1945: The “Rechnitz Massacre” at the “Kreuzstadl”

On the periphery of the southern Burgenland market town of Rechnitz (Rohonc) sits the “Kreuzstadl”, a structure whose name derives from its cross-shaped layout. Mostly in ruins now, this structure is a protected landmark.

At the end of the war, the largest Nazi “final phase crime” in the region took place at this “Kreuzstadl”: in the so-called “Rechnitz Massacre”, approx. 180 Hungarian Jews were shot from 24 to 25 March 1945. After the war, although a people’s court trial was carried out, it did not do much by way of clarifiying the crimes committed there. To this day, the graves of the victims have not been found although grave searches have been carried out repeatedly. Numerous journalists, academics, and artists have addressed this theme – such as Elfriede Jelinek in the theatre play “Rechnitz (The Angel of Death)”. The film “Wall of Silence (“Totschweigen”) from M. Heinrich and E. Erne documented as early as 1994 the “wall of silence” that had settled over the area in the decades following the crime. As a result, for a long time “Rechnitz” stood as a metaphor for Austria’s inability of dealing with its own Nazi past.

Committed citizens had already tried to break this silence by founding “R.E.F.U.G.I.U.S.” (The Rechnitz Refugee and Memorial Initiative and Foundation) in 1991, which was constituted as an association in 1992. Among other things, the goal of this initiative was to bring up the history of local Nazi crimes that had not yet been dealt with as well as to commemorate the victims. Against all odds, they tried to sensitise the population and to create a “living place of remembrance” through the organisation of events (including charity concerts, symposia), the establishment of “commemorative routes” (“Gedenkwegen”), and the holding of annual commemoration ceremonies. Society and politics were to become aware of their responsibility and confront it. The area on which the “Kreuzstadl” is located was bought in 1993 and handed over to the Federal Association of Jewish Communities. The “Kreuzstadl” became a memorial for all of the victims of the so-called “South East Wall”, especially for those Hungarian-Jewish forced labourers and foreign workers who were forced to build the “South East Wall” (a military defense fortification) in 1944/45. Also commemorated at this memorial site are those Jews who were forced on the so-called death marches in the direction of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Today the “Kreuzstadl” is not only a symbol of remembrance, but also a “place of learning – a place of remembering – a place of meeting”: there is a freely accessible information area on the grounds with information panels, artefacts, and video.