Memorial for the Greek Victims of Stein

The Justice Institution Stein was the largest prison in the "Ostmark" during the NS period. Among the prisoners were political detainees from Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Croatia, Greece, and other countries. 300 Greek prisoners were brought to Stein in 1944 after the withdrawal of the Wehrmacht from Greece.

On April 6, 1945, all prisoners were to be released at the instruction of the institution's head, Franz Kodré, against the will of Nazi-aligned guards. Under the pretext of quelling a revolt, SS, Waffen-SS, Wehrmacht, and Volkssturm committed a massacre inside the prison and in the surrounding streets in an attempt to prevent the release of the prisoners ordered by the institution's leadership.

The memorial in front of the Justice Institution Stein commemorates the 150 Greek prisoners who were murdered during the massacre on April 6, 1945. It was erected by the Greek Antifascist Committee in Vienna and unveiled at the end of August 1946. During the handover, the mayor of Kremser, Franz Riel, promised, "to pass it on to future generations as an undamaged symbol of the international antifascist struggle."

Until the installation of the street sign "Gerasimos-Garnelis-Weg" in 2015, which commemorates a survivor and co-initiator of the memorial, the memorial of the Greek Antifascist Committee was the only publicly visible sign remembering the victims of the massacre in front of the Justice Institution Stein. In 1965, a memorial plaque was erected in the courtyard, and since 2018, the artistic work 6.4.45 by Ramesch Daha on the exterior wall of the Justice Institution also remembers the victims of the massacre.