Mahnmal Niemals Vergessen for the Victims of the Gestapo

The memorial for the victims of the Gestapo at Morzinplatz was unveiled on November 1, 1985. It commemorates the Gestapo headquarters, which was located here in the former Hotel Métropole. During the national socialist regime, the Gestapo frequently conducted interrogations here using massive force and torture. It is a granite memorial located at the northern corner of the green area at Morzinplatz. Steps lead from the sidewalk level to the slightly elevated memorial. It consists of a bronze figure, surrounded by eight blocks of Mauthausen granite, which refers to the concentration camp Mauthausen and the stone quarry/Death Staircase there. The top block bears the inscription "Niemals vergessen", flanked by a red angle and a yellow star. With the symbol of the red angle, the SS marked political prisoners in the concentration camps. Jews and Jewish women were required to wear the yellow star on their clothing. The erection of the memorial was controversial in the early years of the Second Republic, and was contested between SPÖ and KPÖ. Since other projects for the construction of larger memorials for the (political) victims of the national socialist regime were repeatedly delayed or failed, the KZ Association, during a commemorative event on April 11, 1951, illegally erected a commemorative stone for victims of fascism at Morzinplatz. The city of Vienna took over this commemorative stone into its care. In 1985, the city replaced the commemorative stone with the current memorial. The inscription remained unchanged. In 1999, activists, in the context of the "Rainbow Parade", installed a "Balken der vergessenen Winkel" (Beam of the forgotten angles) at the memorial. This was a commentary on the exclusion of victim groups (pink angle: homosexual victims; black/brown angle: "asocial" victims; brown angle: "Gypsies"). The beam remained for several months and was then removed. On May 31, 2015, during a registered art action, a concrete object titled "Was sie unterließ, haben wir getan" ("What they left undone, we did") was placed behind the memorial and anchored in the grass. The addition directly refers to a planned but never built obelisk from 1951.
The memorial is repeatedly the target of attacks and vandalism: So, in March 1988, unknown individuals carried out an attack on the memorial; in early April 1990, a arson attack occurred.