On May 18th, the former concentration camp of Mauthausen will host an ecumenical celebration. Organised to celebrate the 63rd anniversary of the release of the prisoners from the lager, the celebration will be officiated by the bishop of the diocese of Linz, mgr. Ludwig Schwarz, the Greek-Orthodox metropolitan bishop Michael Staikos, and the evangelical bishop Michael Bünker. The celebration will go on with a speech from the Federal Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer followed by Hans Marsalek, a former prisoner of the lager, and the president of the "Comité International de Mauthausen", Walter Beck, from Prague. An international symposium attended by international speakers, the unveiling of a memorial stone, the presentation of a book on Nazism: these are some of the scheduled events, this year focussed on "European opposition to national-socialism". Two special exhibitions will be set up in the mausoleum of the lager of Mauthausen: over 100,000 people were killed in the Austrian concentration camp, built in 1938, and in the adjoining ones. On May 5th 1945, it was reached by a troop of American tanks: since then the date has been commemorated as the Day of Release.
News by SIR