Austrians Don’t Know What’s Next Apartment Where Hitler Was Born

• The apartment where Adolf Hitler was born is currently the subject of intense debate.
• Braunau am Inn in Austria will become a police station.
• However, residents are concerned about the plan, saying it would be better to use it as an educational site.

For several years, Austria’s Braunau am Inn has been embroiled in a debate over what to do with one of its most infamous buildings, the birthplace of dictator Adolf Hitler.

Local residents and public officials have very different ideas about what should be done with this space. And finally, how Austria views its own role in one of history’s darkest periods.

Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in 1889 and lived there for only a few months.According to local historian Florian Kotanko, his parents’ apartment in town was on the second floor of a building above a local bar called the Stag. told NPR.

According to NPR, the apartment was used as an art gallery and library when Hitler was in power during World War II. During the same period, it became a place of pilgrimage for his followers.

It was boarded up for many years after the war, and then became a bank and school. Finally, before that, Purchased by the Austrian government In 2019, it became a center for people with special needs.

In October this year, the government began developing the building as a police station, with the aim of opening in 2026.

However, despite plans well underway, a poll shows that 53% of Austrians believe that the site is an educational and historical site that specifically deals with the history of National Socialism and anti-fascist policies in Austria. I want it to be a place. According to the Guardian.

A further 20% of residents want the building to be demolished completely, fearing that it will serve as a kind of shrine for neo-Nazi and far-right parties while it remains in existence.

However, according to the Guardian, a government committee was concerned that demolishing it would be seen as denying Austria’s involvement with the Nazis.

The Austrian Commission for the Historically Correct Treatment of Adolf Hitler’s Birthplace said in its final report that the building should not be associated with Hitler to deprive it of its “symbolic power”. New York Times.

Resident Annette Pomer called the construction of the police station a “missed opportunity,” according to the Times. She said: “We have to portray how people become Hitler. This is not an evil house. It’s just a house where a child was born. But it’s only right to explain what happened to that child. ”

Another Austrian film director, Günther Schweiger, agreed, saying the location could show how the Nazis came from an ordinary place.

“Closing the doors of your house and changing its appearance only means continuing the politics of suppressing the truth,” he told the Times. “As a symbol of an ordinary place in an ordinary small city, this house represents the fact that the Nazis did not come from outside or from ‘another planet.’ They came from among us. ”

Residents say it is important for Austrians to accept the country’s role in Hitler’s abuses, despite some resistance at the time.

Evelyn Doll, from the same town, said: “It’s important to never forget your original intentions. And be aware when things are becoming problematic, and they are still happening.” he told the Times.