Perspektiven auf Orte ehemaliger Außenlager des KZ Mauthausen in Wien und Umgebung
Leon Scheufler
While many sites of former concentration and extermination camps are today established as centralised spaces of commemoration and memoralisation in the form of memorials, there is still little awareness of the structural network of former subcamps. The following thesis deals with the current sites of former Mauthausen subcamps in Vienna and the surrounding areas. As a photographic essay and in textual analyses, not only are historical contexts, continuities and discontinuities described, but at the same time the socio-cultural aspects with regard to concepts of remembrance and commemoration on site are emphasised from a spatial perspective. The photographs serve less as a documentary practice, but more to examine the present-day sites of the former satellite camps in Vienna and the surrounding area from an artistic view. An objective is to explore the question of how the sites can be described against the background of historical events, even though hardly any traces are present or visible. The usage and gestalt of the sites today are also included in the analysis. It is argued that at each location the people and institutions involved deal with the memorialisation of historical events in a special way, such as whether and how structural relics are presented or neglected. The findings and insights gathered will be used to create an exhibition design that attempts to juxtapose the contemporary form and gestalt of the sites with the historical events. This act of translation thus attempts to make a critical contribution to the discourses on commemoration and memorialisation.
Entire paper in full text