Photo By Spc. Thomas Dixon | U.S. Army color guard assigned to the Joint Multinational Readiness Center lay the...... read more read more
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MAUTHAUSEN, Austria – Service members from the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines participated in the Mauthausen Memorial’s 80th Liberation and Commemoration Ceremony, alongside U.S. Embassy Vienna representatives, May 11, 2025.
More than 20,000 people attended and represented national delegations and special interest groups; families and descendants of survivors, victims and liberators; as well as spectators.
Soldiers from 7th Army Training Command’s Joint Multinational Readiness Center served as the color guard and honor guard in multiple ceremonies, processionals and wreath laying events.
Whenever and wherever they marched, attendees applauded and rushed to get selfies.
For the Memorial’s culminating event, the International Liberation Ceremony, the commemorative processional took more than three hours for all the delegations to enter the gate and walk through the former roll-call-square to lay a memorial wreath.
The line of those waiting for their turn circled the memorial site’s external wall. Multicolored flags waved as they filled the horizon. Nations and ages mixed as they waited along the path and at smaller memorials along the way.
At the end of the line, a few U.S. family members were escorted between the U.S. Army’s color and honor guard formations. They carried a unique U.S. flag that replicated one camp prisoners had originally sewn in secret and presented to the U.S. military upon liberation, May 5, 1945, which was later flown over the freed camp. That version, and the one carried today, had 56 stars.
“It reminds us of the importance of courage, the triumph of hope, and the price of freedom,” the emcee explained about the special “Stars and Stripes” cloth as the U.S. delegation walked forward. “Never. Ever. Shall we forget.”
During a previous ceremony in front of the “Victims’ Plaque” Paul Kosiek played Taps. He is the son of Albert Kosiek, a camp liberator. Seated before him were relatives and the so-called “Mauthausen babies,” children who were born in and survived the Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp system.
The story of one was shared while the U.S. delegation marched. That of Mark Olsky, who was born on a train to Mauthausen.
“When my mother told me I was born in a train, I thought, oh cool. Not realizing she meant in an open coal wagon. How she and the other mothers managed to keep three tiny babies alive, I will never know. But they did. And we are here to prove it and to remember.”
Mauthausen Memorial’s theme was “Together for a Never Again!”
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Peter Andrysiak, chief of staff, U.S. European Command, echoed that sentiment during his speech in front of the “Liberator’s Plaque.” He spoke to the crowd about his family ties to the location; his grandfather was killed here.
He said it was a sacred obligation to remember both the victims and the liberators.
“Let the memory of those who suffered not be broken,” Andrysiak said. “The liberating forces who entered these gates showed us that even in the darkest hour, light can be found.”
He along with Charge d’Affaires Kami Witmer, U.S. Embassy Vienna, and Ellen Germain, U.S. Department of State’s Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues; led the U.S. delegation in front of the JMRC Soldiers carrying the wreath and forming both the color and honor guards. The Embassy's Marines closed out the U.S. delegation's procession.
| Date Taken: | 05.11.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.11.2025 14:52 |
| Story ID: | 497586 |
| Location: | MAUTHAUSEN, AT |
| Web Views: | 36 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 7ATC represents U.S. Army liberators at Mauthausen, by Lacey Justinger, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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