Oesterreich Post 50th Anniversary of the Anschluss

ŌSTERREICH POST on 11 March 1988 marked the 50th anniversary of a dark period in their history -- the Anschluss (Annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany). Hence,  the dark symbolism of the stamp's motif is intended to show clearly the far-reaching repercussions for Austria of 11 March 1938 when the National Socialists assumed power. This marked the beginning of a reign of terror, which was to last until April 1945. Upright resistance against this regime cost the lives of countless Austrians.

Many functionaries active in the Republic on this date, in so far as they were not able to flee abroad in time, were arrested and transported to I itially Mauthausen concentration camp. Together with prominent opponents of the National Socialists, some were later sent to Dachau. Figures indicate as many as 2,700 Austrians were executed as active members of the Resistance, 16,493 died in concentration camps, and 16,000 were murdered in Gestapo prisons. In total, crimes committed by the National Socialists in Austria until April 1945 cost the lives of 65,459 Austrian Jews.

 

The cachet depicts a well-known landmark on  Vienna's Ringstrasse. It lies on an empty lot, void of anything except grass and this monument. Known as Morzinplatz, it is where the Hotel Metropole stood from 1871 until the end of WWII. The Nazis occupied the Hotel Metropole and made it Gestapo Headquarters in Vienna in 1938. Untold numbers of people were tortured, killed or shipped to concentration camps from the building that no longer exists. After the war, the hotel was torn down and this monument erected; granite blocks from an Austrian concentration camp quarry surround the bronze statue depicting a surviving victim. The top block reads, "Niemals Vegessen" - Never Forget. The caption on the lower block states, "Hier stand das Haus der Gestapo. Es war für die Bekenner Österreichs die Hölle. Es war für viele von ihnen der Vorhof des Todes. Es ist in Trümmer gesunken wie das Tausendjährige Reich. Österreich aber ist wiederauferstanden und mit ihm unsere Toten, die unsterblichen Opfer."

Translated: "Here stood the House of the Gestapo. To those who believed in Austria it was hell. To many it was the gates to death. It sank into ruins just like the 'Thousand Year Reich'. But Austria was resurrected and with her our dead, the immortal victims.”