Memorial Gusen, Holocaust memorial in Langenstein, Austria.
Memorial Gusen is a memorial site in Austria featuring a cubic structure built around a preserved cremation oven from the former concentration camp. Commemorative plaques are distributed throughout the grounds.
The concentration camp at Gusen operated from 1940 until 1945 and held approximately 71,000 prisoners from numerous nations during that period. More than half of those imprisoned perished within the camp.
The site features inscriptions in multiple languages and includes a symbolic labyrinth representing the underground tunnels where prisoners were forced to work. Visitors encounter these elements as physical expressions of remembrance scattered throughout the grounds.
The visitor center north of the memorial was set up in 2004 and houses a permanent exhibition on the history of the Gusen camps, curated with advice from historian Bertrand Perz. Guided tours on the camp's history and the later use of the grounds as a housing estate require registration, as does the Audioweg Gusen; there is no fixed on-site staffing, as the site is co-managed by the Mauthausen Memorial.
The memorial was built from 1961 to 1965 on the initiative of survivors from Italy, France and Belgium, funded by donations and designed by the Milanese architects BBPR, with Austrian architect Wilhelm Schütte supervising construction. The original plan to reach the monument only through an underground passage was dropped for simplicity.
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