4th June 1942
Andritz bei Graz

Andritz bei Graz

From: Diepresse.com

April 2015. It is spring in Graz. People are drawn to the outdoors and many do sports. One of the most popular leisure routes is the Murpromenade. The people of Graz walk, skate or cycle along the Mur in the south of the city towards Liebenau, past the soap factory, small allotments, tennis courts and the Puchsteg, not far from the Liebenau stadium.

April 1945. The Second World War is almost over in Europe. National Socialism once again showed itself to be truly violent in the last weeks of the war. Fanatical Nazis are herding forced laborers - mostly Hungarian Jews who previously had to do entrenching work - into a camp near today's Liebenau stadium, exactly where allotments and tennis courts are today.

Liebenau Stadium and environs

The prisoners began their final journey from the Graz-Liebenau camp: to the Mauthausen concentration camp. “The march started from Liebenau and became a death march. However, the camp staff executed the sick, weak and those unable to transport directly on site,” says Helmut Konrad, professor of contemporary history at the University of Graz and plenary participant at the conference “The Camp Graz” organized by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute (LBI) for research into the consequences of war. Liebenau” on April 28th in the Glockenspielhaus Graz.

The collection camp remained unexplored for a long time, partly because the site's Nazi past was quickly suppressed after the war. It was only Rainer Possert, a doctor who practices in Liebenau, who did valuable memorial work on a private initiative and also brought the LBI on board.

The first prisoners lost their lives in Andritz, north of Graz. Many more were to follow, dramatically many at Präbichl, near Eisenerz. In total, around 23,000 people died - that's one and a half times the sold-out Liebenau stadium - as a result of these events. “Residents of Styria and Lower Austria – from where prisoners also marched towards Mauthausen – saw for the first time emaciated people being brutally driven through the country,” says Konrad. Many Austrians showed a surprising amount of charity. They gave the prisoners something like bread. They hid some too. Most Austrians saw the Nazi horror for the first time. People saw the dying and the killing. That was the first thing that opened many eyes.

Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page