Mauthausen Committee demands halt to construction at former camp site

The International Mauthausen Committee has called for construction to stop at the site of a former women’s concentration camp in Leobersdorf, in Baden district, ORF reported on Tuesday. It said the undeveloped part of the land must be preserved as a memorial site.

A commercial park, including a supermarket and a refrigerated logistics centre, is being built on the grounds of what was once Austria’s second-largest concentration camp for women. Construction machinery arrived several weeks ago, the committee said in an open letter signed by its president, Guy Dockendorf, according to Kathpress.

The current approach was an “egregious contradiction of the principles of contemporary memorial work and remembrance culture”, the committee said. Local memorial initiatives, the Mauthausen Committee Austria and the Mauthausen Memorial have also criticised the project.

Plans for the commercial park became public in the media in late 2024. According to earlier media reports, the property company of Leobersdorf Mayor Andreas Ramharter, of the Future Leobersdorf list, sold plots for 15.25 million euros and received an additional 1.34 million euros through rezoning.

The Israelite Religious Community was among those to criticise Ramharter. He defended the procedure, declined to comment on the purchase prices and said he saw no conflict of interest. Last year, authorities said all permits for the project had been issued.

About 400 women and girls were imprisoned at the Mauthausen concentration camp subcamp between September 1944 and April 1945 and forced to work at the nearby Hirtenberg munitions factory. Foundations of barracks remain on the grounds, but the Federal Monuments Office said last year they were not sufficient for the area to receive protection under the country’s monuments law.