ZAGREB, May 6, 2018 – The 73rd anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Mauthausen in Austria was marked on Sunday, with delegations of about 60 states, including Croatia, paying their respects and laying wreaths for the victims of fascism as well as marching with the message “Never forget”.
The camp was established in 1938 and in the seven years of its operation, about 200,000 people were imprisoned there, of whom half died. Among the inmates were about 200 Croats.
About 10,000 people, including survivors and many young people, took part in the commemoration.
Austria was represented by President Alexander van der Bellen, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Parliament Speaker Wolfgang Sobotka.
Croatia’s delegation laid wreaths at a memorial plaque which Croatia put up in 2001. A text in Croatian was read out alongside many others in memory of the victims of National Socialism. Among other things, it says: “We will always remember the bloody sacrifices of all nations with which our new world was won.”
The Croatian delegation included representatives of an association of veterans with PTSD, the Croatian embassy to Austria, and the permanent mission to the OSCE, the UN and other international organisations in Vienna.
