Adolf Hitler's Birthplace Inaugurated as Police Station in Austria

Adolf Hitler’s birthplace in Austria was officially inaugurated as a police station on Wednesday in an effort to destroy the building’s appeal as a site of pilgrimage for people who glorify the Nazi dictator.

A memorial stone is to remain in place outside the house in Braunau am Inn near the German border with the inscription: “For freedom, democracy and liberty. Never again fascism. Millions of dead remind us”.

Hitler was born in the building on April 20, 1889. His family moved to another residence in Braunau am Inn after only a few months, before settling temporarily in Passau in southern Germany.

Fuelled by racial fanaticism, Hitler’s Nazi regime killed approximately 6 million Jews and other minorities and groups during the Holocaust. The dictator unleashed World War II in which at least 60 million people died. He committed suicide in April 1945, shortly before the end of the war.

“The Republic of Austria, the state, the county is facing up to this heritage, the terrible heritage of this time, and commits itself to deal with it,” Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said during the opening ceremony of the police station on Wednesday. “This entails this house and this address.”

The renovation of the building took several years and cost around €20 million (US$22.8 million), Austrian news agency APA reported. It was preceded by a years-long back-and-forth over the ownership of the house.