Morzinplatz Memorial — Gestapo Victims

The Morzinplatz memorial in Vienna's 1st District marks the site of the Hotel Metropol, which the Gestapo used as its Vienna headquarters from 1938 to 1945. Roughly 50,000 Austrians passed through the Metropol's interrogation cells; several thousand were subsequently deported to concentration camps. The building was destroyed in the closing days of the war and cleared afterwards. The first Morzinplatz memorial was installed in 1951, using a granite plinth topped with a bronze plaque. In 1985 that memorial was expanded to include an explicit dedication to victims persecuted for homosexuality — one of the earliest such acknowledgments on a European Holocaust-context memorial. A further expansion in 2005 added Pink Triangle imagery to the memorial's side panels and inscribed the estimated 1,300 documented Austrian homosexual concentration camp victims among the honoured dead. The Morzinplatz memorial is small — a granite ensemble occupying roughly 20 square metres of the square's southeastern corner — but its historical scope is comprehensive: the plaques identify victims by category, including Jewish Austrians, Roma and Sinti, political prisoners, Jehovah's Witnesses, disabled Austrians, and homosexuals. It's one of the very few European Holocaust memorials that names each victim category explicitly on its permanent inscription. Free, open 24/7 as public square. Schwedenplatz U-Bahn is two minutes' walk. The 1st District's central location — a short walk from the Stephansdom — makes this an easy stop on any Vienna sightseeing day. The memorial reads best if you spend at least ten minutes with the individual inscriptions; guided tours are available from QWIEN.