Austria to build Nazi ‘deserters’ monument

Vienna’s city council said on Friday that it planned to erect a monument to remember the thousands of people executed by the Nazis for deserting or refusing to serve in the military during World War II. ‘The location is a worthy one, aimed at remembering – in the city centre, right next to the chancellery and the presidency – those who risked their lives not to serve in the Nazi Wehrmacht and those murdered at the hands of Nazi military justice,’ said city councilor for culture Andreas Mailath-Pokorny. Following a long debate, the Deserteursdenkmal [Deserter Monument] will however be located at the Ballhausplatz square, and not at Heldenplatz where Hitler announced the ‘annexation’ of Austria into the Third Reich to cheering crowds in March 1938.