ARBEITSKREIS FUER HEIMAT-, DENKMAL- UND GESCHICHTSPFLEGE ST.GEORGEN/GUSEN

Plattform 75 JAHRE REPUBLIK

KZ Mauthausen-GUSEN Info-Page

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Local-International
KZ Gusen I, II & III Commemoration
4 May 1996

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500 young Italians at
KZ Gusen Commemoration

the 40.000 (!!!) victims of the former KZ Gusen I, II & III Concentrations Camps at the MEMORIAL CREMATORIUM KZ GUSEN, Austria

• the General-Consul of the Russian Federative Republic, Mr. Shukevitch
  
  
• the Vice-President of the International Mauthausen-Committee, Mr. Italo Tibaldi (Italy)
  
  
• the Italian survivor of the huge underground KL Gusen II "Bergkristall"-Installation, Mr. Angelo Ratti (Milano)
  
  
• the Slovene survivor of the huge underground KL Gusen II "Bergkristall"-Installation, Mr. Bruno Gerdovich, Slovenia
  
  
• the President of Comite International du Souvenier du Camp de Gusen, Mr. P.S. Choumoff (Amicale Francaise de Mauthausen)

• the Klub Mauthausen-Gusen, Poznan celebrated a remote commemorative service to commemorate in parallel the huge number of KZ Gusen-victims at Poznan, Poland
  
  
• a commemorative address was read on behalf of the Ambassador of the State of Israel in the presence of
• an official Slovakian Government Delegation and
  
  
• official representatives of the Italian consulates of Linz and Vienna

• a two hour historical excursion to the remnants of the former KL Gusen I & II concentration camp complex prior to the commemoration
  
  
• an official welcome with the symbols of salt & bread
  
  
• musical pieces that where composed by former Polish KL Gusen I victims/inmates (!) in the KL Gusen I concentration camp
  
  
• an informative exhibition demonstrating the tragic dimension of the giant but mostly unknown KL Gusen I & II concentration camp-complex.

Founded in late 1939 along with the NAZI-invasion to Poland and the killing of a vast number of Polish intellectuals in Gusen, KL Gusen I became one of the first "extermination" installations in World War II - history. Later on the major groups of nationals being deported and killed in the Gusen camps had been;

• Russian "prisoners of war" (first gazations (!) carried out with them in 1942, KL Gusen I)
  
  
• Jewish people (being deported from Hungary and KL Auschwitz B to be exterminated as members of many other nations along with the construction of the giant underground "Bergkristall"-installation of camp KL Gusen II)
  
  
• People from western Europe (Italy, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, etc.)
  
  
• Germans & Austrians (!) and
  
  
• people from some 20 other nations/countries.

• some 80% (!) of all the Germans & Austrians being deported to the "Mauthausen" camp died in the Gusen-complex
  
  
• some 30% (!) of all the people being deported to "Austria" died in Gusen
  
  
• the Gusen camps contained twice (!) the number of inmates compared to the Mauthausen camp in the final phase of the WW II in 1944 and 1945.

Especially Gusen-victims like the Benedicted Marcel Callo (activist of the French J.O.C.-youth organization) and Dr. Johannes "Papa" Gruber (maybe the most important Austrian resistance fighter) help us in never forgetting the tens of thousands of unknown people being killed and/or pained in this "Hell of Hells".

The commemoration for the 51st anniversary of the liberation of this giant and most live-consuming KZ Gusen I, II & III concentration camp complex was made possible in an exemplary local-international cooperation by

• ANED-Italia (Milano, Torino and the many other civic organizations)
  
  
• Comite International du Souvenier du Camp de Gusen within
  
  
• AMICALE FRANCAISE DE MAUTHAUSEN, Paris
  
  
• Klub MAUTHAUSEN-GUSEN, Poznan and
  
  
• the local-international Plattform 75 JAHRE REPUBLIK