Memorial for Soviet Prisoners of War

On June 22, 2017, a memorial for Soviet prisoners of war was erected in grave group 18 at the Central Cemetery in Vienna-Simmering. The memorial is located on a mass grave in which approximately 200 Soviet prisoners of war are buried. Austrian and Russian archivists were able to identify the names of 183 deceased during research. Until then, they had been considered missing. The sponsors of the memorial were the Russian Federation and the Russian Army Historical Society. The unveiling of the memorial took place on the anniversary of the German Wehrmacht's invasion of the Soviet Union, which is observed in Russia as the "Day of Mourning." The commemorative stone was manufactured in Russia and transported to Vienna. Soviet prisoners of war died in Vienna in large numbers from infectious diseases and undernourishment. At the unveiling, the Russian ambassador to Austria, Dmitri Ljubinskij, the heads of the diplomatic missions of Belarus and Armenia, representatives of embassies of other post-Soviet states, and also Elisabeth Sleha, a representative of the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Austria, were present.