Thursday, 09. February 2012

:: Home > General News > Mauthausen wall defaced again

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
30	31	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	1	2	3	4

Add your event FREE

Today

Polls

08. 03. 10. - 15:00

Mauthausen wall defaced again

The outer wall of the former Nazi concentration and death camp at Mauthausen, Upper Austria, was defaced again last Friday night, police said.

An unknown party wrote "The blood of Turks and Jews is poisonous," said Michael Tischlinger, the head of the provincial office for protection of the constitution and the fight against terrorism.

He said the words were written in the same place as other neo-Nazi slogans had been written in February 2009 and the letters were the same colour and size as those on the wall in that incident. That meant the same party might be responsible for both incidents, he added.

Last year, President Heinz Fischer deplored the defacement of the camp�s outer wall. In a letter to the International Mauthausen Committee, he said: "I hope it was an isolated incident. My office has been in contact with the interior ministry, and I can assure you our security authorities are intensively investigating the incident.

"The perpetrators will be brought to justice if they are apprehended. I have been informed security has been tightened at the memorial. Austria and its constitutional organs hold the Mauthausen memorial in the highest respect," he added.

The words, "The progeny of Muslims are for us what the Jews were to our fathers. Be on your guard. A third world war � an eighth crusade," were spray-painted in 70-centimetre-high letters on the outer wall at the memorial�s entrance.

In response, Mauthausen Committee Austria Chairman Willi Mernyi called the defacement "a radical-right provocation" and said it constituted "a wholly new dimension of right-wing extremism." He added the choice of words showed the perpetrators were familiar with Nazi hate language.

The Austrian Islamic Denomination appealed to politicians and to civil society to take "the frightening signal" seriously and to undertake measures to promote more public consciousness of the situation in Austrian society.

The Nazis imprisoned a total of around 200,000 people at Mauthausen, of whom around half did not survive the experience.

Austrian Times

Write your comment to this article here

Tag cloud:
Committee memorial Jews provocation outer defaced perpetrators Mauthausen Austria security letters incident constitution defacement Chairman Mernyi Willi society wall Nazi

Latest News

Woman and child run over in Vienna
A woman and child have died in a road accident in Vienna, Austria. The lorry driver was making a right turn when he drove into a group of pedestrians leaving a 59-year-old and a 12-year-old dead. The mother of the school girl was left with serious injuries.

FP� under fire after trip to Grozny
The Freedom Party (FP�) has been harshly criticised for meeting with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

Celebrity ski race in Zau[:ber:]g
The annual charity celebrity ski race is to take place once again this weekend on the Semmering, Austria. The event in the resort of Zau[:ber:]g involves various famous faces or "Promis" who will all come together for a night race for a truly good cause.

Price check confirms AUA staff�s friendly fire complaints
Austrian Airlines (AUA) employees� representatives feel confirmed in their criticism of Lufthansa as a price check reveals that the Viennese airline�s German mother company offers cheaper connections.

P�hringer rejects U-turn on rightist ball
Young Social Democrats (SP�) have appealed to Upper Austrian Governor Josef P�hringer not to attend the Burschenbundball in Linz this Saturday.

Austrian food to feature in organic trade fair
Austria is expected to be well represented at next week�s BioFach 2012 international organic trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany. Some 90 companies and organisations from the Austrian organic good sector will feature at the fair from 15 to 18 February.

WKO boss wants pension age hike incentives
Federal Economy Chamber (WKO) President Christoph Leitl has identified attempts to raise the average retirement age as the key issue regarding Austria�s budget.

Schlecker says Austrian jobs are safe
The son of Schlecker founder Anton Schlecker has claimed that the company has no plans to sell its Austrian affiliate.

Fruit trees springing up in Vienna
The city of Vienna will see the arrival of fruit trees around the capital in 2012. With the support of wine growers, farmers and landholders the new plants will be sponsored and cultivated in specific districts of the city in autumn.

Clem Chambers - All the pointers say there is light at the end of the tunnel
PERMA-BEARS BEWARE: 2012 LOOKS BULLISH, says Clem Chambers, CEO of leading stocks and shares information website ADVFN.com and author of "101 Ways to Pick Stock Market Winners".