Memorial for Euthanasie Victims in the Park of the Geriatric Day Clinic Klagenfurt/Celovec

In the back room of the Siechenhaus of the Gaukrankenhauses Klagenfurt, murders took place from 1939 as part of the so-called "NS-Euthanasie" targeting people with physical or mental disabilities. In 1992, the building was demolished; today, a modern new building stands there, housing the Center for Geriatric Medicine. In May 2022, a memorial site was inaugurated in collaboration with KABEG and the Memorial Kärnten/Koroška association. The memorial site, starting from the entrance in the Feldkirchnerstraße, leads through the park to the building – the former crime scene – via an axis of remembrance. The entrance gate bears the inscription “ERINNERN”, and on a memorial plaque in the park, the names of 277 victims can be read. Plaques provide information about the crimes committed at this location. A 4.5-meter-high red tuning fork, based on a design by Klaus Holler, stands before the entrance to the Geriatric Day Clinic as an architectural interpretation of Paul Celan's "Todesfuge". "(…) we dig a grave in the air, there one does not lie closely (…)" Celan wrote at the beginning of his "Todesfuge". The "tuning fork" carries on this call for liberation from violence and repression.