From where you stand you can see the stone foundation of many prisoner barracks. Only three are still standing. The others were dismantled in the decades following the war.
Whilst Mauthausen was liberated by the US Army, this area became part of the Soviet occupation zone after the war. The camp site was given to the Republic of Austria and in 1949 the Public Memorial Mauthausen was ceremoniously opened.
Over the years the site evolved and many memorials were erected here. Today, this space is a historical site, a relic, physical evidence, a former crime scene, a cemetery, a museum, a workplace and a learning site, as well as a tourist destination.
It’s a traumatic space. It’s a political space.
Some use these vestiges of the past as a starting point to think about the present or the future.