Nazi-era graves to be dug up in Austria - Psychiatric Hospital

Nazi-era graves to be dug up in Austria

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12101320


Hall still functions as a psychiatric hospital today
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Country profile: Austria

Officials in western Austria say exhumations are to take place at a psychiatric hospital thought to contain the remains of Nazi victims.



The remains of 220 people are buried at a cemetery in Hall in Tyrol province and the hospital believes many died as part of the Nazi euthanasia programme.



A planned construction project has been halted to allow a full investigation.



Thousands of people with physical or mental disabilities were killed by the Nazis who saw them as unfit to live.



Some 30,000 were killed at one psychiatric hospital alone - Schloss Hartheim, near Linz in upper Austria.



Tilak, the company responsible for the Hall hospital, said the graves contained the remains of people buried between 1942 and 1945.



There were, it added, "suspicions that the dead [were] at least partially victims" of the Nazis' euthanasia programme.



Announcing that a commission of experts would be formed shortly to investigate, Guenther Platter, governor of Tyrol province, said he had been "deeply shaken" by the discovery.



"This dark chapter of history must now be carefully brought to light," he added.



Investigators would be seeking to identify the remains and establish the case of death, Tilak representatives were quoted as saying by Austria's Die Presse newspaper.



Hospital historian Oliver Seifert noted it was already clear that not all of those buried had been victims of the Nazis.



Hall Hospital remains a functioning psychiatric hospital, with beds for 500 patients.