Kreuzstadl Rechnitz, Memorial at a former farm building in Rechnitz, Austria
Kreuzstadl Rechnitz is a former agricultural barn on the southern edge of Rechnitz, named for its cross-shaped ground plan. Its walls are mostly rubble stone, with brick used at the corners and around the former cart gates. The masonry arch of the eastern gate survives; the smaller north and south doors are walled up, and some wooden-framed window openings with iron grilles remain.
The building is linked to a massacre that occurred on March 24-25, 1945, involving 180 Hungarian Jewish forced laborers. Local NSDAP members committed this act, which represents one of the darkest moments in the area's past.
The name Kreuzstadl comes from the building's cross-shaped ground plan. Since 1993 the site has belonged to the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien as a memorial; a sculpture by Kosso Eloul, the first Israeli sculptor at the 1960 Symposion, stands on the grounds. Eloul had created the Eternal Flame at Yad Vashem in 1960.
The Kreuzstadl stands at the southern edge of Rechnitz; the area was handed to the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien as a memorial in 1993. The brick arch of the former east cart entrance is still standing, while the smaller north and south doorways are walled up. Some small window openings with wooden frames and iron grilles remain visible in the rubble-stone walls.
Despite numerous archaeological excavations and investigations over many decades, the mass grave of the victims has never been found. This ongoing uncertainty makes the memorial a place where the victims remain, in a sense, still missing.
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