Hitler's birth house gets new role as Austrian police station

Austria has inaugurated a police station in the former birth house of Adolf Hitler, located in the town of Braunau am Inn near the German border. The government aims for the permanent police presence to serve as a deterrent against visits by far-right extremists and neo-Nazis, effectively neutralizing the site's controversial legacy.

The €20 million renovation project, which concluded with a three-year delay, has significantly altered the appearance of the 17th-century building. The once yellow facade is now covered in white plaster, and a police sign marks the entrance. A memorial stone on the pavement outside bears the inscription: "For peace, freedom, and democracy. Never again fascism. Millions dead are a warning."

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It's absurd. Humanity will not forget where the greatest mass murderer in history was born.

The house's fate has been a subject of prolonged debate. Owned by a family since 1912 and used by the state since 1972 as a center for victims of Nazism, its future became uncertain when the last owner, Gerlinde Pommerová, resisted redevelopment and challenged its expropriation. Austria passed an expropriation law in 2016, leading to the state's purchase of the roughly 800-square-meter property for €810,000.

Historians advised against demolishing the house or establishing a museum, fearing it would become a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis. Consequently, an expert commission proposed converting it into a police station. While the Austrian government believes this will clearly signal the unacceptability of glorifying Nazism, critics like Robert Eiter from the Austrian Mauthausen Committee argue it's a symbolic gesture that won't stop extremists. This debate unfolds as the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), co-founded by former Nazis, holds significant political sway in the country.

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For peace, freedom, and democracy. Never again fascism. Millions dead are a warning.