Between 1943 and 1943 there were two satellite camps of the Mauthausen concentration camp on the grounds of the Vienna-Schwechat airport. Thousands of people were subjected to forced labor in appalling conditions. Many were killed in the process.

The artist Arik Brauer, who died in January 2021 and whose own family fell victim to the Nazi reign of terror, designed a memorial that was officially unveiled on Thursday. This is located in front of Terminal 3 and was made public by the President of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP), Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP), Mayor Michael Häupl (SPÖ), IKG President Oskar Deutsch and the airport board members Julian Jäger and Günther Ofner presented. The Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP), who was also announced as a speaker, obviously did not consider it necessary to appear.

High-ranking representatives from politics and business emphasized the importance of commemorating the countless victims of the Nazi regime among the concentration camp prisoners and forced laborers at Heidfeld (the area of ​​today's airport) who were forced to build aircraft there. The memorial was designed by Arik Brauer as his last major work.

“In a democracy, tolerance, freedom of expression and respect for the fundamental rights of the individual are immovable cornerstones. This is what the artist and humanist Arik Brauer has campaigned for throughout his life. With this memorial at Vienna Airport, he continues to remind us - and not only us, but also all the people who arrive or depart here. And that is important, because the dangers of nationalism and dictatorship are omnipresent all over the world ”, describes Mag. Wolfgang Sobotka, President of the Austrian National Council.

The past of the location was worked up by the airport historian Rainer Stepan and the Mauthausen Committee: After the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in May 1938, the Schwechat-Heidfeld air base was settled on what is now the airport area. Two years later, an SS barracks was built on the site, and from 1943 the Heinkel aircraft works were relocated here from Rostock. As a result, two concentration camps were set up on the airport site as outposts of the Mauthausen concentration camp. In the years 1943 to 1945, 2.656 concentration camp prisoners, 3.170 foreign forced laborers, 900 prisoners of war and 5.500 domestic workers toiled on the premises for 12,5 hours a day, seven days a week and mostly received only one meal. The conditions were inhuman and survival was very short. With the advance of the Soviet army from March 1945, the surviving concentration camp prisoners had to start the “death march” to Mauthausen on foot.

“Every human life counts and the commemoration of the human crimes committed by National Socialism reminds us for the future. I am glad that we no longer remember alone, but that we live together, as a society, in the awareness that what has happened can also happen again. In this way of remembering, we create the basis for future generations in a diverse Austria. Arik Brauer was a warning and global citizen who influenced young people in particular. His work continues to have an impact here: a place where people from all over the world come together - in a diverse and open Austria, ”says Oskar Deutsch, President of the Israelite Religious Community.

For many years, a memorial stone on the airport apron has been commemorating the victims of this terrible time. However, in order to set a clearly more visible sign here and to bring this past closer to the public, Flughafen Wien AG decided in 2019 to erect a new, larger memorial at a central location on the airport site. The sculpture was designed by Arik Brauer, who, as a contemporary witness and victim of the Nazi regime, always used a warning conscience to draw attention to the dangers of this ideology, which are still present today, while always placing the focus on dialogue and the human aspect in his work .

“Arik Brauer was an exceptional artist and an important contemporary witness who, despite his experiences during the Nazi era, always believed in the human. With this memorial, he and Vienna Airport are reminding us that the era of National Socialism must never repeat itself, ”says Mag. Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Governor of Lower Austria.

Arik Brauer was born in Vienna in 1929 as the child of Jewish emigrants. Arik Brauer survived his childhood, shaped by National Socialism, in hiding. His father was murdered by the Nazis in the Dachau concentration camp. From 1946 to 1951 Brauer received classical artistic training at the Academy in Vienna from the renowned painter Paris von Gütersloh. Arik Brauer became internationally known within this artists' association. As a counter-position to the dominant abstract painting, the group picked up on earlier classical surrealism in the 1979s. Influenced by the pictorial worlds of Pieter Breughel and Hieronymus Bosch, Brauer created a cosmos of images that unfolded between old-master technique and fantastic realism. The first major retrospective of Brauer's work took place in 2021, followed by highly acclaimed exhibitions all over the world. Arik Brauer achieved international fame as an Austrian painter, graphic artist, set designer, singer and poet and is considered to be the co-founder of Fantastic Realism. The universal artist died in 92 at the age of XNUMX in the presence of his family. He was able to complete the memorial at Vienna Airport himself as his last major work.

“Arik Brauer's father was murdered in a concentration camp. He himself survived the Nazi tyranny as a "submarine" in an allotment hut. After the end of the Nazi reign of terror, Arik Brauer always appeared as a defensive and eloquent anti-fascist who warned of the ever new dangers of racism and anti-Semitism right up to the end. He never “stuck his head in the sand!” With this memorial - “Never forget!” - we are making it clear at Vienna Airport that we are neither suppressing nor forgetting the past and its victims. And that we pay close attention that the atrocities of the Nazi dictatorship - as it happened here for years in a former concentration camp subcamp - never repeat themselves again, "says Michael Ludwig, Governor of Vienna and Mayor of the City of Vienna. clear.

The sculpture can be seen in front of the entrance to Terminal 3 on the departure ramp. The design of the work is reminiscent of the victims who were forced to work in the aircraft factories: a concentration camp inmate carries a bent aircraft propeller on his shoulders. The damaged shape of the propeller symbolizes the tragedy of the event and is intended to commemorate the millions of lives that were driven to certain death by the Nazis. The position of the arms in combination with the propeller is reminiscent of the Christian representation of Jesus carrying his cross. The memorial is framed between two brick portals that are modeled on those in the entrance area of ​​the Mauthausen concentration camp. The monument, which weighs around 220 kilograms and has an inner steel frame, was cast using the classic lost-wax casting process. The propeller is a damaged original part of the Heinkel fighter bomber that crashed into the Baltic Sea in 1945. Art founders Peter Wiener and Slavko Mikic are responsible for the bronze casting.

“The processing of the history of this location and awareness-raising for the general public is our clear goal with this memorial. We are pleased that we were able to win Arik Brauer for this task and we very much regret that he can no longer experience the public presentation himself. With this memorial we want to pay tribute to the victims of the Nazi era, but also to him as contemporary witnesses. It should be a reminder, but above all a warning message for future generations, that democracy and freedom should not be taken for granted, ”said the board members of Flughafen Wien AG, Julian Jäger and Günther Ofner.