Memorial Column for Forced Laborers at the Kapruner Cemetery

The memorial column at the cemetery of the parish church of Kaprun commemorates those forced laborers and forced female laborers who were exploited and murdered during the Nazi era or who died tragically as a result of inhumane treatment during the construction of the Kaprun power plant group. Between 1939 and 1944, 33 civilian workers and female workers, forced laborers and female forced laborers, and prisoners of war were buried here. Initial plans for the construction of a power plant in the Hohen Tauern existed already during the interwar period, although they were never implemented. After the "Anschluss" in March 1938, the National Socialists took up these plans; the existing energy reserves were to be used for the war and armaments economy. The groundbreaking ceremony — carried out by Hermann Göring — took place already in May 1938; a construction period of ten years was planned. Time and again, deaths occurred, caused by avalanches or rockfalls; accidents due to inadequate equipment and the poor physical condition of the workers and female workers were also not uncommon. The Kaprun power plant group was completed in 1955 and is today considered a symbol of the reconstruction of the Republic after World War II. However, the inhumane Nazi forced labor and the resulting deaths and murders are often overlooked and forgotten.