During the Nazi regime, Liebenau was the largest camp in Graz. Founded in 1940 as “Camp V” for “resettlers,” its 190 barracks provided space for around 5,000 people. From 1941 it was used to accommodate foreign forced laborers, whose treatment was “racially-ideologically” motivated.
In April 1945, Hungarian Jews stopped here on their “death marches” to Mauthausen concentration camp. They received insufficient food and no medical treatment. In 1947, 53 bodies were exhumed, and at least 34 of them were shot.
This walk through the former area provides not only insight into the camp, it also raises the question of how this terrible past should be dealt with today.