Surviving Gusen pays tribute to three survivors of a camp complex, of which the Gusen II concentration camp in particular is described as the hell of all hells. In the film, however, we see idyllic landscapes, covered with a delicate blanket of snow or tall grass, a neat settlement of single-family houses at the former camp site.

Only the reports of the contemporary witnesses, in original sound or with the voices of Maria Hofstätter and Peter Simonischek, act like dissecting knives, exposing something from which we would prefer to avert our gaze. But sometimes something like hope comes to the surface when we hear that often only small help was enough to enable someone to survive.

What can we learn from this? One of the last Gusen survivors in conversation with Alexander van der Bellen. President of Austria:

“(…) that the youngest generation knows that it is hatred
which must be combated.”

Dušan Stefančič