Plans for business park atop site of former Nazi labor camp sparks anger in Austria

Leobersdorf, Austria (28 August) — A forgotten corner of history is now threatened by the prospect of a commercial development, igniting anger in the nation that has struggled to confront its Nazi past. The crumbling remnants of a former forced labour camp, scattered across overgrown fields near the Austrian town of Leobersdorf, could soon give way to a business park, complete with a cold storage warehouse and a Lidl discount supermarket.

For Erich Strobl, head of a local preservation campaign, the situation evokes a "sad feeling," lamenting the sacrifice of a place steeped in history to economic interests. Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, and the Weinberglager complex was occupied by thousands of prisoners of war and forced labourers. Some of these individuals were held at the Hirtenberg subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp, which imprisoned around 400 women – primarily from the Soviet Union, Italy, and Poland – who were forced to manufacture infantry munitions in a nearby factory.

While some ruins of the former factory remain, the camp barracks and the majority of other structures were dismantled, repurposed, or destroyed following the war. However, historian Bertrand Perz emphasizes the Hirtenberg site's historical significance, particularly the marginalization of women prisoners in remembrance culture. Plans to transform the 40-kilometre stretch south of Vienna, where the former camp once stood, were first disclosed in 2024.

Archaeological evidence has identified surviving remnants of the camp complex, yet the Federal Monuments Office deemed them insufficient for monument protection.

Activists have since called for the site's preservation, with the International Mauthausen Committee stating, "A former concentration camp must not be built over with new structures." Josef Pumberger, a board member of the Mauthausen Committee Austria, expressed feelings of "grief, anger, rage" at the proposed development. The project has also raised controversy, as the land was previously owned by the local mayor, Andreas Ramharter, who sold it for over €15 million in recent years.

TRA LEO GmbH & Co KG, the Austrian company behind the development, offered to support the creation of a memorial on the site. Lidl confirmed plans to open its discounted supermarket in the business park, but emphasized that it would be located "not directly on the site of the former concentration camp, but on an adjacent plot of land."

Meanwhile, Austrian historian Bertrand Perz acknowledges that Austrian attitudes towards remembering the past have evolved, but stresses the importance of tangible evidence of the buildings where the Nazis imprisoned, tortured, and killed people.