An Austrian police station was opened in Hitler’s birthplace to avoid Nazi connections

At the time, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said the building should be demolished and a new one built in its place. It was an echo of an earlier proposal by a Russian MP who said he wanted to buy the house and blow it up.

But there was a storm of criticism, with many saying that destroying the house would be tantamount to denying the Austrian Nazis.

In the year In 2019, the government announced plans to convert it into a police station, and an EU-wide competition was launched for architects to submit designs.

Millions of dollars have been spent on renovating the old yellow building, which now looks very different from before.

Not everyone is happy with the decision to open a police station there, saying it sends the wrong signal.

Some wanted the house to be a center of responsibility in confronting the former Nazi regime. Others, like local historian Florian Kotanko, say they would love to see the return of Lebenshilfe’s charity.

“But even this charity didn’t want to come back because they thought they would be a fig leaf for political discussion, so the government had to decide otherwise,” Kotanko told the BBC.

There is no sign of its history on the house and the building contains security cameras to record the movements of neo-Nazi pilgrims.

The year that connects with Hitler It was installed in 1989 as a stone on the outside road.

“Fascism shall never be again,” he says, “in memory of the millions who have died.”

The stone comes from the nearby former concentration camp at Mauthausen.

Hitler’s name does not appear. However, Florian Kotanko believes that even if a few neo-Nazis visit, the history of the site will never be lost.

“You have to deal with it, and so we all try to deal with it in a clear and correct way. It’s not pride, but it’s dealing with reality.”