Lern- und Gedenkort Schloss Hartheim

From 1940 to 1944, a Nazi euthanasia facility was housed in the Renaissance Castle Hartheim in Alkoven (Upper Austria), in which almost 30,000 physically and mentally handicapped, mentally ill people, some residents of the state medical and nursing homes, some concentration camp prisoners from the camps who were unable to work Mauthausen, Gusen, Ravensbrück and Dachau and forced laborers were murdered. The Schloss Hartheim society was founded in 1995 with the aim of creating an appropriate place of remembrance, commemoration and social debate in Hartheim Castle. In 1997 the OÖ. State government decided to renovate Hartheim Castle. In 2003, the Hartheim Castle Place of Learning and Remembrance was opened with the memorial for the victims of Nazi euthanasia and the "Value of Life" exhibition.