Mauthausen Komitee Österreich

History

The Mauthausen Committee Austria (MKÖ) was founded in 1997 by the Austrian Trade Union Federation and the Bishops' Conference of the Roman Catholic Church, with the Jewish Communities of Austria as partners, in the form of an association as the successor organization to the Austrian Camp Community Mauthausen.

The association is non-partisan and non-denominational. The MKÖ advocates for a free and democratic society and for the protection of human rights for all, regardless of nationality, political opinion, or religion, and works resolutely against all forms of fascism, racism, extremism, chauvinism, and anti-Semitism. Since the founding of the Mauthausen Committee Austria, its field of activity has covered the whole of Austria.

In 2000, the Austrian Mauthausen Camp Community (ÖLM), an association of survivors of the Mauthausen concentration camp who remained in Austria, designated the MKÖ as its official successor organization. The MKÖ took over this role during a ceremony in the Austrian Parliament at the invitation of the then First President of the National Council, Dr. Heinz Fischer, and promised to preserve the legacy of the former concentration camp prisoners. The ÖLM is one of the organizations of survivors of the Mauthausen concentration camp that are members of the Comité International de Mauthausen (International Mauthausen Committee), or CIM for short. Today, the CIM comprises 18 national organizations. The origins of the CIM can be traced back to the resistance activities in the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Based on this legacy, the MKÖ has set itself the task of commemorating the victims of the crimes of the Nazi regime, especially those who were imprisoned in the Mauthausen concentration camp and its satellite camps, and of focusing its projects and activities on committed anti-fascist and anti-racist work, especially with young people.

The MKÖ's work focuses on the following three areas:

• Commemoration and remembrance

• Historical education and awareness-raising, especially among young people

• Work against racism, anti-Semitism, extremism, chauvinism, and all forms of discrimination.