Memorial for victims of NS medical crimes introduced

Within a small ceremony the memorial by Dorothee Golz was introduced at the IST Austria campus. The art work commemorates the vicitms of unforgivable medical crimes committed by the Nazi doctors in this hospital between 1939 and 1945. 

The memorial was chosen by an international jury within a competition. The jury described the work as “sensitive and idiosyncratic, far from all traditional or topical formulation, or typical features for a memorial. Dorothee Golz approaches a complex problem metaphorically and makes concepts such as memories, the past, despair and loss comprehensible.

The central element of the Memorial is an old freight container, tilted on one end at an angle of 45 degrees. Looking up into the container the viewer is able to discern a sketch of a table and a chair with a broken line of spheres, symbolizing life, which ended abruptly and unexpectedly. The German word „Leben“ (life) can still be read despite the spheres being dispersed on the floor. At the upper end, a steel door opens to the sky, to a new future and a new hope.

Dr. Claus J. Raidl, Chair of the Board of Trustees of IST Austria pointed out that it had been a special concern of all leading members of the institute since the start-up phase to commemorate the victims on campus. 

Pictures and more information about the memorial can be found HERE