BRAUNAU AM INN, Austria (Kashmir English): The Austrian government has turned the birth house of former German dictator Adolf Hitler into a police station to neutralise its historical association.
The moved has triggered mixed emotions in his Austrian hometown.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Sibylle Treiblmaier, outside the house in the town of Braunau am Inn on the border with Germany.
While it might discourage far-right extremists from gathering at the site, it could have “been used better or differently”, the 53-year-old office assistant told media.
Braunau am Inn is a town in Upper Austria on the border with the German state of Bavaria.
The Austrian government wanted to “neutralise” the site and passed a law in 2016 to take control of the dilapidated building from its private owner.
Austria — which was annexed by Hitler’s Germany in 1938 — has repeatedly been criticised in the past for not fully acknowledging its responsibility in the Holocaust.
Former Nazis-founded the far-right Freedom Party is ahead in the polls after getting the most votes in a national election for the first time in 2024, though it failed to form a government.
Last year, two streets in Braunau am Inn commemorating Nazis were renamed after years of complaints by activists.
Hitler was born on April 20, 1889
Hitler was born in the house on April 20, 1889, and lived for a short period of his early life. The building is right in the centre of town on a narrow shop-lined street.
In front of the birth house of former German dictator Adolf Hitler, a memorial stone reads: “For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Warn.” Workers are putting the finishing touches to the renovated facade.
Officers are expected to move in during “the second quarter of 2026”, according to the interior ministry.
Throughout Austria, debate on how to address the country’s Holocaust history has repeatedly flared.
Some 65,000 Austrian Jews were killed and 130,000 forced into exile during Nazi rule.
