New historical study on Nazi medical crimes in Gugging hospital released

In 2007 the Executive Committee of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) commissioned the Viennese historian Herwig Czech to undertake a study on the Nazi medical crimes in the psychiatric hospital of Gugging. Prior to the founding of the research institute, the compound was home to the neurological and psychiatric hospital of the State of Lower Austria for approximately 120 years. Between 1939 and 1945, unforgivable medical crimes were committed by the Nazi doctors in this hospital. Approximately 2,500 patients of all ages were murdered within the hospital, either intentionally and directly or by cruelty and negligence, others were transferred to centers of extermination elsewhere. Czech finished his initial study in 2008 and presented additional findings at the first IST Austria Commemoration Lecture in 2014. The expanded version of his study in German and English is now available for download HERE.

Czech’s study was also forwarded to artists participating in a competition for a memorial. The memorial designed by Dorothee Golz was chosen by an international jury in 2008. Dedicated to the victims, her memorial was erected in deliberate contrast to the serene and pastoral atmosphere of the new scientific institute. It is located in the park of IST Austria and is open to the public at all times.