvenier du Camp de Gusen.
Prof. Roger Heim, a former KZ Gusen inmate and member of the French Academy
of Sciences, Paris, was the first president. Amicale Francaise de Mauthausen led effort
to realize the KZ Gusen Memorial.
Simultaneously, the world-renowned Dr. Arch. Ludovico di Belgioioso,
a KZ Gusen survivor from Milano, Italy who also lost his brother
in KZ Gusen, joined with Dr. Arch. Enrico Peressutti and
Dr. Arch. Ernesto N. Rogers to design the KZ Gusen
Memorial that Austria has today.
Erected on May 8, 1965, the concrete simplicity of the KZ Gusen Memorial recalls the
devastation of 37,000 human beings in the largest and most brutal concentration camp
on "Austrian" territory.
The memorial´s labyrinthian entrance symbolizes the martyrs´ last path and alludes
to the labyrinths in the KZ Gusen II
underground installations. While the concrete refers, as well, to that huge
tunnel system, the cube-shape echoes the big stone-crusher that marked another dimension
of industrial work and death in KZ Gusen I, II & III, which held more prisoners and
claimed more victims than the Mauthausen central camp.
Errected without a single Austrian contribution 20 years after the liberation of the camps,
the KZ Gusen Memorial is one of the most precious monuments the Republic of Austria will
ever receive.
Interested visitors can freely get the key to open the Gusen Memorial
on request at Restaurant GUSENER-WIRT
just 100 meters nearby. One further key may be lended from the ticket office of
the Mauthausen Memorial Museum too.